35th Reunion, Part Deux. Things have been pretty quiet this past quarter, so here are some leftovers from the reunion.
John Loucks: “Of course all the CS 24 Phantom Streaker regular reunion groupies were present. But the highlight for Susie and I had to be seeing Dr. Dennis Carter and his wife Suzanne, whom we had not seen since our wedding 35 years ago...we had a great dinner and reminisced about all the guys who were not there.”
CS-30 Post-Game Rally: Picture includes JO Magoffin (non-grad), Rick Layman, Stan Collins, Scott Smith, Randy Davis, Randy Barrett, Jim Kochevar, Bob Shappell, and Stan Siefke. Bruce Linster, Joe May, and Russ Trinter were at the reunion, but unable to join us that evening.
Ray Marden, USAFA Junior College: Leaving the Academy mid-way of junior year left many friendships. Even had to cancel the order for my Corvette. Material items have come and gone, but my wonder of what happened to so many have lingered. My wife, who communicated during my years at Academy, had never been to Colorado and wondered if many of my stories were true. Our interaction with squadron and football teammates brought back credibility: Meeting Gary Vosburgh, the skiing marvel (made the paper as being the Most Average Cadet, I’ve got the article); Mark Beesley, the quarterback who needed a good hit; John Fouts who still couldn’t pay the IOU from those Academy gambling games; remembering those in the Chapel, thinking of all the knowledge lost. But then the bright spot, where was my doolie roommate Mike Biedermann? Found out he was the Chaplain at the memorial, wish I’d known then. So many others I would have liked to have seen, just didn’t have time. Did see my non-grad classmate Fred Basin, remembered the engine from Kevin Cheek’s Corvette being brought to life in squadron supply closet by Fred (Scribe would love The Rest of the Story on that one; nobody could make this stuff up!). Sitting by classmate Tom McKee, I discovered he had rented a house in my community from my Delta pilot friend. This friend was a graduate of VMI, I’ve made sure he knew of his ignorance.
Rich Chanick: If there are no pictures, I deny doing it!
From Hugo Gray: For a retired guy, Charlie Wintermeyer sure gets around: He is a State Department Foreign Service Officer assigned in at our Embassy in Lima, Peru. The picture shows him with the banner at Antarctica recently; check ZoomieNation [Defunct] for another shot of him in mufti with the Afghans in '06.
75 Best Alive: The Next Generation. Dave Ehrhart’s son Brian is an OSI agent serving in Iraq, deployed from Nellis. Your Humble Scribe (YHS) had the honor of commissioning youngest son Adam in the Army, upon his graduation from Aggieland. Adam will train in Light Armor at Fort Knox--watch out, Osama! Jim Carlson says his new twin daughters were so excited after the reunion that they showed up 6 weeks early (26 Oct). After some of the struggles typical of preemies, Annika and Julianna are doing well. The girls are being taught that they each have over 750 “uncles” spread all over the world, each of whom their dad trusts implicitly and respects greatly. Note the custom onesies.
Alert reader Bill Murray sent a piece about the passing of Lt Gen Walter T. Galligan, USAFA Commandant our first two years. No matter which of his lists you were on, you have to be impressed with his accomplishments: West Point Class of 1945, barely catching the end of WWII, through the Berlin Airlift, flying many historic aircraft and holding several staff and command positions. To the Commandant: Hear, Hear!
Paul Martin, Curator of Collections at USAFA, inquired about the origins of our “Nuke ‘Em” mug, with the nuclear cloud and “shapely” handle. They have one in their collection, but no background on it. I also mentioned the infamous Bud Man sweatshirt as another unique class item. If any of you have one semi-intact that you might be willing to donate, contact him.
Budding Broadway musical writer Steve Duresky wrote a tribute to all of us, but due to space limitations I could not fit it in here, so look for it on ZoomieNation. I can hardly wait to see the live skit!
YHS flew a trip with Gene Holley, returning a planeload of War Eagles and Ducks fans from the NCAA football championship in Phoenix the day after the game. I also ran into Rich Takacs in the ATL crew room...we didn’t get time to talk, but it’s always fun running into you guys!
My goal as Scribe during my sentence/reign is to make famous as many of you as possible in the 20 (plus or minus) articles I’ll have written by the time someone more talented volunteers for the job. By my count, in the first year/four articles, about 180 of our members have been included in this esteemed publication--about a quarter of you, not a bad start. Some classmates are more prolific in their correspondence than others, meaning that they would, in a purely democratic environment, get more frequent mention. However, this being a non-democratic process, I solicit your experiences, thoughts, travelogues, musings, and just plain “howdys!” so I can actually put some meat in here with your names. Vote early and often!
Charlie Wintermeyer and 2003 Grad
