"My wife of 49 years and I are bringing number three and four grandsons (ages 12 and 13) to a hockey camp at USAFA from 7-12 June. Both have played hockey since they were four years old, and have been on some championship teams. Two years ago they attended a camp at Michigan State, so we will see how it compares," wrote JP Browning. On July 8^th, JP wrote: "The camp could not have been more successful. They had a great time and learned a lot. What was nice is that Granny Carole and I were able to observe the scrimmages a couple of times. We may have another Academy recruit in the 12-year old (his long hair may be a problem.) Carole and I drove them up to the Pikes Peak summit; and, we look forward to the time when our six- and eight-year-old grandsons are ready for hockey camp."

"Last month (April) I proudly pinned 2^nd Lieutenant bars on CT Douglass IV at Camp Ripley, MN after he had returned to his Minnesota Army National Guard artillery unit from the two-month OCS course near Talladega Race Track, AL (actually, his younger brother, Dax, pinned one side on, as I pinned the other). 120 of 230 candidates made it through the course, 14 from Minnesota, three of whom will join CT in training this year for deployment to Afghanistan in early 2010. My wife, Brenda, watched with a couple hundred other proud family attendees," wrote CT Douglass III of Stillwater, MN.

And now from George Elsea, writing from their summer home in Scotland: "Weather here is better than last year. We're doing fine, with some interesting side trips to parts of Scotland neither of us has visited before. Last week we toured the Kinnard Head Lighthouse at Fraserburgh--the first proper Scottish lighthouse (about 1787). While there we viewed the former site of the modern day anemometer and weather gathering gear which was blown out to sea in 1989 by a wind gust of 187 mph."

Clark and Shirley Walker are still travelling--two years ago it was an Alaskan cruise, Hawaii for 10 days last year, and now New Mexico: "Just got back from Santa Fe--Shirley's niece got married and had a ceremony on a Santa Fe Southern RR excursion train out in the Galisteo Basin (High Desert)--the train had four passenger cars, and a platform car for the ceremony! The train stopped an hour for the ceremony and to serve Champagne. It was really neat," wrote Clark (see photo).

The bride and groom are both in their 40s, and the last ones in either family to marry, making it a big event. "It was a three-day celebration. Between festivities, Shirley and I toured Santa Fe by foot. We both enjoy historical sites and visited the oldest church in the U.S., the San Miguel Mission, founded in 1598. We also spent a day in Taos, and then drove back through Chama, Pagosa Springs and Alamosa, CO. The drive through the mountains was spectacular. It took two days to drive back to Tennessee. As many times as I've been through Eastern Colorado and Kansas, this was the greenest I've ever seen them.

"Shirley and I moved to Tullahoma, TN in 1992. We'd been here three times while I was on active duty. After my Southeast Asia tour in 1968, we bounced between here and Edwards, with a remote tour to the Philippines and Korea. I retired from the 4950th Test Wing at WPAFB, worked for Martin-Marietta at Edwards and Orlando, then worked at the Arnold Engineering Development Center and finished my career building the X-43A* in Tullahoma. We have three boys, Patrick, Keith and Dennis. Patrick, the oldest, lives in Orlando and has one son, 1-1/2; Keith, #2, married an AF Brat from WPAFB, and finished school at the U. of Cincinnati--they have three sons, oldest 15, and live in Cookeville, TN; Dennis, our youngest, finished high school in California and college at Cal Poly, now works for Cisco Systems in the Raleigh-Durham, NC area and has two girls and a year-old son." *(For those who don't read Aviation Week, Clark provided this brief explanatory on this aircraft: "The X-43, or Hyper-X, was a Hypersonic Scramjet, the first successfully flown integrated scramjet engine. I worked for this little company, Micro Craft in Tullahoma that built it. We had Boeing as a subcontractor and a small company, GASL, on Long Island that actually built the engine. We built the vehicles and did the integration work here in Tullahoma. They were then shipped to NASA Dryden to fly. We built four vehicles: a Mach five vehicle, two Mach seven vehicles and a Mach 10 vehicle.")

"Attached is a picture of Roy and Barb Jolly in preparation for an amphibious assault on Ketchikan, AK. This was aboard the good ship Amsterdam," wrote Chuck Diver. "The cruise was 23-30 May 09; Seattle to Seattle with stops in Juneau, visit to Hubbard Glacier (six miles wide, 72 miles long), Sitka, Ketchikan and Victoria, BC. We didn't get to Victoria, 75 knot winds in the harbor. Miss Edie developed the NoroVirus, along with the official count of 72 others. It made the news in Seattle, and we saw the item on our Channel 7 that night. Edie was confined to quarters for two days (no tours), and we got off the ship at 0800 Saturday. My understanding is that the name 'NoroVirus' is a cover for about four different viruses."

"While we're going through our book cases, files and store rooms, deciding what we do or do NOT wish to keep, we need to consider placing books, pamphlets and personal papers concerning aircraft, Academy, flying, or Air Force operations in a separate box; those boxes should then be consigned to the Special Collections Branch of the Academy Library," suggests Andi, Jock and the AFA Library Staff. "They will be happy to go through any collection (large or small), and retain items which enhance their collections, and all others would then be put into an auction with proceeds going to the library. These items can contribute to our heritage and assist future cadets in countless ways."

Renowned flute builder Lew Price said that "Our third annual NoNahme Clan Spring Flute Festival went well, once again held in Garden Valley, CA on May 9, 2009. Native-American flute player Mary Youngblood, one of our 'family' of flute makers, flute players, and drummers, gave a concert and a 'flute jam session'." (Lew added: "Did you know that Francis Scott Key was a great-great-great-great+ uncle of mine? My brother was named after him." So, now you know). There are over 100 "Flute Circles" in the world, and Lew is one of the foremost flutists, has written 12 books on flutes and also created an advanced computer flute design program.

If you want the e-book Off We Go, order it from the author--Jon Shafer, '59--by requesting this book via E-mail: Starter13@comcast.net.

Final Roll Call. Linda Marie Whitfield, wife of Howard McLean Whitfield, died June 1, 2009 in Jamul, CA.