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http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/28/fashion/weddings/erica-leinmiller-and-micah-dose-how-to-catch-a-navy-man-off-guard.html?_r=0
Brian Dose
Professor of English, Martin Luther College
Email: dosebl@mlc-wels.edu
Office Phone: (507) 354-8221 ext 300Erica Ann Leinmiller, a daughter of Pamela T. Leinmiller and Mark W. Leinmiller of Atlanta, was married there Saturday to Micah Donald Dose, a son of Donna J. Dose and the Rev. Brian L. Dose of New Ulm, Minn. Kevin Tracy, a Roman Catholic deacon, performed the ceremony at Holy Spirit Catholic Church.
The bride and groom, both 24, are in the Navy, each holding the rank of lieutenant, junior grade. They are stationed at the Naval Nuclear Power Training Command in Charleston, S.C. They met at the Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md., from which they graduated.
The bride, who is keeping her name, received a Master in Public Policy from Harvard last month.
Her father, who works in Atlanta, is a global account manager for Schneider Electric, a Paris-based energy management company and maker of electrical components. Her mother, who is based in Atlanta, trains medical professionals in public speaking for EDC Communications, a company in Pompton Lakes, N.J., that trains executives and other professionals in communication skills. She is also a certified personal trainer at Peachtree Presbyterian gym in Atlanta.
This month, the groom completed a Master in Public Policy at the University of Chicago.
His mother is the food service director at Minnesota Valley Lutheran High School in New Ulm. His father, an Evangelical Lutheran pastor, is a professor of English at Martin Luther College in New Ulm.
The couple met in January 2011, at a Navy seminar at which those speaking, including Mr. Dose each began their prepared remarks with the words “I believe in …”
While Ms. Leinmiller heard one speaker talk about believing in America, and another who believed in the United States military, it was what Mr. Dose said he believed in that made her believe in him.
“I believe in reading to your children at night,” he said.
“It was not something I would expect from a 20-year-old Navy man,” she said. “His scope wasn’t just limited to the Navy and national security. He cared about other aspects of life, including family.”
After his speech, Ms. Leinmiller introduced herself and they became acquaintances more than friends.
During another seminar that November, Mr. Dose gave a presentation on the history of alcoholic beverages. Immediately after, Ms. Leinmiller, who had never been out socially with Mr. Dose, asked if he wanted to celebrate at a local brewery.
“I really liked him, he was just so genuine,” she said. “It was a good excuse to ask him to go on a date.”
The Navy man she sought was caught off guard.
“I was a bit stunned,” Mr. Dose said. “I was also flattered. Up until that moment, dating was the furthest thing from my mind.”
In January 2012, they went to a brewery as an unofficial first date, and on Valentine’s Day, he presented her with a bouquet of origami roses that he had folded himself, and officially asked her out.
“I was smitten,” he said. “My thinking about not wanting to date had shifted 180 degrees.”
They fell in love that summer during a four-week Marine Corps endurance course in Quantico, Va. “He was very good at it, but I wasn’t and I was miserable,” Ms. Leinmiller said. “He really empathized with me and helped get me through it.”
In June 2013, they took a road trip through Germany and Italy, and the next month, the Navy allowed them to take two years off to study for their master’s degrees, which created a long-distance relationship that grew shorter with occasional road trips between Chicago and Cambridge, and frequent dates via Skype.
“We figure if we can’t handle being apart when we can talk regularly, there’s no way we can handle it when one or both of us are underwater,” Ms. Leinmiller said jokingly.