WALLA WALLA, Wash. » A former Navy flier is getting to know the daughter he never knew had resulted from a brief relationship with the woman's mother in Hawaii a half-century ago.

Gary Pearce and his daughter Tanya Kauwe met on New Year's Eve when she flew from her home in Florida to snowy Walla Walla, Wash. He was waiting at the airport with two red roses.

The 70-year-old Pearce was 18 and assigned with his squadron to Barbers Point, Hawaii, in 1958 when he met Tanya's mother, Virginia Kauwe.

After a few months, Pearce's squadron was deployed to Midway Island. He had no idea Kauwe was pregnant.

Tanya's daughter, a private investigator, tracked down Pearce earlier this fall and father and daughter began talking on the phone.

Pearce said when the initial call came, “;I had to pick myself off the floor.”;