On February 14, 2012, Alisa Licata and Jennifer Mozeleski met at Military Police One Station Unity Training. Little did they know that nine years later they would be serving as a dual military couple, in the 3rd Cavalry Regiment as staff sergeants and Army Career Counselors.
“We were in the same platoon together at basic training and I couldn’t stand Jennifer,” Alisa who is from Yucca Valley, California, said. “Then I found out that we were going to be stationed at Fort Campbell together and I decided we better become friends because she was the only female that I knew.”
Jennifer is from Mira Loma, California, about an hour from Yucca Valley, so they decided to drive from California to Kentucky together. They ended up serving in two different companies in the 716th MP Battalion and quickly became best friends. After “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” was repealed, they were married on Sept. 9, 2013.
Marriage has not always been easy for the Licata’s and they haven’t always received support, but all that changed in 2014 when they took their next assignment to Hawaii. It was serving in the 552nd MP Company together where they received support from their leadership. Today, they remain in contact with their old leadership and look to them as mentors.
“In the beginning, it was awful. When Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell was first repealed, we told our leadership that we wanted to get married and we were told that we were faking it and abusing the system. At first we were looked at differently and asked inappropriate questions,” Alisa said. “When we transferred to Hawaii, more people were integrated and comfortable and we were able to be ourselves and we were accepted.”
In 2018, Alisa changed her Military Occupational Specialty to career counselor. She is currently with 4th Squadron and was selected the 2020 Army Career Counselor of the Year. That same year, Jennifer decided to leave the Army. Eight months later, she rejoined as Military Intelligence and re-classified to career counselor in December 2020.
“We liked it when we were both MP’s because we could relate to each other,” Alisa said. “Our schedules were different when we weren’t in the same MOS and Jennifer is such a people person, I suggested she become a career counselor.”
Taking her wife’s suggestion, Jennifer is now a career counselor for the Regimental Support Squadron. She said she has enjoyed every job that she has had in the military, but she believes that becoming a career counselor has also made their marriage stronger.
“I always wanted to be involved in what she is doing, so decided to re-class as a career counselor so we could understand each other’s job,” Jennifer said.
The Licata’s have found several things that help them maintain a strong, positive marriage.
“Our values and morals are alike. When we are together, we want to spend as much as possible together and we don’t have girl’s night and spend time apart. We literally do everything together,” Alisa said. “We have been on lots of rotations where we are apart, so we value our time together.”
As an example, in the car on their way home at night they vent about work, but when they get home, they focus on other things. They also workout together every day and enjoy going out and doing other activities together when they can.
“We do have our days where it is too much, but we have found that we communicate really well and we want things to work out, so if we have to let go of something for everything to be fine, then we do and we have a lot of the same interests,” Jennifer said. “Communication is so important. We have went to couples retreats a lot and that has really helped.”
Alisa recommends that couples take advantage of all the programs that the military offers.
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