Who are they? Hunt for mystery military man and new fiancée as proposal is captured at Washington War Memorial


A teacher who was hoping to photograph the sights of the nation’s capital during a recent trip to Washington D.C. ended up capturing a more tender moment.



As Angila Golik, from Nevada, approached the Washington War Memorial on July 2 she noticed a man in uniform locked into an intimate embrace with a woman.



Although she was 'a football field distance away' and could not overhear their exchange, she wondered if she was about to witness a proposal as she knew it was a magical moment. She changed the lens on her camera to zoom in.



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Intimate: 'He then grabbed her face with his two hands so gently and pulled her towards him. He kissed her and her entire body went limp,' Golik said of the touching moment

'And sure enough, he took out a ring and slipped it on her finger,’ Mrs Golik said of the special moment.



‘He then grabbed her face with his two hands so gently and pulled her towards him. He kissed her and her entire body went limp.’



Mrs Golik photographed the proposal and created a montage of the images, posting the video on to YouTube in a bid to find the couple.



‘As you can see from his uniform, he is in the Air Force and the proposal is at the War Rotunda. Their story captivates me. And I don’t even know them,’ she said.



‘Is he a veteran of war and coming home to his love, or is he leaving for war?’



She is hoping the video becomes an internet hit so she can identify the couple and give the photographs to them.

Though her intentions seem genuine, Mrs Golik has met with some criticism after making her mission public.

‘I feel like you are using this to get yourself out there. Seems a little weird to me. You referred to yourself in the video more than 15 times,’ one YouTube user wrote.

‘I'm sure they will just be thrilled for your intrusion on their private moment, posting of it online without their permission, and the usage of it to undoubtedly get yourself noticed,’ added another.

Mrs Golik defended the criticism in an interview with the MailOnline. She said: 'I am not a photographer, I am a teacher and a soccer mom. I bought a good camera so I could get good shots of my son at soccer or soft ball games.

'I was actually in DC for a convention on education and wanted to take pictures of the monuments. We were told we could not get close to them but even from far away I noticed the rotunda was all lit up and it looked beautiful so I took a picture.

'When I looked at it, I saw there were two people standing in the middle and I thought it was strange because we were told the public were not allowed close.'

That's when Mrs Golik changed the lens on her camera to get a closer look, and sure enough the man slipped a ring on to the woman's finger.

Mrs Golik said: 'I gave them time to have their special moment but after they hugged we started cheering and clapping and I was shouting over to them that I had captured it on camera as I wanted them to have them.

'I have been married for 20 years and I know I would have loved to have a picture of my proposal. But we were so far away and were cloaked in darkness so they could not see us.'

Touching: As Angila Golik approached the Washington War Memorial on July 2 she noticed a man in uniform locked into an intimate embrace with a woman

The Nevada-based Mrs Golik defended her choice to post the video online because there is no other way for her to reach out to the couple.



'I know as a sentimental person, and once a bride, I would have loved to have pictures of the proposal my husband did. So I just thought I was doing a good thing by trying to get them the pictures,' she said in a response to her critics on YouTube.



'I've stopped reading the comments now as they are so disheartening and nasty. All I want to do is let two people who are in love have a memento of a very special time in their lives.



'I am not a photographer and nor do I want to be.'



She said that she originally reached out to officials at Andrews Air Force base to see if they would run an ad in their newspaper with a picture of the couple in an effort for friends of the couple's to identify the subjects, but the air force officials said that they are not allowed to do so until receiving permission from the couple themselves.



'That is my goal: find the couple and give them photos of a magical night.'



By early Sunday evening, the video had been viewed 322 times on YouTube.



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