Kerry Miller lives in Hyndman, PA, a small town in the Cumberland mountains. Kerry is heavily involved in community affairs. He is a local councilman, on the board of the local hospital, and commander of the local VFW. Indeed, he bought the building that now houses the Post. Hyndman is famous for the CSX derailment which threw 34 cars into the heart of town, causing an evacuation of most of the town’s residents. Now the town is dying; schools have closed, and the post office has been declared unsafe. Cell phone service is spotty or not available to all. Kerry is one of a small band of locals who are fighting to keep the town a good place to live—and a place “where everyone knows your name.”

Early in September, Tony Bilello called me to suggest that it might be entertaining and informative for the DC contingent to meet Col. Kenneth (KO) Chilstrom, USAF, (Ret). Currently a resident at The Fairfax, a local Virginia Retirement Center, Ken is a 98-year-old former Air Force test pilot who got his first taste of fighter aviation in P-40s in the Africa and Sicily Campaigns. We convened the Northern Virginia crowd at Tom Burke’s Springfield Country Club, and we were enthralled by KO’s stories from his adventures in Africa to his long tenure with the USAF’s test programs. He was the first to test the XP-86 and the Y-12 and flew some 176 other fledgling aircraft. In 1946, KO succeeded Gabby Gabreski as chief of the test division of the USAF Flight Performance School, which included such legends as Richard Bong, Bob Hoover and Chuck Yeager. He was also our first Navy exchange pilot and logged 50 traps at sea.

In late July, the Red Neck Riviera Mini-Reunionconvened in Fort Walton Beach, FL. The largest family group attending was Bill and Kath Gillis; their son, Sebastian; daughter, Cecilia; and her baby. The discussions were lively, alternating between who has the highest disability ratings to flying exploits in both the military and commercial aviation worlds. Mike Clarke’s experience flying some 60 different aircraft and Jerry Farquhar’s 26,000 commercial hours gave some authenticity the discussions. Our former flight attendant, Myke (Atwater) King kept the boys in check. Also attending were Rich and Marilynn Meyer, Aaron Thrush, Mike and Emma Clarke, Jon McClure, Pete King and your scribe rounded out the congregation. Frank Gorham is keeping the medical community in Panama City solvent; so, he and Faye could not make it. He intends to join us next year.

Howie Whitfield spends a good portion of his free time caring for his 2.9 acres just East of San Diego and not far from the U.S.-Mexican border. The greatest threat to his tranquility is not migrants, but, rather, the degradation that can occur from wild-fires fueled by dry brush and furnace-like Santa Ana winds. Thus, he spends a good part of his free time clearing mesquite and other flammable materials around his house—a never-ending chore.

Gordy Flygare is going back to school at the University of Oklahoma where they have an interesting series of six one-hour lectures on a variety of topics available to the public. Gordy remembers a time at Lowry when he happily found himself unusually early for the reveille formation. His bliss was soon dampened, however, when an ATO assigned him 20 laps around the quad for failure to shave.

George Elsea is once again flying his Tiger Moth around the environs of Lampasas, Texas. A few years ago, he was required to replace two bolts on the airplane, which involved removing the wings. The bolts went back on quite easily, but the process of re-tuning the wires holding everything together proved to be a bear. Fortunately, he has had the assistance of UK-trained mechanic living nearby to get it flying again so that he can continue to take kids for rides, etc. George has an interesting perspective on BREXIT due to his many years travelling back and forth to his wife, Eve’s, beloved Scotland. Essentially, he sees good reason for the UK common people to want to push back against EU laws and policies that place onerous burdens on the UK in areas such as rule making, immigration and taxation.

Tom Burke reports that the 20th Annual Grandma Bessie Golf Tournament went off without a hitch. The annual golf family gathering is named in honor of Tom’s mom, Bessie, an avid golfer, who played with a 9-hole ladies’ group through her 93rd year. She passed peacefully in her 98th year, leaving a legacy of love of golf, good sportsmanship, good partnership, and the enjoyment in friendly competition among family and friends. The winner of the tournament each year keeps, until next year, a framed US $1 bill that was signed by Bessie when she lost a match to Tom in 1988. On the “Grandma Bessie dollar” Bessie wrote “It only happens once”. Over the 20 years of competition there have been quite a few multiple winners, but true to Bessie’s notation, Tom has won only once.

Our ace horticulturist, Dick Sexton informs us that the recent merger of the AOG and the Endowment is “working quite well, with each organization operating essentially independently.” On the academic front, the long-running debate between Archie Higdon’s math and sciences and Peter Moody’s social sciences appears to have definitively gone further into the STEM side of the house. American History is no longer in the curriculum. Computer learning has taken hold and cadets may now take classes from their room—a far reach from the small classroom, “take boards” learning style we initially inherited from West Point and Annapolis.

From Bernardsville, NJ, Bob Odenweller reports that he has recently published a seminal article in the London Philatelist magazine in which he describes how he and a colleague pioneered a process of using X-ray fluorescence to examine all the components of the ink in a stamp. This process allowed philatelists to determine the authenticity of a rare New Zealand stamp up for sale (it was a fake) and paved the way for others to validate rare stamps on the market that may be in dispute. A stroke has slowed Bob down a bit, but he remains active in the philatelist world.

From Pagosa Springs, CO, Gerry Gammill is recovering from a heart scare and will soon be assessing the pros and cons of using a pacemaker. In this small world of ours, we learn that Gary Sheets was Gerry’s granddaughter's substitute teacher and that a friend of his son’s wife is George Collier’s daughter. Gerry, while not being a day-trader, is an active stock trader who regularly keeps up with all that is going on in that world.

Follow the adventures of RG Head and JT Smith at Checkpoints NOTAMS on our web site. See also Bill Zersen’s History of The Northwest Falcons.

Since the Class of ’59 has deemed its sixtieth gathering a “muster”, our Class of 1960 reunion during the October 2020 Navy game will be the Academy’s first formal 60-year class reunion. See you there!

Nulli Secundus

There is more that would not fit into the space avaiable for this article. You may read it in the Checkpoints NOTAMs Section HERE.