Just For Fun…how did you meet your better half??

justdoit19

justdoit19

Proud parent of an ANG, USNA X2, and a MidSib
5-Year Member
Joined
Apr 9, 2017
Messages
9,434
We attended a beautiful wedding this weekend. Got us all reminiscing about how we met our spouses.

I was the soda jerk, and he the dough boy, at a pizza parlor. Love at first bite 🍨 🍕 ♥️♥️
 
We went to HS together and were friends, but never dated. I didn't see her after graduation until we got set up on a blind date 10 years later by a mutual friend who had no idea we knew each other. We were engaged within 4 months and are going to celebrate our 25th this year. What can I say?? She was smitten...
 
I showed up for aircraft commander qualification...I was a "really sharp, fast burning O-2...okay, I pinned on O-3 two months later. She was an O-3...going through initial qual...

We made it VERY clear we'd be study partners but THAT WAS ALL!!!

Two and a half years later, after dating long distance...

We've been married for 33 1/2 years.
 
O’Club at NATO base in Naples. NIMITZ Battle Group was in. Think bar scene in first “Top Gun,” no singing though. Bar was awash in aviators and officers from all communities. Dice cups were rolling. Hands were sketching movements in the air. Noise level was high.

I NEVER went to the Club when big fleet groups were inport. I had just flown in from 3 weeks in Palermo where one of my USNS tankers had been repeatedly delayed in a repair facility, and I went down there to bust through Italian molasses-like summer working speed. I always parked my car at the O’Club as a safe place. Taxi dropped me off, I threw my bags in the car, decided to walk into the Club and have some pasta at the bar, as I knew I had nothing in my apartment. I was tired, hungry, hot, and not feeling social. I walked into the Club and 3 steps into the room realized why it was packed wall to wall with men. I felt like meat on a spit with hyenas circling. I was just about to turn around and walk out, when I was hailed by a civilian secretary who worked in my building. I went over to say hi and joined her table. She was sitting with the Air Wing Commander and his squadron skippers; I was introduced. Future DH was at the table. My food came, I ate, and was as minimally social as possible, fending off the many attack runs interrupting my meal. I left as soon as I politely could. Three weeks later, I received a call at my desk from FDH who noted he was at that table, confirmed he had not made an attack run because it was clear to him that wasn’t why I was there, and could he take me to dinner, as he was back in Naples for a few days.

We dated back and forth across the Atlantic. He was a strong, intelligent, funny, fair-minded man who had zero problems with women in the Navy and was completely supportive. 40 years (assuming we make it) in September. He likes to say it feels like 420. Haha. With all the deployments and geographically separated duty stations, we think there were 10-12 years total we didn’t live together.
 
Last edited:
VelveteenR said:
He lived on my hall at Michigan. The most gorgeous boy I'd ever seen. The thunderbolt hit both of us, we never looked back. That was 45 years ago.
Click to expand...
Un coup de foudre!

As regards my own story, I admit I was a bit hazy on what he looked like from my memories of who I met at the O’Club that night. I did not make eye contact, focused on my food, didn’t engage, answered briefly, and generally tried to emanate “Do not bother me with your inane BS lines.” I hoped I had the right guy in mind when he called! I did. Articulate, whip smart and he didn’t even tell me about what he flew or his background (No “Hi, I fly Tomcats” witty 🙄 banter). I learned that from others.

Oh - interesting note. One of the reasons I avoided the Club during big fleet imports was a strange phenomenon I and fellow female officers had observed. No wedding rings. On anyone. I am sure it was for safety reasons. What goes on cruise, stays on cruise…

To be fair, hand jewelry is typically not worn while flying, so people lock up stuff and simply forget to pull it out when going ashore.
 
Last edited:
OK ... I will play ...

Enlisted Club, NETC Newport -- late fall, 1980 . Saturday afternoon while I was at NAPS. I had gone to a movie solo that night (movie, Ordinary People, not necessarily a movie that a bunch of 18 year old guys would go to, but it was filmed in my old hometown). After movie, I stopped by the Club to see if any classmates were still around (the E-Club was common launching point for forays into town ... drinks were ALOT cheaper!). FDW was there with a couple friends (one of the friends Dad's was a senior Army enlisted and had stopped on base for something, I think the Exchange. Anyway, we started talking, made a date the next week.... and well, almost 42 years later (married 37 years, 10 days after graduation).

