Sharing the Call for Service and a Life Together
The New York Times Sofia Gross joined the Navy about a year after she and Michael Haft, a former Marine, began dating. She planned much of their wedding from a military base in Bahrain.
On the dating app Bumble, Sofia Rose Gross was drawn to the profile of Michael Alexander Haft, a former Marine who, like her, is Jewish. She immediately reached out for two reasons: She was thinking about serving in the military and, she said, she found him hot.
Their first date, in December 2019, was at the Smithsonians National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute in Washington. From there they went for donbur in the Adams Morgan neighborhood, and then to a wine bar. Neither wanted the date to end, even when Ms. Gross, then the public policy manager of Snap, the parent company of Snapchat, had to spend 45 minutes solving the emergency of someone impersonating the account of a public figure.
Mr. Haft, 36, texted Ms. Gross, 30, suggesting a second date right after he dropped her off.
There were no games and I loved that, Ms. Gross said.
