John & Lori entered engagement on the deck of the USS Missouri while it was in Astoria Oregon. On May 30th 1998. Some have joked about a shotgun wedding, but John is quick to point out that he in not the first to surrender on the deck of this mighty war ship, and if it was good enough for the Japanese then it was good enough for him.  We waited in line for four hours to get on to look at the battleship. During the Wait John arranged with a local news station (KOIN 6 available on primestar) to trick Lori into thinking they were going to do a story on the navy since he was in the navy. They had been doing this all day with others. But the news crew knew that John was going to propose. Our wedding was captured and aired on the news as a historic event. The wedding date was set for June 17 2000!