HILL AIR FORCE BASE -- A military deployment in any circumstance can be tough, but when spouses' deployments overlap and a young child is involved, it's a different story completely.
That was the case for Hill Air Force Base couple Staff Sgt. Sung Young Kim and Senior Airman Guadalupe Quinonez earlier this year.
The young couple has a 2-year-old daughter, Guadalupe, and each served separate deployments to Afghanistan during the past year.
Kim, 23, is a combat medic and served a yearlong deployment that began in April 2009.
Quinonez, 24, began her deployment in December, assigned to an administrative role, and returned in June.
The couple first met in the dormitories at Hill. Kim, a native of St. Paul, Minn., and Quinonez, who is from Los Angeles, said they bumped into each other one day and have been together ever since.
The deployments were the first for both Kim and Quinonez.
"It was a totally new experience for me in almost every way," Kim said. "I really didn't know what to expect."
When Kim left, his daughter was only 6 months old. He said leaving his wife and newborn daughter behind was one of the hardest things he has ever done.
"When I left, my daughter had just started to crawl," he said.
"She knew who I was, but when I came back, she really didn't remember me. It's kind of tough because I missed a year -- a pivotal year -- of her life. You don't realize what a sacrifice it is until you've gone through it."
For seven months, Quinonez stayed home, taking care of the couple's daughter, but close to Christmas last year, she was called to deploy in Afghanistan.
"When I left, we were living in an apartment, so it could have been a lot worse if we were in a house and had a yard and things like that," she said.
"I just had to make sure all of our bills were on auto pay and asked some close friends to watch our place. It was kind of tough."
While the couple was gone, Quinonez's mother took care of their daughter.
"I left right in the midst of her starting to walk and talk," Quinonez said. "But she had a good time with her grandparents. She even locked them out of their house a few times."
Kim and Quinonez said being apart for so long was a trial, but both grew from the experience.
"Communication was the biggest thing for us," Quinonez said. "You had to constantly communicate. There wasn't an argument or disagreement where you could just walk away. We had to talk and deal with it and get past it. We learned a lot."
Kim said after serving in Afghanistan and in a combat zone he gained a new appreciation for the life he left back home.
"You realize you miss a lot of the simple things, like having a sidewalk to walk on," he said. "But most of all, you miss your family. Coming home to my family was one of the things that kept me going and got me out of bed each morning."
Like Kim and Quinonez, Ogden residents Sgt. Brian and Spc. Kaylynn Waltrip were married during their military career.
The Army couple met while stationed together at Fort Bragg, N.C.
The Waltrips currently serve in different battalions within the same brigade combat team but are stationed together on Contingency Operating Base Adder in Iraq.
Brian works as a chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear noncommissioned officer; Kaylynn works as a health care specialist.
"It's a blessing and it's hard at the same time," Brian said. "Whenever my wife is on the road, it's like I'm out there with her."
Kim and Quinonez say it's good to be home.
"It feels great to be back home," Kim said. "I eat, sleep and breathe the Air Force and wouldn't change anything I've gone through, but it would be tough to be in that situation again."
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