Returning U.S. crew member pops question to girlfriend

White plans to meet Edmunds in Washington state on Saturday

DALLAS, Texas (CNN) -- One of the returning crew members from a U.S. surveillance plane held by China for 11 days had a surprise planned for his girlfriend when he called her Wednesday night.

He asked her to marry him.

"Absolutely," was Sondra White's response, as she wiped away tears from her face. It was her first contact with her boyfriend, Chief Petty Officer Josef Edmunds, since he and his 23 crewmates were detained on a Chinese island.

"He asked me to marry him and spend the rest of my life with him," White told a reporter after the phone call. "Of course, I said 'yes.'"

White said Edmunds, who called from the crew's stop in Guam, made his proposal in the form of a poem. "I think he wanted to be able to take the time to be able to say it in his own way, without having to rush," White told CNN.

Although the two had talked about their future, she said, the proposal came as a surprise.

White said she monitored the standoff non-stop on television and Internet, increasingly worried for her boyfriend's safety. When she received a phone call at 5:30 a.m. Wednesday that the crew would be released, she still wanted to speak with him to make sure he was OK.

"To hear his voice for the first time, for me to be able to say 'hi' back," White said.

A Dallas-area radio station bought a ticket for White so she could visit her fiance at Whidbey Island in Washington state, where the crew is expected to arrive on Saturday. Edmunds' father, Mark, also was headed to Washington, courtesy of the Navy, where he expected to meet his new daughter-in-law for the first time.

"I look forward to meeting Sondra," he said.

"And I you," White replied.

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