Even though Tanya Tanwar Sareen’s brother passed away in 2015, she feels he had a role in introducing her to her future husband.
“Taz helped put us on each other’s path,” he said. “I guess he got tired of making bad decisions,” he added with a laugh.
Maj. Taj Sareen, a jet pilot in the Marine Corps, was killed when the aircraft he was piloting crashed while returning from a deployment to the Persian Gulf.
In November 2021, a group of Major Sareen’s former squadron mates came to Las Vegas for a bachelor party. Allen Szczepek, a retired lieutenant colonel, contacted Ms Sareen in advance to arrange a visit with her family, and she flew out to join them. (Her parents split their time between Las Vegas and Hillsboro, California, where she lived.)
After the visit, the men invited Ms Sareen to accompany them to a nearby bar. He chose the Clique, a lounge at the Cosmopolitan Hotel in Las Vegas, and it was there that Ms. Sareen and Joel Gregory Adolphson, a lieutenant colonel who had served with Major Sareen in San Diego, fell into an easy relationship.
Colonel Adolphson approached with trepidation: The squadron mates had all agreed that Ms. Sareen was out of bounds out of respect for her brother. In fact, Colonel Szczepek whispered a reminder into Colonel Adolphson’s ear as the two talked.
Nevertheless, Mrs. Sarin was charmed by Colonel Adolphson’s kind demeanor and foreign exchange service with the Royal Air Force in the United Kingdom. By the end of the night, she gave him her phone number.
The next day, Colonel Adolphson texted Ms. Sareen while she was out to dinner with her mother, who uncharacteristically encouraged her daughter to meet him.
She told him he was welcome to join whatever plans she already had with her friends there.
“They just threw me into the fire,” said Colonel Adolphson. “I knew if her friends didn’t like me, I was out.” (The friends liked it so much that one ended up in the wedding party, on the groom’s side.)
Ms. Sareen, 37, is a senior corporate consultant at Pandora Media in Oakland, California. After earning her bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of California, San Diego, she earned a law degree from the University of San Francisco.
Col. Adolphson, 38, is a member of VMFT-401, a special adversary tactical training squadron at Marine Corps Air Station-Yuma in Yuma, Ariz. He holds a bachelor’s degree in criminology and sociology from Kent State University in Kent, Ohio, and graduated from the US Navy Strike Fighter Instructor Program, also known as TOPGUN, in Fallon, Nev.
On their second date, Ms. Sareen told Colonel Adolphson that if she ever felt she wasn’t the one, she should move on. she didn’t want to waste her time.
“I knew very quickly that even though we come from completely opposite backgrounds, we get along and get along so well,” said Col. Adolphson. He is from Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio and was raised Christian. She was born in Los Angeles to parents who immigrated from India and was raised Hindu.
In April 2023, Colonel Adolphson planned a birthday party for Ms. Sareen in San Diego. She invited her close friends and reserved a balcony and private dining room at Mister A’s restaurant. During sunset, a birthday toast turned into a proposal. Ms. Sareen’s response: “Of course.”
“Joel really made me feel at home,” Ms Sarin said. “When I’m with him, I feel a connection, peace and security that I’ve never had before.”
They were married on March 23 at the Aria Hotel in Las Vegas. On a chair in front of the ceremony was Major Sareen’s photo and military hat.
Ms Sareen combined both Indian and Western wedding customs by wearing a white lehenga – a long skirt and open top – for the ceremony, along with a chapel-length veil with the groom’s name stitched into it Hindi.
A non-religious ceremony was conducted by Colonel Szczepek, the friend who had warned Colonel Adolphson not to hit Ms. Sareen. (In the end, all of Major Sareen’s former squadron mates were “ecstatic,” he said, about the union.) Norma Rivera of Peachy Keen Unions, a minister appointed by American Marriage Ministries, signed their marriage license.
Ms. Sareen will relocate to Yuma and work remotely from there.
“I still remember her smiling on our first date,” said Colonel Adolphson. “From then on, I felt like I would do anything to keep her smiling.”