Our lead story for this quarter has to be the passing of our treasured classmate George Pupich. George has been an exemplar for our class, and his infectious good humor has brightened many of our days. His obituary can be found in the preceding section of this issue. George was a master of many things, but who would have thought to include pistachio farmer to that list!? There were more than 100 colleagues and friends in attendance at his funeral and a number of smaller gatherings of classmates and friends to celebrate his life and accomplishments. Shown below is a photo taken at one such activity at the McCollough's. Pictured are Ron Yates. Jim Waddle, John McCullough, Brian Kaley, Max Miller '59 & Gene Vosika '59 (Greg Boyington & D.K. Johnson had already left - - Andi Biancur took the photo.) Our class web site contains other photos and other venues featuring both men and women who attended the ceremonies, some 30 in all representing our class.

For the first time in several years, indefatigable aviator George Elsea and his wife Evelyn did not make their annual sojourn to Scotland--which left them more time to visit with their kids and their families-- which George defined as "a whirl-wind of activity with nothing in it," that, to me, is somewhat akin to how we felt about getting ready for a SAMI.

Tom and Mary Ellen Burke had a lovely week in Greece in late September, attending the wedding of the daughter of longtime friends. The bride now works in Brussels for the United Nations High Commission for Refugees. The groom is originally from Athens, Greece and is now working in Brussels for Amnesty International. The upshot of this international mixing was a combination Irish-Catholic-Greek Orthodox party staged in an idyllic location, the Melissourgos Castle in the hills overlooking the Athens coast. All-in-all, it was a great short vacation highlighted with a spectacular party.

RG Head checked in from Coronado to say that he's working on a West Coast Mini-Reunion for June. He and Carole have been busy traveling to make presentations on Oswald Boelcke and marketing his book (60 presentations so far, including at the USAFA Library). They have almost sold out the first printing with a paper back and a German version coming next. Also, the completion of this year's sailing races brought RG and Carole's boat to a total of 85 first places in 400 races. They plan to travel to the UK, Germany and Norway this year.

After Labor Day, Ralph Lalime and Darlene took a military "space available" adventure to Hawaii. They do that every other year! They caught a C-17 flight from ADW to March AFB; then, drove a rental car to Travis; followed by a one night RON in the BOQ; then, a C-135 to Hickam. While in Oahu, at the Hale Koa pool, they ran into Greg Boyington and Junie--Mai-Tai time!  From Hickam, they caught a KC-10 to Tinker, and Darlene was able to sit by the boomer to watch an F-22 hook up and take on fuel on his way across the Pacific to the mainland.

Norm Haller reports that he is still doing some part-time work for the National Academy of Science. He now has 15 grandchildren and four great-grandchildren (two still in the oven). His son Richard, USAFA '88, married a classmate, and they have four children, all of whom are USNA affiliated; two have graduated and are on active duty, one is in the 3rd year,, and yet another is now at the USNA prep school.

"Fear the mouse" is the current watch-word for Jim Glaza and your humble scribe. Over the summer, Jim's tailgate truck was commandeered and taken out of commission by no less that 15 mice that had used the truck for oak nut storage and feasted on the wiring. I faced a similar situation when the pressure gauge on my Corvette dropped to zero en route from a bull session at the Springfield Starbucks. It was subsequently determined that mice had disabled the gauge and had also feasted on the "environmentally friendly" ignition wires. One thousand dollars later, all tubes and wiring were replaced and protected by Nissan's special cayenne pepper-infused tape. To my pleasant surprise, USAA covered the cost! Nels Delisanti's two-day-old red Mustang was also viciously attacked by an enraged garage door.

Around Christmastime, Nels also hosted Deke Johnson during Deke's annual visit to the Seattle area to visit his daughter. And Nels also helped organize a Christmas get-together that included his wife, Sue Ann; Dennis O'Keefe; Vic and Suzanne Yokum; Carolyn Luck; Louisa Congdon; Deb O'Rourke; and Bobby Mason.

Bill Hockenberry, Captain, US Army (Airborne), has had an "amazing" career as a nationally recognized labor arbitrator. His thirty-five year career has taken him into American workplaces covering more than three hundred different industries and crafts, leading to more than one thousand arbitral decisions. He is both an attorney and an academic and has served as a member of the National Academy of Arbitrators since 1991. As Bill describes it, "Labor arbitration, as distinguished from other newer activities by the same general name such as commercial, consumer or financial arbitration, is a dispute resolution process driven by the parties who negotiate how the process will operate in lieu of a strike by unionized workers or a lockout by employers who have a unionized workforce. The process is usually final and binding which gives the neutral arbiter great power as well as great responsibility--and requires definitive decision-making in a fact driven-arena free of bias or favor.In the American workplace of the 21st century, a labor arbitrator must decide the most difficult of issues, always in an atmosphere of conflict defined by power and values, in which one side will most likely lose and one side will win."

In January, the DC contingent convened, as usual, at Tom Burke's Springfield Golf Club. Fifteen souls attended what turned out to be a fairly wide-ranging discussion; kicked off by Mike Loh, who made a convincing argument that the current pilot shortage was largely a self-inflicted wound with ill-conceived remedies. Our pending reunion was discussed; there was almost unanimous agreement that a COS/Academy venue was not particularly desired (been there, done that). Denver and Dayton were viewed as better alternatives. [N.B. The recent survey is more or less evenly split between COS and other locations.] The group also discussed the plight of children requiring Individualized Education Plans and the burdens placed upon both parents and educators trying to meet the needs of these special kids.

L to R, Standing: Ralph Lalime, Howie Bronson, Ken Alnwick, Bob Badger, Mike Loh, Bill Hockenberry, Al Johnson, Les Querry.
Sitting: Leon Goodson, Tony Burshnick, Tom Burke, Jerry de la Cruz

For a longer version of Jim's battles with the mighty mice, Howie Whitfield's recent update and my personal "lessons learned" from recent sad events--and other items, please visit Checkpoints NOTAMS on our class web site.

The initial results of our 60th Reunion survey are now available on the web. Planning committee report will be provided when research and analysis is complete.

Graduate Roll Call: Total= 227; Deceased=71; Living=156.