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24 | OHCC LIVING | MARCH 2026 | Village Vets Lt. Col. Greg Coey He may be the only war veteran for whom death in the air came calling at the exact moment life on the ground answered from home — twice. In 1972 as the Vietnam War raged, Air Force Second Lieutenant Greg Coffey was alone in his T-38 jet f lying a training mission at 20,000 feet when an engine and its back up power blew out. Fighting panic and gravity, he somehow maintained control and found a strip of blacktop he surfed to a bone-shaking stop. Suddenly, a crackling voice broke through the radio. "Sir, your wife is in labor." Coffey skipped the post-emergency briefing and rushed to the hospital to embrace his newborn son he almost never met. A year and a half later while f lying a bomb-loaded B-52 jet at 30,000 feet over Haiphong, co-pilot Coffey and his six-man crew were scouting for the enemy when it found them first. From the ground, a lethal surface-to-air missile grazed by them, taking out three of their B-52's eight engines. Over the radio, a voice piped in "First Lieutenant Coffey, your wife is in labor with your daughter!" It was all he needed. With the engines ablaze, he helped bring the attack-ravaged Stratofortress safely home. Unbeknownst to Greg, Patty had been taken to an overcrowded hospital, parked in a hallway, and told "Keep your legs shut" until a bed opened. She had once dreamed of having seven children. Fighting the intense squeezing and twisting of labor pains, she got word to her husband: "Don't come home without a vasectomy!" The next day, Greg got to the hospital - body parts intact - only to learn that his daughter "Wendy" was now "Toby." His wife had switched the name after a movie she'd recently seen. Coffey's resilience to change was forged in positions of combat and command in a 20-year Air Force career that included serving as Squadron Commander over 50 Air Force f light crews. Forty- eight hours after he'd retired from the military, he reported for duty at Delta – logging another 15 years in civilian skies. In 2005, daughter Toby mailed her parents an unexpected payload: a positive pregnancy test. Their first and only grandchild, Broc, was cleared for landing in their lives. Four years later, Greg and Patty settled in OHCC to be close to what they value most - family. Through all the surprises and close calls, Greg Coffey measures a life, not by escapes or medals, but by loved ones and friends whose lives he's lifted along the way. Written by Christi O'Connor Greg, Patty and Bob at a Village Vets fundraiser Greg and Patty at Normandy American Cemetery Greg in his T-38 during the VN war

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