fik tårer i øjnene da jeg læste denne artikel bare kald mig en gammel romantiker


Sergeant Natthaphong Chinnawong tied the knot with his bride Kanjana Srisuaysakul on April 16 in Saraburi's Wiharadaeng district .

They are not an ordinary couple as their love story was much publicised recently when Kanjana appeared in a television reality show to remind her soldier boyfriend who is on duty guarding the 11th Infantry Regiment about a coming wedding.

Although Sergeant Natthaphong gives a promise in front of TV cameras to his bride-to-be that the wedding, on April 16, will not be postponed, he reserves his right to "serve the country first and give his life in the line of duty" in his words.

In the "Honeymoon Battle" programme recorded early this month at the barracks on Phaholyothin Road in Bangkok's Bang Khen district, a routine morning assembly became the biggest surprise in Natthaphong's life, when all 750 troopers sang the popular song "Good Night" after the national anthem. A limo appeared and his girlfriend of nine years came out of it, in a fancy dress walking to him in the middle of two rows of guards of honour, formed by his comrades.

In tears, Kanjana said to him: "You have always said to me that military families sacrifice more than the soldiers themselves. Today, I am ready to be [in the] family of a soldier who sacrifices himself. I will be standing by your side and be there for you, forever." She then hugs him amidst loud applause, and tears coming from many soldiers.

In an interview, Natthaphong said he appreciated her patience in maintaining a nineyear relationship with him and "would try his best" not to postpone the wedding on April 16.



"I constantly tell her that life can be given to the country and that there are not only two of us under this situation but there are many soldiers who face this. Why are they able to live through it? We must brave it as well," he added.



Natthaphong, 30, serves in the 13th Cavalry Battalion based in Phetchabun and has been assigned to duties protecting the Bangkokbased barracks, which houses the government's war room. There operating tactics and measures to deter constant threats by the red shirts to disrupt the capital in demand for an immediate House dissolution are under review.




Kanjana, 25, is an accountant working in Saraburi province.