DW just loves it when I shorten the story above to "I picked her up in the Newport E-Club" :)
 
Capt MJ said:
Oh - interesting note. One of the reasons I avoided the Club during big fleet imports was a strange phenomenon I and fellow female officers had observed. No wedding rings. On anyone. I am sure it was for safety reasons. What goes on cruise, stays on cruise…

To be fair, hand jewelry is typically not worn while flying, so people lock up stuff and simply forget to pull it out when going ashore.
Click to expand...
They used to tell us to take off rings, or put a notch in them so they would sheer away when onboard ship... That said, we were briefed on the "Two TACAN Rule" when we were in Aviation Indoctrination (the first step in Pensacola). The two TACAN rule is anything goes whenever you are two TACAN stations away from your home base. (A TACAN is tactical air navigation system, radio navigation that crosses the US.)
 
My DW was the receptionist at the law firm at which I was an associate. We were both dating other people. But I had my eye on her. I remember telling my buddy on the way to the elevator to go to lunch one day, "Boy, would I like to get my hands on that cute little [her name]." Sorry if that sounds crude. Then, after we both broke up with the people we were seeing, she put the word out via the grapevine that someone at the firm was "interested in me." When I eventually figured out that it was her, I asked her out. As soon as we started getting serious, she resigned from the firm before most people figured out that we were an item. However, we were eventually "outed" when we went to a Jimmy Buffet concert and someone from the firm was sitting right behind us! We just passed 26 years married. Until death do us part.
 
Old Navy BGO said:
OK ... I will play ...

Enlisted Club, NETC Newport -- late fall, 1980 . Saturday afternoon while I was at NAPS. I had gone to a movie solo that night (movie, Ordinary People, not necessarily a movie that a bunch of 18 year old guys would go to, but it was filmed in my old hometown). After movie, I stopped by the Club to see if any classmates were still around (the E-Club was common launching point for forays into town ... drinks were ALOT cheaper!). FDW was there with a couple friends (one of the friends Dad's was a senior Army enlisted and had stopped on base for something, I think the Exchange. Anyway, we started talking, made a date the next week.... and well, almost 42 years later (married 37 years, 10 days after graduation).

DW just loves it when I shorten the story above to "I picked her up in the Newport E-Club" :)
Click to expand...
Wife 1.0/starter wife and I met at "Spindrift" (a bar/club) which was right outside Gate 1 of NETC in fall of "78' while I was on a ship in Newport and waiting for my SWOS class to begin.
 
Well this is a fitting thread, we're celebrating our 20th anniversary this week.

Spouse went to USCGA with a friend of mine from high school. We met at a small New Year's Eve party 1999-2000 at their house. We survived the Y2K scare and married a couple years later. I never liked New Year's and all its hype, but now celebrate it together as the day we met.
 
Old Navy BGO said:
They used to tell us to take off rings, or put a notch in them so they would sheer away when onboard ship... That said, we were briefed on the "Two TACAN Rule" when we were in Aviation Indoctrination (the first step in Pensacola). The two TACAN rule is anything goes whenever you are two TACAN stations away from your home base. (A TACAN is tactical air navigation system, radio navigation that crosses the US.)
Click to expand...
“No one is married after the first sea buoy when outbound on deployment.” Not a favorite Navy saying.
 
Old Navy BGO said:
OK ... I will play ...

Enlisted Club, NETC Newport -- late fall, 1980 . Saturday afternoon while I was at NAPS. I had gone to a movie solo that night (movie, Ordinary People, not necessarily a movie that a bunch of 18 year old guys would go to, but it was filmed in my old hometown). After movie, I stopped by the Club to see if any classmates were still around (the E-Club was common launching point for forays into town ... drinks were ALOT cheaper!). FDW was there with a couple friends (one of the friends Dad's was a senior Army enlisted and had stopped on base for something, I think the Exchange. Anyway, we started talking, made a date the next week.... and well, almost 42 years later (married 37 years, 10 days after graduation).

DW just loves it when I shorten the story above to "I picked her up in the Newport E-Club" :)
Click to expand...
Ditto DH, knowing I never went to the Clubs in Rota or Naples when there was a fleet visit. “I met her in a bar.” He knows that bugs me.

I met everyone else I seriously dated at non-bar locations, usually the gym.
 
OldRetSWO said:
Wife 1.0/starter wife and I met at "Spindrift" (a bar/club) which was right outside Gate 1 of NETC in fall of "78'
Click to expand...
I recall the name of the place...one of many we frrequented in Newport, after suitable pre-gaming at the E -Club. From what I am seeing here, NAPS now is quite a bit different than it was back then. It was tough academically, but we were essentially on our own from Friday after classes to Sunday study hour, and letting 200ish 18 year olds loose in Newport with a fat E-1/E-2 paycheck (well, it was too me at the time !) :) was an invitation to trouble --especially when we ran with some of the salty Fleet guys. Meeting FDW was a good influence, and probably saved me from doing anything stupid the rest of my time at NAPS (and throughout USNA, as our time together the first couple years was limited, and I didn't want to do anything to mess those up).
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top