Howdy Best Alive! The Dark Ages turned out to be pretty busy, so here goes:
We all know the sad news of Pat Ash joining the GBNF ranks, with initial notification from his FedEx brother, Gary Janelli. See details in this issue.
Bill Davis updated Matt “Kip” Fong’s throat cancer battle: Kip is in good spirits; when we visited, he was breathing through a tube and wasn't able to talk, so he used the notepad function of an iPad to converse with us. He and Paula would appreciate hearing from classmates.
Bill Murray reported on the inaugural Dallas area Dark Ages Party, attended by Dave and Chris Ehrhart, Charlie and Sherry Simmons, Randy and Melissa Caraway, Bill and Judy Murray, Marv and Cheryl Kobza, Stan Jones, and Perry Lamy.
Jim Corrigan: Eldest son Ryan is F-16 East Coast Demo Pilot at Shaw AFB, middle son Jake is on his way to Iraq in June with the Alabama ANG, and youngest son Mike is a contracting officer getting his master’s at the Navy Post Grad School. All of them will have served in Iraq after Jake deploys. They keep telling me they are trying to fix what our generation broke! No, I'm not too proud!
Juan Kambourian: After 40 years of government service, the last 30 with the State Department, I've finally decided to hang it up on 1 August. In my 12 field assignments with State and Air Force--nine of them in Latin America--I've lived longer overseas than back in the States. I will probably suffer from culture shock when I go back stateside. I will be departing my current posting in Mexico City on 6 May. Can't believe I will be a civilian again; haven't been one since I left high school. Had a chance to visit with Doug Fraser down at SOUTHCOM last month; it was good catching up. I plan to retire in northern Virginia and probably get a job with a beltway bandit.
Mike Magee: Not too much to report from PA. Still slugging it out for a contract with American Airlines, hanging on left seat of S80. Holly and I just did a Spring Break to Nassau, Bahamas with our 11 year old, Sean. The water park in Atlantis made it amazing: Six days sliding, floating, and consuming various beverages and food! We are now entrenched in lacrosse season (no water polo in his school). You guys are working on grandkids, while a few of us die-hards are still playing first time dad!
Larry Bryant: I was thinking that we might need to start a Class of 75 “old geezer” club for everyone with artificial joints. I joined the ranks with a hip replacement last week after encouragement from Bruce Fritzsche. I’m doing better each day, getting stronger, more mobility, less pain, not using crutches now. Just trying to learn to walk “normally” again. Other than that, I’m still working at USAFA as the faculty and cadet computer geek. (Disclaimer: Sent while under the influence of painkillers, so if anything doesn’t make sense, please just ask again.) Hang tough, Larry!
Dick Webber: My Change of Command/Retirement Ceremony will be 29 Apr with an effective date of 1 Jul giving me 36 years of active duty service. I still don't know what I want to be when I grow up, but I do know I want to do something full time in the cyber operations arena. While we are figuring out our next steps, Michele and I plan to hit the road in our RV to visit family, friends, and places you never seem to get to while you are on active duty in some of these high ops tempo jobs.
Chris Glaeser: Tim O'Connell and I will be going to Maj Gen Dick Webber's retirement in San Antonio; 35.9 years or 13,113 days or 314,312 hours...wow. How about a survey identifying anyone else still on continuous active duty--is Dick the last man standing? I know that there are about six classmates who have gone back on active duty last year, but don't know of anyone else who is still continuously active. I'll send photos and more after the 29th. (Since this is after Checkpoints deadline, look for pics on ZoomieNation or in Fall Checkpoints)
Tom Laurie: In the face of a bad economy, I started a new publishing company this January which isn’t very interesting except for the name, Attitude Check Press, LLC. Not to be outdone with that company name I released my first book this spring: The Losing Attitude for Dieters www.TheLosingAttitude.com. I guess when I retire from my second career in a few years I will have something to do!
Dale Hanner: I'm in the Air Force until Jan 13, as an ALO at Ft Leavenworth, KS; will go back to United/Continental after this--if I live that long. I'm in way deeper than I ever expected. I’m in the AF contingent of the Army exercise-running gurus, travel a lot and basically coach ALOs at various Army bases as they go through our exercise. I have also been bamboozled into being the Detachment Ops Officer, so there's plenty of queep to keep me busy.
Paul Lotakis somehow wrangled a space shuttle simulator ride with one of his Alaska buddies, courtesy of Bill O’Keefe.
Bill Lyerly received an appointment as a National Defense University Distinguished Visiting Research Fellow within its newly-established Center for Transatlantic Security Studies (CTSS) at Ft. McNair. Ebola Bill will be teaching at the NATO Defence College in Rome in June. Bill also reported on Jim Carlson’s swearing-in during a multi-service USAFA 75 classmate ceremony as a US Army Reserve Adjutant General officer, making Jim a true "Try-Service Officer," having now "tried the USAF, USN as well as the US Army." Congratulations to both of you--that has to be some kind of record, Jim!
Mark Beesley served as lead for Gen Eberhart's initiative for an Air Force Academy Society of Washington DC (AFASW) golf tourney fund raiser for the USAFA Endowment. He put together a first class outing at Andrews AFB, which raised about $8,000. Terry Young and Mark attended the White House presentation of the Commander in Chief’s trophy to the 2010 Air Force Falcons, celebrating our first service academy championship in eight years!
Finally, I’ll exercise my Scribely privilege to include this shot from the top of Mount Kosciuszko, Australia, with the class guidon, in a 45mph summer breeze. I’ll leave it to more fit and adventurous classmates to tackle the other continents’ highest points. Our 35th anniversary vacation was a great break from the Utah winter; Australia is Aussome!
In closing, from the laconic Larry Dowling: Nothing to report.
As always, it’s great to hear from you. Have a fun and safe summer and see you around the campus!
