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by Ashley Barker
Pubilc Relations
Like many couples
around the world, Allie and Seth Butler
watched the ball drop in New York City and
celebrated with a kiss when the calendar
switched from 2012 to 2013.
They felt far from
other normal couples, though. The MUSC
doctor of pharmacy candidate (Class of
2015) and her husband, an Air Force
captain and C-17 pilot, were standing on a
stage in the middle of Times Square at
midnight with cameras rolling and the
title "America's Greatest Love Story"
flashing on screens across the country.
 MUSC PharmD
candidate Allie Butler and her husband
of four years, Air Force Capt. Seth
Butler, celebrated the beginning of 2013
with a kiss on stage in Times Square.
Photo credit: Nivea
By the time the couple
are reunited in two more years, the pair
would have only spent five months under
the same roof of their then six-year
marriage.
The Butlers got some
extra time together when they won NIVEA's
Kiss of the Year competition after she
submitted their story and Facebook fan
votes were tallied to favor the military
couple.
A story of sacrifice
and commitment to serve their country, all
while maintaining their relationship,
started off at the Ohio State University's
Air Force ROTC program.
A Pittsburgh native,
Allie was studying meteorology and ended
up joining the ROTC program a quarter
before Seth, who was on the way to a
mechanical engineering degree. They met
and worked together off and on for two
years before any sparks began flying.
 C-17
Air Force pilot Seth Butler and his
wife, Allie, an MUSC student, met at the
Ohio State University and were married
in July 2008. photo provided by
Allie Butler
"I came back from my
training and he had sent me some random
Facebook message," Allie said. "I just
thought he was sending a congratulatory
message to all my classmen that had
returned. I found out later, when we
started dating, that it was just to me."
It took a ski trip with the pair's unit in
January 2006 for the two to officially
become a couple. Seven months later, Seth
left for a training exercise. The distance
didn't stop them from getting married in
July 2008.
"We make a lot of phone
calls, more so texts," Allie said. "If
he's stateside, it's a lot easier for us
to communicate. When he deploys, it's more
like me texting him random things that
need taking care of or stories that have
happened."
As a C-17 pilot, supply
trips, training and deployments are almost
"continuously happening." When based in
Charleston, his unit typically transports
supplies to Germany and southwest Asia
during two-to-three-week trips as
frequently as once a month, leaving very
little time at home. Once a year, Seth
also has a four-month deployment away from
Charleston.
"He's not on the front
line or anything, but it's a dangerous
job," Allie said. "He is flying over some
not-so-great locations. Anything can
happen. It's a rather large object in the
sky and hard to miss."
In Charleston, the
Butlers don't have quite as conflicting
schedules as they did when Allie also was
in the Air Force. After four years as a
weather officer, she left the military as
a captain and is now honoring her
four-year inactive commitment while
pursuing a PharmD degree at MUSC.
"Our career fields just
didn't mesh," she said. "I couldn't go to
the same base as him unless there was some
sort of special assignment. We were always
going to be struggling to line our career
fields up, so I started looking at what
else I could do."
Allie plans to work for
the government because she expects to be
moving frequently while following Seth.
But moving with him to his next base will
not be an option until she finishes her
education not be an option until she
finishes her education.
In April, Seth will
head to San Antonio for more training.
Then he'll go to his new base in
Mississippi in August, where he'll be
instructing future pilots.
As a part of the
winning NIVEA package, the Butlers were
flown to New York City twice — once to
appear on "The Wendy Williams Show" with
the other two couples who were finalists
and again to have their first kiss of 2013
in front of the world — and were given
exclusive VIP tickets to the New Year's
Eve party at the Hard Rock Café in Times
Square.
During their second
trip, two videographers followed the
couple around filming their Big Apple
visit and interaction with the
11,875-pound Times Square Ball.
"They were documenting
everything for the two days and I told
Seth, 'I bet paparazzi are going to get
confused.' Lo and behold, paparazzi
started taking pictures of us too because
they didn't know who we were," Allie said.
The Butlers also met
"Saved By The Bell" actor Mario Lopez and
his wife, Courtney Mazza, who were kiss
ambassadors and hosts of NIVEA's televised
celebration.
"The dimples are really
big in person, extremely big," Allie said
about meeting Lopez. "I just couldn't get
A.C. Slater (his "Saved By The Bell"
character) out of my head when I saw him.
I feel bad because I'm sure he gets
stereotyped with that all the time. But
that's my generation. That's what we
watched every day after school."
Being together was
better than all of the celebrity-like
treatment, though. "He's the highlight of
pretty much everything," Allie said.
"We're still in the honeymoon phase after
four and a half years of marriage."
While they watched the
thousands of people crowd into Times
Square and musical performances by bands
like Train, the Butlers had a huge fan
club of their own. Family and friends were
all watching different broadcasts hoping
to get a glimpse of their big moment.
"People were recording
the TV with their phones and texting us
all night," she said. "My mom usually goes
to bed at like 8, so this was a struggle.
I'm sure she was taking down some coffee
that night."
When the calendar
changes to 2014, Allie hopes she and Seth
are together still but in a much more
low-key location.
"It was so much fun, but it's off the
bucket list now. Check. Done," she said.
"I won't ever do New York on New Year's
Eve again. How can you top that?"
Friday, Jan.
11, 2013
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