Checkpoints Class News
Class of 1960
Andi Biancur
Littleton, CO 80127
Home: (303) 979-2228
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Usually, the column following the football season is filled with names and happenings which resulted from events connected with the games. This column will differ only in that several others items are worthy of note. To start with, like a recent column, let me bring up another name from the past. Does the name Dave ULLERY ring any bells with anyone? Well it didn't for me until one evening in October when I took a phone call from him. As memory returned, I did recall Dave as a classmate who entered with us in 1956 and left our class after our time at Lowry. He was the guy who resigned his commission as a SAC navigator to share all that fun with us. You may recall that he was assigned to 4th Squadron and easily recognizable, since he was the only classmate wearing nav wings on his cadet uniform. Dave now lives in Abington, PA and is doing well in the personnel business. Should any of you want to touch base with him, his phone is (215) 885-8753.
At about the same time, I received a note from Cleone BUJALSKI accompanying this picture of Jim and Gary VAN SINGEL confusing each other on a Clumas County, CA hiking trail sometime in August. It's hard to tell which one is the navigator.
As might be expected, several '60 Grads showed for the Navy victory in Annapolis on 10 Oct. Joining Jim GLAZA and Jim O'ROURKE were Norm HALLER and family, Gerry and Betty DE LA CRUZ, Richard and Elaine HEAD, Tony BURSHNICK, Tom BURKE, John MACARTNEY and wife, and Ralph and Darlene LALIME. Ralph and Darlene supplied the pre-game
Odd Couple (Glaza and O'Rourke) started the day out in the right spirit.
tailgate, while Richard and Elaine supplied the post-game edition. It is reported that both spreads were super; but I am also told that when the booze ran out, everyone descended on Fred and Brenda WYNN's tailgate (Class of'59) to "help" them out. The victory over Army in Colorado on 7 Nov brought the traditional chili cook-off for local classmates. Dick SCHEHR, Jim GLAZA, Gary CREW, and one of the current breed seem to have satisfied themselves that the chili was authentic.
At the New Mexico game in Albuquerque, Dave SWEIGART surfaced. He and Camille are said to be happier than is reasonable since he took up the management challenge as vice president of an Albuquerque-based flying service following retirement. In a note, Clem DOUGLASS stated that he, along with Deke and Sally JOHNSON witnessed the BYU game with something akin to nausea. Clem, a Delta B737 captain based out of Cincinnati, left at halftime to, mercifully, pick up a trip.
Miles and Charlotte KASPAR were in town in early December as Miles was completing United Airlines transition training. Joan and I joined them for dinner one evening to compare notes, tell lies, retell lies, and whatever. Charlotte just about has her home in Fullerton, CA ready for guests, so any of you who have not done the L.A. trick recently, there is another stop on your list. Miles is switching from international to domestic so you will have to rehash all the good olde bad times if you should happen to catch him at home.
As you most probably know from the previous issue of Checkpoints, the AOG has kicked off the capital fund campaign to finance our Headquarters Building/Alumni House. I received the following letter from Jim GLAZA in support of that effort:
“If you have been reading any of the other class columns in this issue (I always do), you have noticed a concerted effort to elicit graduate support for an alumni building. As it is the most important project the AOG has ever tackled, our total effort is essential.
“Some of you may not be aware that our current AOG offices are located in Sijan Hall (the "new" cadet dorm). Space there is very cramped, inefficient, and at best nondescript. Even if the offices there were more acceptable, it would be difficult to justify our retaining them while cadets are being triple and quad bunked, (I know, I know, but this ain't Lowry), and parking for AOG customers is virtually non-existent. All in all, we not only want, but desperately need new digs. As the membership grows, so grow our projects and the staff necessary to support them. We currently lack a suitable and reliable place for meetings, conferences, displays, presentations, social events and routine day-to-day business activities. This building will solve those pressing needs.
“Several years of effort have gone into planning. We have finally secured all the necessary approvals to build a 35,000 square foot, two-level building immediately west of the Officers' Club. The interior and exterior designs are outstanding. Costs were, of course, a primary design imperative; but the result, a $5.5 million price, which includes an endowed fund to maintain the property, is worth the effort.
“Bringing this vision to reality is largely dependent on all of us. Our fund-raising committee, actively led by Gen (Ret) Winfield Scott, feels that the graduate community should lead the effort with at least a $1 million (18%0) infusion of funds. Clearly the bulk of that amount will have to come from the earlier (older, wiser, richer?) classes. As your (railroaded) class president, I strongly urge your generous support. No one would presume to name amounts. Each of us is capable of that decision; but remember, you can pledge over a multi-year period. Some of us (even those of us in the new Shearson Hutton American Lehman Express Company) can and should secure employer matching funds.
“Each of you must give this request your genuine attention. I know we will blow all the other classes away and lead the way in this drive. Be seeing some of you in April.
In the mail bag this month, there was a notice that Joe and Sue HIGGINS relocated from outside the Beltway in Fairfax, VA to further outside the Beltway in Oakton, VA. Jim and Mary WADDLE moved from Warner Robins, GA to Shreveport, LA. Without any additional information, one might assume that they may be considering retirement or some equally demanding rolls.
I have received one or two letters from classmates which I will include in the next issue, since they are a bit lengthy for now. Let me, instead, throw out a couple of trivia questions. One night a pair of trousers belonging to the duty OIC became "lost" at the top of the flag pole. Who was the forgetful OIC, and who was the cadet most suspected of aiding and abetting those trousers? The retaliation to that incident was the reading of a poem to the wing at breakfast. What was the plagiarized source of that poem, and does anyone have the words used? Answers, Please!