Denny O’Keefe reports that the Class of ‘71-sponsored Air Combat Warrior Memorial is on track to open on 2 October 2021. In 1932, his father served under Major Bob Olds. Much later, Robin Olds reported to Denny’s father, who was the 13th Air Force commander at the time. The families stayed in contact over the years, which ultimately lead to Denny’s involvement in the memorial project. The Robin Olds statue is now out of the foundry. A miniature copy of the statue is slated to be the centerpiece of a new USAF annual award celebrating fighter pilot achievement.

As with many of us, Mike Loh has been living a fairly circumscribed life in Williamsburg, VA. Fortunately for Mike and his wife, Barbara, his son Michael, ’84, will soon be moving closer to them as he takes his position on the Air Staff as the 13th Director of the Air National Guard. In turn, Mike’s grandson, Michael John, ’12, is currently flying F-16s in Europe with Robin Olds’ famed Triple Nickel squadron.

In Blacksburg, VA, Russ MacDonald and Barbara are parish coordinators for the Blacksburg Interfaith Food Pantry.  It is a well-regarded non-profit of 26 religious organizations and numerous other civic groups in the Blacksburg area. Barbara is a founding member.  On a monthly basis the Food Pantry serves about 275 clients totaling about 500 family members.  Activity increased about 23% since the COVID-19 crisis.  Russ is the scribe for his Thunderbird auto club (lucky guy) and has been a rather consistent Touring Class winner at regional and national meets.

Star Mist Blue 1957 T-Bird

Mike McCall of Vacaville, CA, has, thus far, survived the onslaught of fires raging throughout his state. His contribution to his community is his participation in a local charity called Ride With Pride. They drive the elderly and infirm to medical appointments, drug stores, Senior Centers, etc. He also makes house-to-house deliveries to homebound neighbors…for some 17 years. Mike is also a plasma donor, providing this service to his community on a weekly basis.

In mid-March, Jim Bugalski and Judy returned early from “snow birding” in Arizona and stayed mostly at home in Littleton, CO in deference to COVID concerns. They are planning an RV trip starting mid-April so Judy can attend an international quilting show in Paducah, KY, and then on to a C-123 Viet Nam reunion in Charleston, SC. The reunion will be followed by visits to relatives, friends and attractions in NC and the DC area, Ralph LaLime is helping them find a place to dock their land yacht in Northern Virginia

Avid fisherman John McCullough and wife, Deanne, were in Florida in February and March when the pandemic erupted, so they self-quarantined there thru April (tough duty). They report that everything was shut down in little Safety Harbor. “Of course,” says John, “I fished often and had lots of fun with sea trout”. Unable to stay in one place for too long, after returning to Colorado, John took a few fishing trips to Wyoming, Utah, and Kodiak, Alaska. September will see him again in Kodiak on his 27th two-week steelhead floating trip on the more remote Karluk river, competing with the bears for a taste of fresh salmon.

John and his new best friend, Smokey

Drawing upon aviation history and stories and data from fellow aviators far and wide, RG Head has written a new book, US Attack Aviation—Air Force/Navy Light Attack: Comparisons and Contrasts 1916-2020. The manuscript is now with the publisher, Schiffer Books, for editorial review and photo presentation. It should be out by next spring. Some of you may be featured in it.

You would think that with 15 grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren, Norm Haller would be busy enough, but that is not the case. Norm still has time to fulfill a need that the National Academy has for " ... experienced writers with strong technology backgrounds to prepare concise reports based on listening to and watching hours, perhaps days, of technical presentations and dialog. Using Zoom these days makes travel for meetings unnecessary. In addition to his consulting work, he has been publishing and commenting on various advocacy articles on technical subjects (AF, Space Force, nuclear, etc.) or circulating similar writings to a wide range of current and past colleagues. Postings of some of the articles and reports that Norm has done are available on our class web page.

Joe Higgins was in Naples, FL, visiting family when he dropped in to see Brian and Carol Kaley, who have wintered there for some 30 years.  Brian pulled his chain a little bit by asking "I bet you don’t remember where you were on June 17,1961?”  Joe hadn’t the faintest clue, but maybe should have been able to figure it out…since he was in their wedding! Brian and Joe were stationed at Lorado AFB at that time where there was a sizable contingent of the class.  Joe was in F Flight along with Don Almanzar, Howie Bronson, Garth Cooke and Bill Taylor (and a few Germans) while Brian was in G Flight with Fred Boutz, Les Hobgood, Mike Hyde, Bill Kornitzer, Marty Richert, and Don Ware (and a couple of Iranians). “How times have changed”, says Joe.

Following the loss of his wife, Elaine, Ron Patchett and his dog moved from North Carolina to Patriot’s Colony, a retirement community for former military and government civil service residents. A former program planner for the Northrup Grumman B-2 Spirit, Ron has a small villa there where he makes the best of the COVID restrictions found in almost all retirement communities in the country these days, such as limited access to facilities and no communal dining…although, most likely, by the time you read this, many group homes, like his, will have eased their restrictions.

Roger Lent reports that he and Carol are “still kickin' in far-away Spokane”. Prior to his retirement in 1980, Roger spent most of his active duty days either gathering teaching credentials (MS, PhD, Arizona State) or teaching in the Chemistry and Life Sciences Department at USAFA. He had a second teaching career at Spokane Falls Community College and his offspring’s high school. That all lasted until 2011 when Carol's health took a turn for the worse, requiring a full-time caregiver. So now, Roger spends his days (and nights) in that capacity—and, he says, “it's not bad duty.”

Ben Furuta has been rather restricted as the dual calamities of COVID and the smoke and fallout from California’s persistent forest fires. He has taken to Zoom to fight back against his self-imposed isolation and he is considering setting up a “Zoom pod” for classmates in Southern California.

On 26 September, a ‘60th mini-trial reunion of Colorado classmates and spouses took place at the home of Jack and Elaine Brush. Good food, fragrant wine and slightly threadbare war stories were the order of the day. Shown below is a photo of our appropriately masked classmates with Colorado Springs in the background. I leave it to our astute classmates to suss out who they might be. The answer will be posted on our all-knowing class website by the time you read this column.

Class of ’60 stalwarts