By the time this issue of Checkpoints shows up in your mailbox, the winter of 2022 will hopefully be faint memories of colder than normal temperatures, the tallest snowbanks in decades, and w-a-a-a-y higher than usual heating bills. At least they were faint memories until some unthinking scribe just reminded you of them. Those who live in Florida are undoubtedly wearing their usual smug expressions for possessing enough intelligence to reside in a state that sneers at winter as if it were a salesman who showed up at dinnertime. The rest of us get a perverse pleasure in knowing that the smirking winter evaders have a deep south summer knocking at their doors, and palmetto bugs that are large enough to wear leashes. Last winter was great for the skiers. I skied an average number of times, and that was even with being sidelined for three weeks for a minor medical procedure. I hit a new personal record of 62.5 mph on the slopes, and the fact that you’re reading about it means I survived the run. Actually, getting the skis to go that speed isn’t all that hard. The hard part is in finding a run without a lot of people on it, because if you were to hit someone at that speed, there’s no telling what kind of damage it could do to your skis and bindings.
It's a small world: Scott Hente and Jerry Macken had a chance encounter a few months ago…in Istanbul. They and their wives were both on the same Mediterranean cruise. Scott and Jerry hadn’t known each other in school, but after they went through the usual break-the-ice questions they awkwardly realized they were classmates. The awkwardness stopped there, and the four of them spent a lot of time together the during the rest of the cruise. Scott guarantees he’ll remember Jerry when he sees him again at the 50th reunion.
Dave Ehrhart was attending an American Bar Association meeting in Annapolis in March and ran into the USAFA Men’s Gymnastic team in the hotel lobby. He tried to convince them he was on the team for a couple years, but he’s pretty sure they didn’t believe him. After all, how many 6-foot 7-inch gymnasts are running around the world? However, they did notice his class ring, and the Class of ‘25 guys wanted a picture with a member of their Legacy Class. It’s hard to believe the guy in the middle of the picture is 50 years older than everyone else in the picture.
Renegade Wisdom is the title of Bill Murray’s second book, and is now available on Amazon. In the preamble to the book, Bill says it is a book of philosophy and truth, but don’t take his word for it…ask someone who has already read the book.
Family Traditions: On June 1st, Glenn Jones, son of Duane Jones, graduated with the Class of ’23. The night before, Glenn was commissioned by his dad and his two older twin brothers, Capt Blake Jones and 1Lt Clark Jones. On June 3rd, Duane and Jan were in attendance as Chris married his high school sweetheart, 1Lt Felicia Engebrecht. Glenn and Felicia both enrolled in AFROTC at the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs campus, but Glenn took a detour to the Academy his junior year, and Felicia was commissioned in 2021. The act of taking two paths to get to the same point is a relationship representation of Bernoulli’s principle, and since that results in lift, it can only say good things for their future.
Bryon Huddleston reported that his son, Chris, is carrying on the family tradition of flying for Delta Airlines. Chris started his Delta class in April and is the third generation of Huddlestons to fly for the company. Bryon’s dad, Bob, was one of the few Sergeant Pilots of the Army Air Corps, was commissioned an officer when he flew B-17s during WWII, signed on with Delta in 1950, and had a career of 30+ years with the airline. Bryon was hired in 1987 and also had a 30+ years career with the company, and Chris has the potential of being with the company for 38 years. That would take the Huddleston-Delta story to almost 100 years. That’s a boatload of frequent flier miles.
Unrepentant: In the December 2022 edition of Checkpoints, Dale Hanner submitted rationalization for his and Joe Carroll’s inexplicable insistence at staying in the ranks of the employed. Dale was called to repentance in that issue, but he presented evidence this month that he and Joe ignored that call. This time, they also provided a picture to punctuate their solidarity against sanity. Dale must think he’s still tooling across the terrazzo, because he still has his hands in his pockets. Joe is the one with the scowl on his face and the stone-cold look in his eyes. He’d had runny eggs and cold toast for breakfast that morning, and at our age that’ll do a job on one’s normally sunny disposition.
GBNF: Mike Murdoch (CS-11), Dan Falvey (CS-25), and John Sims (CS-21). Their obituaries can be found via links, right
