The Dark Ages: Remember the Dark Ages that would visit us every year during our time at Camp USAFA? The summer solstice would already be six weeks behind us when we returned from our summer excursions to start our daily routine of classes, marching to meals, intramurals, homework, and tours/confinements. Ergo, the periods from sunup to sundown were continually getting shorter and the darkness would be closing in on us from both sides of the day. It didn’t help that the Rampart Range rose up out of nowhere to blot out the sun on the terrazzo much earlier than it did for the lucky people living on the windy, desolate plains far to the east of the Academy. Then, out of nowhere, moving from Daylight Savings Time (DST) to Standard Time seemed to surprise us every year. One day we’d be walking back from Mitch’s in a twilight glow, and the next day the same walk at the same time would be in pitch darkness. And if we listened closely, we could hear the winds from the hills whispering, “Welcome to the Dark Ages.” Naturally, the chill in those winds would force us to pull out the black parkas with the pointed hoods, which helped to match our uniforms to our mental outlook while also making the tourists on the chapel wall wonder if their taxes were funding an order of druids. By the time you read this in Checkpoints, we’ll already be back in DST, the spring equinox will be knocking at the door, and the Dark Ages of 2024/2025 will have evaporated. But when the call for inputs for this issue went out, the Ghost of the Dark Ages was upon you, which is probably why there weren’t a lot of responses this quarter. The positive side of that is that you won’t have to muddle through an entire 900 words of Scribe drivel this time around, and there are a couple of inputs from classmates we haven’t heard from in almost 50 years.
Dave and Sharon Myers have been living in Littleton, CO for the past 33+ years, and in July they were initiated into the great-grandparents club. Their great-grandson lives in Virginia Beach, which means their future will include regular trips to southern Virginia. Dave retired from a long career in Aerospace two years ago and is “loving retirement.” (The quotation marks were added for those holdouts who continue to sneer at the notion of retiring because the workforce will crumble if they aren’t in it.)
Paul Kent reported in to say (although gloat is a more appropriate term) he played all five courses and the two par-3 courses at Bandon Dunes in October. His cousin is in the golf business and set it up. Yes, it was expensive, but it just means his kids are getting a little less inheritance. Paul added, “It’s hard to describe unless you’ve witnessed it. The closest similarity is playing golf in a national park. It’s walking only; pull carts or a walking caddy are the norm; and in fact, they encourage you to pull them (the carts, not the caddies) across the green." There was more to his input, but if you read it all here you won’t have any reason to talk to him at the reunion. He did note that he’s planning on going again in March, which is golf-speak for, “I left a substantial amount of my self-respect on the course, and I’m going to make a futile effort to recover it.”
Dennis Brooks chimed in that he’s putting his "war stories" in order and writing an autobiography of his years as a helicopter pilot. He was likely the first 75'er to get his military wings because helicopter school was shorter than fixed wing, and he gave up leave to be in the first helicopter training class after our graduation. Dennis may also have been the first classmate to be retired. At twelve years, three months and two days he was Administratively Retired for Medical Reasons after breaking his neck two times. However, prior to his retirement, the Office of the Secretary of the Air Force found some of his artificial intelligence programming and held him on duty for over a year at the Pentagon. There was a lot more meat on the bones of Dennis’ input, but I don’t want to ruin the surprise when you approach him at the reunion and nonchalantly say, “So, what’ve you been up to?” But here’s a factoid to set the stage: he’s had more broken bones than most of us have teeth without crowns.
Wild Bill and Marge Hickcox have been spending a lot of time not cleaning house this year. They went to Costa Rica with his son and grandchildren, the Upper Peninsula and Isle Royale for Marge’s big birthday, and Ecuador and Peru just before Thanksgiving.
Jeff Chappell and Paul Kent dropped in on Mike “Goody” Gudmundson on his birthday last December. Goody transferred from the Rocky Mountain Regional VA Medical Center in Denver to the Seattle VA Medical Center last fall and is continuing to recover from an aircraft accident he was involved in over a year ago. He’s getting around well in a powered wheelchair and is still wearing the life’s-too-short-to-worry Goody smile.
