#IMSCFamily: Meet Antonio Rodriguez

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  • AFIMSC Public Affairs

JOINT BASE SAN ANTONIO-LACKLAND, Texas – Meet Antonio Rodriguez, spouse of Airman 1st Class Sophia Rodriguez, Air Force Installation and Mission Support Center Personnel Office, JBSA-Lackland, Texas. Antonio is our May spouse of the month. 

He has been around the military his entire life as his dad served in the U.S. Navy before transitioning to the U.S. Army and is now a chief warrant officer three. Antonio, who is a senior airman in the Texas Air National Guard, also has an older brother in the Army, a younger brother in the Navy and an uncle who just retired from the Navy. 

We asked Antonio to tell us a little more about his time as an Air Force spouse.

What’s your first memory as the spouse of an Airman?
My mother planned a home wedding for Sophia and I. She decorated the house and Sophia and I were made husband and wife as my dad, now a minister, officiated the wedding. 

What’s your best experience as the spouse of an Airman?
I bought a plane ticket to come and see her in San Antonio, all the way from Savannah, Georgia. It was her birth week and she didn’t know I was going to see her. She purchased tickets for Broadway and was planning to go by herself but didn’t know that I purchased a seat right next to hers. It was an unexpected birthday gift. I proposed the day after and we planned for a ceremony in March 2022.

What’s a challenge you and your spouse overcame as a team?
Sophia and I overcame a long distance relationship. We were living 17 hours away from each other from Nov. 24, 2020 – April 4, 2022, and could only see each other once a month, sometimes once every few months. We made it a point to FaceTime every day while I sought an ANG transfer. Things finally paid off. 

What your best advice for other AFIMSC spouses?
Best advice I can give is to be patient. Marriage isn’t everything people tend to think. Just as a tree loses its leaves every year, so too will you experience bad times, but in the end the tree sees it’s time in the sun again. Marriage is a choice, and always will be.

Do you have a mantra that you live by and how does it help?
The manta, or motto that I like to live by is something that I recently picked up. It’s that my wife never has to do anything to merit my love. It is because she is my wife that she deserves my love. I was mad at her one day when she asked me to go get her some Starbucks. I didn’t want to but I did anyway. On the road I thought to myself, “who am I to say no? How would I feel if I asked her to do something for me and she said no because she was mad?” My feelings toward her should never determine whether I do something in her favor or not. Hence the saying, marriage is a choice. 

What’s something you cherish from your time as a spouse and why?
I cherish and miss the times we would send each other letters. Now that we live together it’s not something we do anymore, but it’s always nice when someone writes you a letter.