April 11, 2008
Laurie Coffey had a choice of enrolling at Princeton, Cornell or the U.S. Naval Academy.
"I suggested that she try the Naval Academy," said her father, Calvin Coffey. "I made a deal with her -- try it and if you don't like it, you can go anywhere you want and I'll pick up the tab."
She liked it at Annapolis -- so much that she became a fighter pilot who today teaches others to fly at Oceana Naval Air Station in Virginia Beach.
A former Corning East High basketball star, the 30-year-old Navy lieutenant will be featured in a Public Broadcasting System television documentary, "Carrier," scheduled to air from 9 to 11 p.m. on April 27-May 1.
For Larry Wilson's complete article from the Star-Gazette Corning Bureau click here.
