Love was in the air at the Naval Submarine Base in Groton, Conn., Monday, reports Connecticut newspaper The Day.
Upon returning from a six-month deployment aboard the USS New Mexico, MM2 2nd Class Jerrel Revels surprised his boyfriend, Dylan Kirchner, by dropping to one knee and proposing as the two reunited on Pier 31.
More than 200 friends and relatives had gathered on the pier to welcome home the ship's crew, which had departed from the submarine base February 13.
"I didn't really care everybody was around. It felt just like the two of us," Kirchner told The Day, adding the idea that Revels would propose to him "kind of tickled my mind every now and then," but he "never expected this."
The couple, who say they met through mutual friends in September, have not yet set a wedding date.
Revels's proposal to Kirchner is the latest in a long line of instances where active gay and lesbian soldiers have been able to publicly proclaim their love since the U.S. military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy was repealed two years ago.
Boyfriends Matt and Russ, two gay marines who routinely blog about their relationship together, uploaded a video of their proposal back in June.
Marine Matthew Phelps proposed to his partner, Ben Schock, at a White House event last December.
