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ANDOVER —Lt. Laurie Coffey ’95 adjusts her helmet, laser-focuses her considerable mind, and awaits the signal. In a burst of fire and cacophony, she launches her F-18 off the 300-foot deck of the USS Nimitz. Her mission? “To intercept enemy aircraft in all weather conditions, establish and maintain air superiority, and deliver ordnance to target, in time, first pass.” That’s not Coffey talking. It comes from the press office at PBS television, describing Coffey’s job in a 10-hour prime-time documentary about life aboard the nuclear-powered carrier during its 2005 deployment to the Persian Gulf.
Beginning Sunday, April 27 at 9 p.m. and running for two hours each of the next five nights, CARRIER is an unprecedented look inside the operation of the 5,000-member team that makes up a carrier crew on deployment. Coffey, one of a dozen crew members featured, was chosen to represent the fighter pilots aboard the Nimitz. At the time, she was assigned as a pilot for Strike Fighter Squadron 94, also known as “The Hoboes.” A graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, Coffey has served in the Navy for 12 years, eight of them as a pilot. “As a little kid, I always wanted to be an astronaut,” she said. Serving her country was a huge motivation, as well. “Serving others is a big message at Andover,” she noted.
Coffey’s Andover career was full of high points. Start with basketball: She scored the school record of 426 points in her 1995 season. And though she only played two years at Andover, her career total of 685 points was enough to make her the second highest scorer in the school’s history. She also was a crew standout, training with the U.S. Olympic Team for the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney. However, a serious Achilles injury kept her from competing. Coffey also was high achiever academically and was named a Phelps Scholar in 1994.
Now serving as a naval aviator and flight instructor at Oceana Naval Air Station in Virginia Beach, Coffey said an Andover education is very well rounded and played a large part in building her foundation for future success. “It gives a good basis for whatever profession you go into,” she told the Phillipian. “Everything after Andover is easy!”
To produce CARRIER, 17 filmmakers spent six months living and working in the rough and tumble, noisy, and highly efficient microcosm of a combat vessel. Executive producers were Mitchell Block and Maro Chermayeff ’80; Chermayeff also served as director.
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