Building upon the notion that a 60th class reunion may be a bridge too far, our West Coast classmates Nels Delisanti and Bill Zerson have planned a "no frills, no briefings" mini-reunion in Reno, June 6-8, 2017 at the Peppermill Resort. For more info, contact Bill at wzerson@comline.com. One classmate we know will be there is RG Head who has been participating in book signings for his Oswald Boelcke book here and in the UK. Copies are available from Amazon or from RG directly. Good read, well executed.

Nels has owned Lagniappe, a 1985 Hunter 34 sailboat, for 24 years, and enjoys her immensely. "We've been to Victoria BC a few times" he says" and most of the places in between. I still manage about 20-25 races per summer, but I've slowed down doing the solo racing lately... in the winter she becomes my man cave."

As usual Andi Biancur has had a busy summer creating busy work to avoid any real effort.  He is an active member of the Colorado Springs Airport Advisory Commission and, along with Ron Yates, is Permanent Member of the AOG Heritage & Traditions Committee. Andi and I have also been engaged in a year-long effort to fulfill George Luck's wish to have an A/B-26 memorial bronze plaque installed in the Academy's Plaza of Heroes. By the time you read this, it should have been installed. Recently we also learned that George's name has been added to the Experimental Aircraft Association Memorial Wall in Oshkosh, WI.

Pete and Myke; John and Stella

Newlywed news: In September, Pete King and his wife, Myke, travelled to Rome where they attended an audience with Pope Francis, along with 20,000 of their best friends, and made a pilgrimage to St. Peter's Basilica. For 10 days, they immersed themselves in the culture and beauty of Rome and the Vatican and climbed enough stairs to last a lifetime. John Kuenzel and Stella (a native of Colombia and graduate of Universidad Santiago de Cali) were married on Thanksgiving eve, 2015. They live a stone's throw away from AT&T stadium in Arlington, TX and offer their home as a convenient portal for classmates attending events there.

Lew Price is recovering well from serious back problems that prompted him to look, with his ever inquiring mind, at non-traditional cures and treatments that might help him return to good health. One element in his regime is iodine supplements (unrefined sea salt), which, until just recently had been shunned by the health community. Lew is also an advocate of "green smoothies" a mixture of greens, fruit and protein which contribute to healthy cells and subsequent weight loss. Lew is also exploring new revelations about the existence of Atlantis and its potential impact on the evolution of the European gene pool.

Howie Whitfield is slowing down a bit. Still goes to the gym several days a week and hikes the trails near his home in Jamal CA, in the hills just East of San Diego. He and his fiancé, Jutta Gilstrap, did manage a trip to the Grand Canyon and Sedona. The vistas and jeep trail riding were great, but the heat and crush of humanity tended to dampen their enthusiasm.

Ted Hopkins wins the YGSM award for this quarter. Ted and his wife, Dawn, have been living in Arizona for the past 20 years. For the last eight of these years, until just recently, Ted has been a professional cruise ship lecturer, sailing in these floating cities to ports of call around the world and spinning yarns to thousands of passengers. Among his lecture topics are: high speed-high altitude flight, wild west history as told through the medium of classic westerns, and cartoons and animation art from the heyday of Walt Disney to the present.

Ken Biehle is happily ensconced in his retirement community in Rocklin, CA. He recently took first place in his communities pickle ball tournament. Building upon that success, he and Carol also took 1st Place for the best performance at their communities' Karaoke night. Jerry de la Cruz and Betty are also avid fans of pickle ball and have participated in local and national events with notable success.. For the uninitiated, Wikipedia tells us that " Pickle ball is a racquet sport that combines elements of badminton, tennis, and table tennis. Players use solid paddles made of wood or composite materials to hit a perforated polymer ball, similar to a wiffle ball, over a net."

Where's Rosie? For the better part of a year, Rosie Cler was not responding to calls or emails and we were beginning to wonder if he was OK. Scott, his son, informs us that Rosie and Karen Dee are doing well. Essentially, Rosie has established a personal EMCON and has taken a time out from phones, typing, emails and computers. Through Scott, Rosie's message to all of us was, "I hope all those guys are doing OK, your Mom and I are busy with volunteer work, hunting down baseball games to go watch, that we don't have much time to yak on the phone, send letters, etc." Pure Rosie.

Tom Burke retired from his position as Managing Director (Valuation) for the commercial aviation consultancy Morten Beyer & Agnew on August 5th. Don Stevens was in the Washington DC area to meet his son Sean who was in DC for business. While in the area, Don managed to find an evening for dinner with a few classmates at Tom's house. Tom reported, "We ate good food, drank good wine, told good (a bit old) stories and had a great time."

Alex on the job

Alex Zimmerman reports that for the past nine years he has been a member of an archaeological team led by Dr. Steven Collins of Trinity Southwestern University in New Mexico who believes that the biblical city of Sodom (yes, that city of Sodom and Gomorrah fame) has been found in Jordan. Alex volunteers a week at a time in February. With his trowel and dust pan, he searches and carefully collects artifacts from designated sites for later cleaning, identification and cataloging. The site dates back to periods between 3500 BC and 135AD. The next dig will be in Feb., 2017. Alex is planning to go and invites any of his '60 classmates to go with him for this Raiders of the Lost Ark adventure.

In October, Michael J Clarke and Emma will attend the 50th and final reunion of Ranch Hand - Special Aerial Spray Flight at the Air Force Museum at WPAFB.  The aircraft on display, a UC-123(K), was nicknamed Patches because it had repair patches all over the exterior, covering the nearly 600 hits it took on spray missions. Mike piloted 249 spray missions and was hit by enemy ground fire 91 times, many in this aircraft. Patches also earned seven Purple Hearts, one of which was Mike's. Mike says, "These are the things that happen when you fly the world's largest, lowest, slowest moving target."

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