As a nurse, she’s pretty sure she’ll have no problem finding jobs on or around the military bases where Brown, who she calls Tony, is stationed in the future.

They won’t have to worry about moving for a while, however, because he landed duty as a recruiter in Mankato when he agreed to re-enlist. So they’ll be here for at least a couple more years.

“This is the exact office he joined out of,” said Sgt. 1st Class James Lacey, Brown’s station commander.

Brown said he’s enjoying recruiting duty, but he’s also looking forward to getting back with a combat unit. His military training is in field artillery, working as a forward scout who calls in coordinates for cannon, rocket and missile attacks.

Clavel suspects he chose recruiting duty, then put in the extra effort to get stationed in Mankato instead of the Marshall office where he was originally assigned, to be closer to her. She said his plan worked out, resulting in their March engagement, because military life has changed him for the better. He’s more responsible and works harder than he did before he joined, she said.

“I think a lot of it is he just wanted to come back here and see where things went,” Clavel said. “He loves what he does and I’m fine with all of it except the deployments.

“It’s nice having him around, but I can tell he can’t wait to get back and do the drills every morning.”

Brown is up front with potential recruits about the price he’s paid as a combat soldier. His Purple Heart is part of a scrap book he shows to the people he talks to at the recruiting office. When they ask what happened, he tells them.

“That might be one thing that hurts me in this job,” he said. “I tell them, ‘When you go over there in combat arms, it’s a chance you take.’”

His boss doesn’t see the medal, or the way Brown earned it, as a recruiting drawback at all.

“He’s been there, done it and he can explain to people things do happen while your there,” Lacey said. “You have to be very patriotic to be injured in war, then come back to your hometown and talk to people about it.

“People need to know we have a guy like this in the community.”