A flight school romance.... Melissa was a couple syllabus flights ahead of Andrew when they met in the student lounge of theIr Primary squadron VT-28 in Corpus Christi, TX. It was Andrew’s first T-6B flight! Despite instant crushes, eventually (and thankfully) Andrew mustered the courage to ask her to get coffee at a local shop and exchange numbers.

The month prior, Andrew took many ‘joy rides” out on his favorite OneWheel to the local jeweler. Melissa didn’t start to suspect anything until he started conveying how he wanted to go on a specific hike for her birthday weekend. Unfortunately, the day prior to the event, the state closed all beaches and hikes. He was forced to move to a back-up. The following weekend, he coordinated for Friday dinner reservations at his favorite local restaurant and told Melissa it was in order to early celebrate his birthday since she would be absent for it. Shortly after ordering drinks, he slid off his chair and got on one knee.

Unlike their first deployments, their second round of deployments do not match up nicely. Melissa will be gone the latter part of 2020 and well into 2021. Andrew will be departing for his deployment shortly before she returns. Hopefully during this time, the pandemic will have settled and they can celebrate their happiness and marriage with family and friends in the late fall of 2021.