NASP couple makes 50-year return

Mike and Margaret Volpe made out in the middle of the Pensacola (Fla.) International Airport ticketing area on Christmas Eve like teenagers on a hot date. It wasn’t the first time for the 70 year olds. It was a celebration of when they first met on a chance encounter Christmas Eve morning in 1976. He was a young Navy officer assigned to the training carrier USS Lexington at Naval Air Station Pensacola. She was a research scientist on base at the Naval Aerospace Medical Institute. She was going home to Charleston, S.C., and hauling an overflow bundle of presents. He was flying home to New York state and lent her a hand. They've been together ever since. The couple returned to the Pensacola airport on Dec. 24 to revisit the start of their love story. The Volpes, who live in Virginia, have two kids and two grandkids. Their recent return to Pensacola was their first to the region 1989. (Source: Pensacola News Journal 12/24/17) NASP has been among the few sites for first-time naval aviators, many of which wind up in advanced flight training at NAS Meridian, Miss. USS Lexington was, at one time, used for NASM pilots to carrier qualify.