The fourth and last child in the Shepstone family had been the result of a deployment, much like her older sister's conception; she was a surprise, but how many births are actually planned? Brielle Louise Shepstone was born in Bossier City, Louisiana on a humid August day, after eighteen hours of labor and her father missing the entire event by twenty minutes. Thomas and Kate Shepstone had already shifted out of the mindset of babies and diapers by 1988, with their three older children births in 1978, 1983, and 1985, they were simply content with their family and Brielle had them adjusting quickly.
But that's how it had always been before her birth and even until now, their lives revolving around Thomas and the Air Force. Set schedules, concise expectations, impeccable manners and being able to adapt had been drilled into the Shepstone kids. At first, Brielle couldn't comprehend the way her family had lived their life, but by the age of five and starting school on base in Germany that this how was going to be, and slowly she began to love the structure. After all, she was her daddy's little girl and she was going to do whatever it took to be just like him. But Kate Shepstone had other plans for her youngest daughter, while she wanted to get down and dirty with the boys, she was expected to be a polite young lady in pretty dresses just like her older sister, Regan.
Three years older, Regan had been the epitome of following in her mother's footsteps, she was the girliest of the girls on their street, prim, proper and trained to be a well behaved young lady. Brielle on the other hand didn't want any part of that, every dress put on her, much to her father's scolding would be soiled within an hour of being forced to wear it. It didn't matter what it was, from juice to mud, she was going to get dirty so that she could be comfortable. Kate would never give up on her daughter becoming a lady. Finally, she had come to a compromise with her mother right around the time they left for North Carolina. She'd wear dresses to church on Sundays and floral print blouses in exchange for wearing her hair in a single braid and jeans.
The most logical explanation Brielle could argue later in life would be when her eldest brother enlisted in the Marine Corps when she was only nine years old. Tommy Jr. knew he wanted to build a career in the military just like their father did, so when he sat down his parents and then his younger siblings, Brielle understood quite clearly, he wanted to be just like Daddy and someday, so did she. With Tommy gone and the rest of the Shepstone clan residing in North Carolina, the second oldest, despite the age difference became Bri's outlet to becoming just like their father. Though, Adam had attempted to rebel against his parents, he taught Bri about comics, video games and how to climb trees without injury.
Adam's attempts of being a rebel had always resulted in being on restriction, Tom laid down the law and laid it hard, but he wouldn't give up on his son, despite the things he did, off or on base. The final straw was when he was seventeen, he had six months to either get his act together or follow in the footsteps of his father and brother. Adam decided to follow in the steps of Junior, enlisting in the Marine Corps between the attacks on September 11th and Operation Iraqi Freedom. At his basic training graduation, he met his future wife, whom he married shortly before his only deployment. Things in Adam's life happened quickly that would impact the rest of Brielle's life, from her sister in law's pregnancy to his untimely death.
It was then at eleven years old that Brielle made the decision that one day she was going to enlist in the Air Force. Left with her mother and sister, while her father was deployed, she knew she didn't want to leave the life of being in the Military but she wasn't going settle for becoming a Military wife. Her mother was at a loss for words, losing one child was enough and constantly worrying about the love of her life and eldest son; she sure wasn't going to fear for her youngest's life in the future. But Brielle knew what she wanted, she wanted to enlist straight out of high school. Though she kept that dream to herself after her mother's reaction, she talked her father into allowing her to get involved JROTC as soon as she met the requirements.
By the time the Shepstones were reassigned and settled in Georgia, the two remaining Shepstone children were like water and oil. Fighting constantly, regardless of the age difference, fourteen year old Brielle and seventeen year old Regan had some fist fights during Regan's senior year of high school. Though her sister had been more feminine, she could hold her own and wouldn't come to appreciate her until she left for College. When the household shrunk down to just Brielle, her mother and her father when he wasn't deployed; her mother had attempted to put focuse into her daughter in attempts to get her to become more intune with her feminine side. Slowly, Brielle gave up and began working in her mother into her wardrobe, but the bare minimum.
The somewhat transformed Brielle gained some attention from the opposite sex, though it surely wasn't the ones she had come to know and become friends with. Enter the socially awkward Brielle who didn't exactly get along with girls at school and knew that looking at a boy without the intention of becoming his friend was simply out of the question. She learned from Regan's mistakes and plus, she didn't see the point of romance and things of that sort. Regan on the other hand met someone during her freshman year of college on base during her summer break. The guy would become her husband, resulting in disappointing her parents when she dropped out to follow her heart. It wasn't that Tom and Kate were against their daughter's happiness, she was the first to go to college and they would have preferred for Regan to finish her education.
That left the expectations of going to college on the shoulders of the youngest Shepstone and Brielle's own dreams were far from that. She was smart, she exceeded her parents' expectations when it came to her academics, but she didn't want to be weighed down by attending school...she wanted to serve her country. It was her intended goal for years and it was shot down by her father during her junior year of high school. She wasn't going to enlist after high school and that was final. So, Bri had taken her both her SATs and ACTS, then spoke to her JROTC commander about ROTC in college, if she couldn't enlist, she had to do something to prepare her future in the Air Force.
College catalogs were narrowed down to only a three and the best choice, in Brielle's opinion had to be UNC. She chose three states, California, Oregon and North Carolina, and three colleges from those states, but leaned more toward North Carolina because of the distance from her parents. So, she applied for AFROTC scholarship, because it involved her intended goal, committing to the military.
At UNC, Brielle adapted quickly, after that's what she did all her life, and in her second semester found employment at Fantastic Comics, her love of comics never had really faded; and it was a great "hobby" type job that gave her a little more spending money than her parents had sent to her monthly. There she met her future husband, though, if you would ask the 18 year old when she first laid eyes on Dylan Walters, she would deny her crush point blank. While their friendship grew to a close friends, feelings that were there never surfaced; especially when Dylan fell into a relationship with another girl. They were both awkward in their own ways, two different people but the same in many ways.
However, they never really fell out of the friendship after graduation, and for Brielle the feelings never faded. After graduating with her BA in Peace, War, and Defense, Brielle was stationed at Nellis AFB in Nevada. Growing up in the Military life, she adapted quickly and settled into her routine. With rumors of a possible deployment in 2011, Dylan flew out to Nevada, and Brielle went on a short three day leave and they had a staycation on the strip. Alchol fueled word vomit, Brielle confessed her feelings, and they some how wound up eloping in one of the many chapels on the strip. They would figure it out, they promised, and then two weeks later she was deployed to Afganistan for nearly six months.
Returning to the states, Dylan and Brielle fell into a natural partnership, told their loved ones, and balanced her career and their marriage. Until 2012 brought orders for Germany, as relocating was something Brielle was quite used to, she sacrificed what she had to do to make her marriage and career work. Living in Germany was an experience, until she was deployed for a second time in early 2014. On orders for an eight month deployment, by the fifth month, Brielle suffered a back injury that ultimately led to her medical discharge. Devastated that her military career came to an abrupt end, Brielle and Dylan settled in New York, near his older sister, and Brielle found work at a private security firm as a consultant. With her military background and her degree, she has grown to appreciate the change of pace with her new role and living in the civilian world.
