We normally get at least one snowstorm in Colorado during October, but we’re a third of the way through the month and the Front Range is having highs of greater than 80° F with no appreciable change in sight. You’ll be reading this in December, and if you live in an area without chairlifts, but you’re looking at white stuff on the ground, we, the usually cheerful citizens of the Centennial State, hope you feel appropriately guilty for absconding with snow that legitimately belongs on our abundant ski hills. We are fully aware that you have no control over the matter, but like parents of innocence-pleading teenagers, that does little to mollify our feelings on the matter. Decent people would box the snow up and send it to a ski hill of their choice on the Western Slope. Is that asking too much? Surely not. A monetary contribution to the ’75 Class Officers Ski Fund would also help to assuage the tremendous guilt you must be feeling.
The members of the Hacker Classic annual golf outing have received a lot of grief in past issues of Checkpoints, but in all fairness…they deserved it. This year the group invaded four quiet, unassuming courses in South Dakota which had great reputations prior to their arrival, but now, not so much. Tom Popp once again took top honors, which leads to the perennial question: why do they keep inviting him back? Larry “Frankie” Farris took the trophy for greatest room to improve, and Russ Trinter took the award for best host of any Classic held in a state with a human-to-coyote ratio of less than 14 to 1. Other attendees were Rod Hennek, Wayne Willis, Bo Montgomery, Brian Duffy, Roy Rice, Tug McGraw, Jim Corrigan, Dave Pratt, and Bruce Fritzsche.
Where in the world is…Some classmates got the travel bug this quarter and decided to venture to far reaches of the planet. Rod Reay and his wife took a Mediterranean cruise to Greece, Turkey, and Italy. Mike and Cindy Coman went to Harbour Grace airfield, a still-operational grass airfield in Newfoundland where Amelia Earhart took off for her May 1932 solo trans-Atlantic flight. Ric Lewallen, Rudy Roth, Don Byers, Dean Cox, and their spouses met in Page, Arizona, then visited Antelope Canyon, Horseshoe Bend, Lake Powell, and a couple of other scenic venues for their annual get together. Kevin Burns attended the latest reunion of his French Air Force Academy exchange classmates in Arcachon, France, which he describes as a beautiful and vibrant seaside community south of Bordeaux. Tony and Cyndy Mahoney usually meet their annual goal of traveling at least 180 days a year, but this year they fell a little short of the goal due to grandchild number nine arriving and living just five minutes from their home base. However, they were still able to squeeze in a 24-day Eastern Mediterranean cruise to Greece, Croatia, Montenegro, Turkey, and Italy.
Tom Calhoun had the pleasure of swearing in his son Dillon Thomas Calhoun and continue their family’s military service tradition, which has been unbroken since before the Civil War. Dillon is a JAG in the Idaho National Guard.
Marty Miller has been the airport manager of the Great Bend Municipal Airport in Kansas for 24 years, during which time he has overseen six airshows. He says the town council still thinks he knows what he’s doing, and he doesn’t plan to disabuse them of that notion until he’s ready to retire. He currently plans to manage the 2028 airshow so retirement is at least two years away. The airshows feature the only two flying B-29s, a group of WW II warbirds, aerobatic performers, Mig-17s, Sonex jet kit planes, and night performers with pyrotechnics.
Dave Wallace reports: “On a sunny Friday morning in late July, intrepid '75ers Dave Wallace, Paul Williams, Scott Hente, and Steve Haas accompanied the Basic Cadets of the Class of 2030 in a brisk walk back to the Cadet Area from Jack's Valley. There is some dispute about the actual distance, but it was all uphill. We were sweating in our USAFA t-shirts, and 2030 was actually marching, under arms, barely breathing hard. Chatting with them during the walk and over lunch at Mitch's, where graduates were unsupervised with the new kids, I was convinced that this new group will do our alma mater and our service(s) proud.” Scribe note: Rumors that any of the ‘75ers had to be carried by the fledgling basics are probably patently false.
Brian Barnes joined his CS-31 roommate, Dave Ehrhart, as a trustee of the Falcon Foundation. Dave has been a trustee for 13 years and recently decided he should nominate someone else to carry the load at the Foundation, so he nominated Brian. Whether that was an act of payback on Dave’s part or acknowledgement of Brian’s ability to do something socially acceptable is unknown.
Several photos were sent in which I wasn’t able to include in this column due to limited space. I sent the extra photos to Bill Estelle so he could include some of them in the Checkpoints Plus section of the 75 Best Alive website. If you don’t see the photo you submitted, or would like to see a wider collection of photos from numerous sources, they should be available on this website.
