By Stephanie Vosk

Wedding bells were ringing for Kristin Stanley, but she could only capture the sound for a moment before “Operation Iraqi Freedom” intervened.

With tentative plans to marry in October 2004, the coordinator of public relations and special projects for the College of Arts and Sciences was forced to expedite her plans when her then-boyfriend, Northeastern Public Safety Officer Peter Stanley, was notified in March that he was going on active duty.

“We waited just a week, we were engaged a week,” she said. “We weren’t supposed to be married until next October, but when this happened, we decided there was no reason we shouldn’t be married now.”

Actually, she decided. While her husband wanted her to have the long engagement he thought she wanted, Stanley convinced him on March 5 that it was not important.

“We went to bed that night, we woke up in the morning, and the first thing he said to me was, ‘Why don’t we just get married,'” she said.

On Saturday, March 15, the two were married in front of a small group of family and friends in the living room of the house where Stanley grew up.

On Monday, Officer Stanley left for Maryland where he is currently stationed at the National Naval Medical Center.

Trained as an emergency medical technician, he is working in the emergency room as a “crucial component” of the hospital, his wife explained.

The presidential orders he received hold him on active duty for a period of one year, but his time could be extended if the war continues.

In fact, the former NU public safety officer could even be sent overseas if things worsen for American troops in Iraq.

Officer Stanley began his career at Northeastern last September when he was hired as a community service officer.

“He really wants to be a policeman, and the public safety division here is a good stepping stone toward a career in law enforcement,” Stanley said. “Of course, it didn’t make it any worse that I was here.”

Associate Director of Public Safety James Ferrier knew that Stanley was in the Navy Reserves when he hired him, but did not forsee that being an issue.

“He impressed all of us in the public safety division with his professionalism, his dedication to public safety, his great skill as an emergency medical technician and was just doing a wonderful job in his first six months with us,” Ferrier said. “We look forward to getting him back.”

In the mean time, Stanley, who is able to talk to her new husband pretty frequently, is busy planning a big October wedding where the couple plans to renew their vows upon Officer Stanley’s return.

“There’s always, of course, the ‘I miss you’ stuff. That’s kind of a given,” Stanley said of her conversations with her husband. “He loves to rub it in my face when it’s 75 degrees and we have snow.”

Stanley, who wore ring guards on her fingers for a week after the wedding because she did not have time to get her rings sized in all the haste, said, “I have my good days and my bad days.”

Looking longingly at her promise ring while her other rings are at the jewelers, Stanley can only wait for her husband to come home.