U.S. Navy service brings Martinsburg couple together

BY TABITHA JOHNSTON tjohnston@journal-news.net

MARTINSBURG — Joining the U.S. Navy was never in the cards for Virginia “Viquen” Costigan.

“I was a Catholic school girl. If it wasn’t for my roommate, who asked me to go with her to visit the U.S. Navy recruitment office, it would have never been on my radar,” Viquen said.

Ironically, it was not her college roommate, but Viquen herself, who ended up enlisting in 1989. That one decision would, unbeknownst to her, change the trajectory of her life. From her home state of Texas, Viquen then entered basic training at the Orlando Recruit Training Center in Florida, which led to her being trained as a cryptologic technician specializing in high-frequency direction-finding, earning the rank of Petty Officer Third Class (CTR3) and serving for the next four years at two different duty stations: Adak, Alaska and Pyongtaek, South Korea.

It was while she was stationed at Camp Humphreys in South Korea, that the most significant moment of her military career took place — she met her future husband, Thomas “Tom” Costigan, when he offered to help her move into the barracks on her first day in the country.

“We met on June 10, 1992,” Tom said, noting it was the second duty station for both of them. “There was no certainty that we would end up on the same Army base.”

He noted that, outside of the military, there was an even greater chance they would never have met, as he himself grew up on the other side of the country, in Brookeville, Maryland. He, luckily, made the decision to enlist in 1988, after being encouraged to do so by his older sister, who had previously joined the U.S. Navy. Just like his wife would a year later, he went through basic training at Orlando Recruit Training Center and trained as a cryptologic technician, though his focus was on working on the security and administrative side of naval intelligence. He would later earn the rank of Chief Petty Officer.

Though his first contact with the “new girl” on base was purely based out of curiosity about her, Tom soon found himself falling in love with Viquen. The timeline of their relationship proceeded at a steady pace and, less than half-a-year later, on Nov. 16, 1992, they were legally married.

“We were in Korea when we decided to get married, so we had to follow the Korean law. We had to get married legally, before we could get married in church, unlike in the United States, where church and state are recognized,” Viquen said, noting they celebrated their legal marriage together, after registering it at the U.S. Embassy in Seoul.

“We went to the DLI (Daehan Life Insurance 63) building there, which used to be the tallest building in Asia. They had a couple of American restaurants there — they had Subway there, they had KFC (Kentucky Fried Chicken) there. And I wanted a Subway sandwich.

“So, we jumped in the back of a cab,” Viquen said. “In Korea, cabs would pick up other people and drop them off, if they were in route. So, while our cab driver was picking up people, we were sitting in the back seat and Tom turned around to me and asked, ‘Do you feel any different?’ I said, ‘No.’ So he pulled out our wedding bands, and we exchanged rings and kissed in the back of the cab — because there was no exchange of vows or anything like that, when we registered our marriage.”

The couple later got to exchange vows during their wedding ceremony at a church near their base, on Jan. 2, 1993. Soon after, they had their first child, a son, in South Korea. They found out, as their time at Camp Humphreys was coming to an end, that they had no certainty of being stationed next in the same place. So, after some serious discussion, Viquen elected to be honorably discharged from the U.S. Navy and to travel with their son and Tom, wherever his next duty station might be.

Over the next 15 years that Tom served active duty, the Costigans found themselves living in Pensacola, Florida; Germany; San Diego, where he served three years of sea duty on the U.S.S. Kinkaid and became a golden shellback, for having crossed the equator and International Date Line at the same time; and Virginia Beach, Virginia. They added onto their family throughout this time, having two more boys, followed by a girl.

After retiring from the military, the Costigans found themselves settling down on the outskirts of Martinsburg, in a home formerly owned by Tom’s parents. The home is a reasonable distance from Tom’s current federal job, with the Department of Homeland Security, and Viquen’s job, as assistant vice president and branch manager with City National Bank’s Spring Mills location.

“We’ve built this great life and feel so blessed. We’ve been married, almost 34 years now,” Viquen said. “We have gone on many adventures together, but we have many more on which we plan to go.”