Not wanting to miss having his annual "Falcon Roosting" at his home overlooking the Appalachian trail, Les Querry hosted a "Virtual Roosting" by Zoom on 4 Dec. 2020. Attendees included USAFA DC '60 locals plus out-of-towners who had attended previous Roostings. New attendees were John Kuenzel and Bill Kornitzer. Photo coverage may be seen on the Class website. Other virtual meetings are planned for local groups in other areas and for discussion groups. Contact Les at lesquerry@gmail.com if you need help.

Also, during the Zoom session Don Stevens opened the doors to his Maine “camp” for any classmates interested in visiting, now that construction and refitting are completed. Also, Jim Glaza has opened the books for his next travel excursion.

Following up on the Zoom call, we asked John Kuenzel to comment on some of the differences between Air Force football of our era and that of the current program. Here is his reply. “The pool of talent is 4 to 5 times larger. The coaching staff numbers some 15 vs. 4 or 5 with us. Recruiting improvements are likewise more thorough--with more high school relationships ongoing in focused metro areas. Then consider the members availability to much higher quality nutrition, training tables and the weight room. Our current All-American offensive lineman, Nolan Laufenburg ’21 weighs 300+, Brock Strom weighed 220. Agility wise, current QBs and receivers compete in a 7-on-7 version of touch football offseason which, around here, produces and sharpens talent. During my era this was accomplished on the baseball field.”

John Kuenzel and Friends: Stanford 1958

Gordon Savage has three books in publication; Peacemaker, Teleportal, and Teleportal: Damage Control. He has another in the works, tentatively titled Teleportal: Aftershock based in the Middle East. When asked how he develops his story lines, Gordon said he used the “Pants” system; i.e., the seat of his pants.

Mike A Clarke is visually impaired and living with his daughter in Midlothian, Va. He, like Norm Haller, Mike Loh, and a few others remain active in contemporary debates about the future direction of our air and space defenses. Several are concerned that the USAF is not giving sufficient attention to our potential foes’ advancements in space operations and other land and sea investments in fifth-generation war-fighting capabilities. Mike also says that, considering our age, we are probably coping as well as could be expected, given that many of us were pleasantly surprised to have survived our SEA adventures

The attached photo shows Dave Reed and his new bride, Afton, joined now in marriage after several years of courtship. They are currently living in Longmont, Colorado and are looking forward to renewing their passion for travel. Dave is an advocate of the World Health Organization and its accomplishments and is developing a paper for that organization that can serve as a present and future repository for COVID-19 information.

Dave and Afton Reed

Bill Taylor was able to take a break from his work at RAND (where he deals principally with aircrew management and operational training issues for Project AIR FORCE) and get away for a family gathering on Mustang Island near Corpus Christi, Texas, where he grew up. While there, he was able to show his grandchildren all the houses he had lived in, including the one where he first met Kitty, while he was in high school.

While there are many stories from the horrid past year dealing with COVID-19, Johnnie Townsend's tale is heart-breaking. The start of the COVID-19 pandemic in February was particularly devastating in Tucson. The day before the mayor started a lock down, Johnnie went to the VA, a retirement community, and his gym. The next day all three locations visited by Johnnie were declared “Hotspots” where huge numbers of COVID-19 cases were discovered. Johnnie was tested positive but showed no symptoms. The retirement community was shut down after it suffered many deaths. Johnnie then learned that he was considered a “Shredder” wherein he carried the virus and was contagious but did not have the disease. For the rest of the year, he remained self-quarantined.

Elaine and Walt Futch are trying to master the art of staying safe in Columbus, GA. George enjoys working on genealogy. He has traced his roots back to Germany in the 1500s. Elain has done the same, and they have discovered that their ancestors lived in two small towns in Bavaria approximately 80 miles apart.

Elaine and Walt Futch