An ‘Amazing’ return: Back from Iraq, guardsman and wife team up for reality show - Entertainment, TV, Television - Navy Times

An ‘Amazing’ return: Back from Iraq, guardsman and wife team up for reality show

If you’ve ever wondered what it would be like to deploy or train with your spouse, a Wisconsin Army National Guard pilot says he got an extended taste of what that might be like on the reality competition show “The Amazing Race.”

Active-duty guardsman Maj. Dave Brown and his wife, Rachel, were among 11 couples who kicked off the 20th season of the Emmy-winning, globe-skipping scavenger hunt. The premiere aired Feb. 19.

“The race itself was very comparable to a military operation with the types of obstacles and challenges you face, and of course the excessive stress factor, as well,” says Brown, who had returned from a yearlong deployment to Iraq shortly before filming the show. “It’s as physically demanding as air assault school, as mentally draining and as academically involved as flight school, and as sleep-depriving as SERE [Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape] school.”

Unlike being in the field, however, you can’t order your wife around. Indeed, it was Rachel who spearheaded their enlistment into the show in the first place, bringing the race’s 30-page application packet along during Dave’s midtour leave in Australia.

“I was extremely excited and eager as well,” he says. “The show lends itself to our personal strengths and love for travel and competition.”

Dodging elimination in the opening episode, the pair will move on for a shot at the show’s $1 million prize. Of course, Brown can’t say how far they made it, but he says the competition did provide the most unusual of reintegration programs for their marriage.

While last year’s winners, an engaged couple, say they considered being on the show a form of premarital counseling, “it was the exact opposite for us,” Brown says. “At that point in our relationship, we were trying to mend and reconcile.

“Being disconnected and our lack of communication over the previous year, we hadn’t been a cohesive team for quite some time,” he says. During the monthlong filming, however, while “the relationship between Rachel and I was a bit trying at times, our relationship was actually strengthened, and we truly were reliant on each other.”