It seems like I no more than get one article written and it’s time to do the next one. Luckily, I’m no longer suffering from a lack of inputs. You are all doing a super job. All I have to do now is assemble the things you gave me. Thanks for the help.
Letters: The following inputs are from several sources. Unfortunately there is not enough room in the magazine to publish each letter in its entirety. Jim Carlson and Mike Reese wrote in from Fairchild to fill us in on the happenings in the Northwest. Mike and Doug Nelson are copilots in B-52s. Mike has received orders for D models at Anderson, Guam and will be going TDY enroute at Carswell. Doug is in standboard and is currently at SOS. Jim has decided to have himself installed as part of the woodwork as he doesn’t figure on going anywhere for a while. Bob Allen (copilot, KC-135), just got married. Mike Leuschen is also a copilot in KCs. Mark Wells, who recently upgraded to AC, will be going to ATC in the near future. Mark Holmes (the other one) is also a tanker copilot. Don Henney is up there too, apparently as resource manager. Jim says he’s a bit elusive and no one actually knows what he’s doing. Pete Krough is in residency at Travis with a baby girl newly added to his family. Mike Rosebush is flying OV-10s at Sembach. John Traxler is also in Germany and John Charlton is in England. Apparently he has three youngsters now. Jim wanted me to pass on that Lex Bakelite is on a secret mission under an assumed name and cannot be contacted until released therefrom. If you need to get hold of him for any reason, please contact Jim as he hears from Ol’ Lex now and again.
Bill Buchta, the first class member on the USAFA Faculty as a Behavioral Sciences type is getting out to attend medical school at the University of Wisconsin. He plans on coming back on active duty in 1984.
I got a letter from Brent Hall with a check for about one hundred dollars. I thought Brent had lost his mind until I found out that he’d been talking with fifty other guys and they all chipped in two bucks apiece. All contributions are sincerely welcome and sorely needed. Things are picking up a bit. Rich Chanick and Rich McIntosh are IPs in T-37s. Rich (figure this one out) will be going to PIT shortly and Mac is going off to fly the F-15. One of the new students down there at Williams is Kent Traylor. Kent was a Nav in RF-4s at Shaw. Good work, Kent. Tom Burns is flying T-41s at the Academy, Dan Chapman is going to PIT, and Mark Donnelly is off to fly C-141s at Norton. Steve Duresky will be flying F-16s out of Hill, while Julius Hargrove is off to PIT. Bob Heath and his wife Jackie have recently arrived from KC-135s at Wurtsmith, and Scott and Becky Hammond are off to the ACE detachment at March. Ed Kasl is going to F-16s, Bob Marr to T-33s at Langley, and Marlo Mellum to F-111s at Upper Heyford. Kerry Putt is in from F-4s at Spangdahlem while Jon Turner, Bob Walden, and John Woodward are off to F-15s somewhere. In addition to all of the moves, Marlo and Kim Mellum just had a little skater, Briana.
Chris Glaeser sent in a letter and a picture of all the guys over at Hahn at a winefest. Mike Weininger was one of the principals, as you might suspect. Mike has gotten himself MARRIED (probably five years ago) in violation of everything he said when we were roommates in the Dirty Dozen. He vowed then that he’d never get hooked. (If that doesn’t get him into trouble at the house, nothing will). Others in the group of revelers included John Traxler, Spence Roberts, Greg Schmitt, Bobby Thompson, and Chris. I’ve sent the picture in to the AOG to have it included with this article but it might not come out, as it was a color photo. (That’s a hint; if you send in photos, send black and white). Chris says he spent at least three months last year in zero-zero fog. Not a lot of good flying weather thereabouts, huh? Rich Dahlstrom and Dave McDaniel are at Torrejon, Doug Harrison is enroute to PIT, and Mark Holmes, the short one from Horny Eighteen, is at Bitburg, flying what Chris terms the Big Blue Strafe Rag. Mark and Cathy have a daughter, bonnie. Mike Gill flies the A-10 out of Bentwaters. John and Judy Traxler have two children, Amy and Ryan, and Chris has a son, Mathew. Apparently the population boom is due to the zero-zero conditions, or, as Chris says, the weather is too darn bad to do anything but have kids.
Adventures: Talk about your good time…Chumley Collins finally found the girl of his dreams and got married to Lieutenant Jackie Mitzner the end of March...I flew down to Shreveport for the wedding because I was getting tired of the blizzards in Wyoming. What followed was a memorable weekend. Scott and Janet Smith drove in from Little Rock and Bruce Fritzsche flew over from Del Rio. The allotted space is not nearly enough to relate all of the good times, but we had a couple of drinks and some great conversation; you know, the usual batch of lies…I’ve got the greatest job; the war is abusing me, but I somehow managed to come out of it alive; and others. Mike Banker showed up, but I didn’t get to see much of him. . Stan and Jackie will be living at Dyess after Stan completes upgrade in the C-130s at Little Rock. Until then, he’s in Arkansas and she’s in Mass (you didn’t think I was going to try and spell out Massachusets, did you)? With a little luck, they’ll be together this Fall. Bruce Fritzsche was a wealth of knowledge. The following reflects what he gave me to pass on: From Laughlin, T-37s Wayne Willis and Hoss Erving to Pete field; Tom Popp to Myrtle Beach, T-38s; Walt Burns to F-15s; Ollie Lorenz to A-10s; and Mark Stickney and Gunner Ohgren to PIT. Rex Hoey, Randy Sheppard, Kelley Bishop, John Daly, and Jim Corrigan are all in Standboard at Laughlin. John Gaughan is upgrading to AC in the KC-135 at Barksdale. Jimmy Ray Scruggs is also at Barksdale in B-52s. Marlo Mellumis off to Mountain Home to fly F-111s. Dick McIntosh is going to get into F-15s. Jim Burling (you heard from him last month) is a Titan Toad at Davis-Monthan. Billy Stephan is flying F-4s out of MacDill and will be getting married to Kelley Bishop’s sister, Wendy, in May. Bruce, himself, is going to go to Castle to fly F-106s, and will be getting married in May in San Francisco.
Dale Hanner went to Fairchild for a little survival training this winter. I guess he didn’t get enough of it in SERE.
Keep those cards and letters coming.
By the way, if you feel generous, remember that the same fund that is to be used for the Class Wall project will also support our tenth-year reunion, a scant five years from now, so a little bit of overkill will not last for long. Also remember that inflation may take us to the cleaners if the coffers are not filled soon.
If you haven’t heard, Wyoming has had the worst winter ever, breaking snowfall records that have been standing for over seventy-five years. So if any of you have a little warmth or sunlight to send up here, please feel free. We can use it!