Sebastian Mom Sustained By Husband's Selfless Act of Love

The Newsweekly | Ann Koenig

On a hot July afternoon in 2005 two uniformed officers came to the door of Laura Youngblood’s brother’s house. She was visiting him in New York.

Back in Illinois, her house was prepped for a homecoming. Her husband Travis Youngblood would be returning from Iraq soon, and she already had the “Welcome Home” signs up.

But that day, she saw the two officers and knew immediately why they were there.

The Sebastian resident had met her husband in boot camp. Theirs was a love story defined by life in the military and upon Travis' tragic death. Laura's coping with the loss of the man who gave up everything for his family.

As time passed and the Indian River County Veterans Council became aware of her story, Laura joined up with the Next Gen Vets, happy to be part of group that understood what it means to serve their country and what that sacrifice might entail.

Laura and Travis were both Navy corpsmen, they fell in love despite the military designs to keep that from happening.

Attached to the Marines at Camp Pendleton, in California, stationed just a few hours from Las Vegas, they eloped on New Year’s Eve 1999, going into a new millennium. They found the last available room on the outskirts of the Vegas Strip. “Free hot dogs at 7-Eleven,” Laura remembers. They had a weekend, that’s all.

Then they returned to duty.