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thedrifter
05-23-08, 05:34 AM
Finding love at flight school
Memorial Day weekend works for a wedding
BY CHUCK MARTIN | CMARTIN@ENQUIRER.COM

Growing up in Anderson Township and Mount Washington, playing sports and excelling as a student, Molly Price thought about attending a military academy after graduating from Summit Country Day School.

She never thought she'd marry a Marine.

While in high school in Northern California, Jeff Cahill also considered military service. But you can bet he never dreamed his future bride could scream ooh-rah with the best of the Leathernecks.

It's the unexpected that makes life more interesting. So Saturday, Marine 1st Lt. Price, 28, will marry Marine 1st Lt. Cahill, 27, at Summit Country Day in Hyde Park. A dozen or so Marines wearing handsome dress blue uniforms will attend, along with 160 civilian family and friends.

Those who know them say Price and Cahill are a perfect match. Both are fair-haired and athletic. They were commissioned as officers on the same day, and both fly helicopters. He commands a UH-1N Huey gunship, and as one of the few female helicopter pilots in the Marine Corps, she flies a CH-53E Super Stallion transport helicopter.

The couple spent nine months in Iraq last year stationed not far from each other. There, in the searing desert heat, while her chopper was being refueled at his base, Cahill often would greet his fiancée with a hug and a cold glass of water.

For a Marine, it doesn't get more romantic.

"I thought that was pretty cool," says Price, giggling during a conference phone call with Cahill from Marine Corps Air Station Miramar near San Diego, where she has been based since returning from Iraq in the fall. Her fiancé is stationed at Camp Pendleton, 45 minutes away.

After dating for two weeks in the summer of 2004 at flight training school in Pensacola, Fla., an approaching hurricane forced the couple to spend more time together. The Marines evacuated the base, and Price invited Cahill to her family's vacation home in Tennessee, then up to Cincinnati.

That's when she realized "he was the guy."

"My parents loved him," she says. "That was a big part of it."

Engaged since 2006, Price and Cahill have been able to date because they are of equal rank, and because they don't serve together. Military regulations prohibit officers and noncommissioned personnel from dating. Rules also prohibit officers who serve in the same chain of command from dating.

Both Cahill and Price expect to be promoted to captain this summer.

Almost as surprising as this Marine matrimony is that Price joined the Corps in the first place. She earned a degree in industrial engineering at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pa., then went to work as an engineer for UPS in Atlanta.

While at UPS, Price began taking flying lessons, something she had always wanted to do. In the fall of 2003, months after the invasion of Iraq, she called her parents, Bill and Mary Beth Price, who live downtown, to tell them she was joining the Marines to become a pilot.

"I had reservations about it at first," says Bill, CEO of Empower MediaMarketing, a company his wife founded in 1985. "I had a very positive experience when I served in the Army (in the early 1960s). But we both knew this was a dangerous business."

Cahill earned a degree in pre-law from the University of California, Santa Barbara before he signed up. Both he and Price say the 9/11 attacks played a role in their decisions to serve.

While stationed in Al-Qaim, Iraq, last year, Cahill provided close air support for combat missions. Price, who was based in Ambar province, transported equipment and supplies, but she often flew into combat situations. She actually had more combat flight hours (300) in Iraq than her husband-to-be (250).

"I'm basically in the same job as he is," says Price, whose 16-ton-plus helicopter is the heaviest flown in the military. "And I feel like I have adequate training to do this."

Having the same training and knowing what it's like to fly into combat helps them worry less about each other, they say.

Although the Memorial Day weekend is fitting for the nuptials, the couple chose Saturday because it's a military holiday. This way, they knew they could attend their own wedding.

The bride will wear a traditional wedding gown, even though she could wear her dress uniform with skirt or pants. (Yes, there have been a few jokes about that.)

The couple plans to honeymoon in the Caribbean, then return to the San Diego area. Price expects to be deployed to Iraq again later this year. Her fiancé doesn't know where the Marines will send him.

They also don't know how much longer they will serve in the corps. They are more certain about their marriage.

"If we could maintain our relationship during this part of our lives, if we could date through flight school," says Cahill, "then I think we can make this work."

Ellie