A Sailors Proposal

After six months aboard the USS New Mexico (SSN 779), MM2 2nd class Jerrel Revels stepped onto Pier 31 at the Naval Submarine Base in Groton Monday afternoon, took to one knee, and proposed to his partner, Dylan Kirchner.
The proposal comes two years after the repeal of "don't ask, don't tell" — the U.S. military's ban on openly gay service members passed in 1993.
Revels, originally from Texas, met Kirchner, of Plainfield, through mutual friends last September.
"It kind of tickled my mind every now and then that (he would propose) but I never expected this," Kirchner said. "I didn't really care if everybody was around. It felt just like the two of us."
The couple, who have not yet set a date for their wedding, were amid a crowd of more than 200 relatives and friends who were on hand to greet the returning crew. After departing from the submarine base on Feb. 13, the New Mexico transited more than 34,000 miles in the European region, stopping at Norway, Scotland and Spain.