Lt. Col. Celia FlorCruz '82 and Maj. General Kenneth Dahl '82 have been married 30 years. General Dahl, a deputy commanding general for United States forces in Afghanistan, is stationed in Kabul, helping to oversee the withdrawal of troops from the country. Colonel FlorCruz flies Army helicopters and is currently commanding a medical unit of 700 at Fort Drum in upstate New York. He has done four tours overseas, she has done two. They began dating in 1980 during their junior year at West Point and have two college-age daughters. Their interviews have been edited and condensed.
How did you start dating?
Celia: My father was a West Point grad, a retired colonel. From the beginning my goal was to have a career in the Army and retire with 30 years in 2012 as a colonel. I hadn’t planned on marriage or kids. So when I met Kenny, I was not looking for a relationship.
Ken: My junior year we had a class near each other. I'd be trying to find a reason to pass her. I had a friend from the lacrosse team with a first-floor room and I'd run to his room, look out the window and when she was about to pass, I'd run out and we'd have a chance encounter. I finally got up the courage to ask her to the movies.
Celia: "It Came From Outer Space," at Thayer Hall, one of those 3-D movies with the glasses -- awful.
During the movie he handed me a Starlight peppermint; they didn't have refreshments. He had it in his pocket, which was a nice surprise. There aren't really pockets in dress grays -- just a tiny one at the hem. You have to unzip the bottom of the jacket, which you're not supposed to do in public.
Ken: I'm thinking, "What can I do to make this special?" To let her know it was not just a movie. The peppermint turned out to be a big deal. The rest of the time we were at West Point, I was leaving peppermints on her desk.