Bob Weinaug has been a volunteer at St. Barabbas Church in Deland, Fl, where he has served the homeless and the disadvantaged for the past 15 years. During this time, he has had two bouts of the COVID virus, most likely acquired from his clients. His second encounter with the disease was less severe, most likely due to the antibodies already in his system. His words of wisdom: "Be careful, this disease is not going away."

Michael J. Clarke is the treasurer of the Ranch Hand Association. He informs us that the venerable UC-123H in the Air Force Museum called "Patches" has been reconfigured into its bare bones C-123 configuration, much to the chagrin of those who flew, and survived, in that bullet-ridden defoliation workhorse.

Jerry Caskey now lives in Athens GA. His major pastimes are playing golf and serving as a member of his local German Shepherd rescue organization. They take in stray or abandoned German Shepherds, clean them up and see to their health care needs. Prospective donors are vetted, and then the dogs are released for adoption. On average, 9-15 of the dogs are released each month. Jerry has two of his own, down from the five he had previously owned.

Ed Nogar flew the F-101, F-102 and O-1 before joining American Airlines and flying with them for the next 31 years. Throughout this time, he maintained an abiding interest in radio-controlled model aircraft--having designed, built, and owned, some 50 of these special flying machines. Over time he has seen the growth of the sport from those simple radio-controlled machines to model float planes, jet planes and the electric powered aircraft. Today, most model aircraft are built from prefabricated "big boy" kits. Ed is also a dedicated coin collector, with some 600 to700 items in his collection. His current focus is on collecting Lincoln pennies, dating from 1922, that were minted in the Denver Mint without (for a short time) the distinguishing tiny "d" on the coin.

Gregg Boyington and his wife Junie were in Virginia area in June to visit relatives in the DC area and Al Johnson and Gale, who live in the Mount Vernon area. Al is recovering well from a series of strokes, and they are planning a mid-summer trip to their waterfront cottage in Maine--Gail’s favorite place on earth.

Ron Deep is a proctor (or answer man), who provides answers to students’ questions through the Quora.com website. "Quora is a platform to ask questions and connect with people who contribute unique insights and quality answers." Student inquiries encompass a variety of issues, and the questions/issues are raised and answered in the Python coding language. Dialogue among the participants may be one-on one or multilateral with dialogue among multiple responders to a given question. Ron spends roughly two hours a day supporting the program. Your grandkids might enjoy and benefit from it.

Your scribe is ending a 17-year run as a high school lacrosse coach in Northern Virginia. For the last 14 years he has served as an assistant coach at West Potomac HS. His motto is: "I am not responsible." His specialty is teaching fundamental lacrosse skills to novice players. The crew he works with is called the "Rock Squad," because he uses baseball-size rocks to illustrate the basic skills of cradling and throwing the hard rubber lacrosse ball. As a fitting end to his coaching career, Coach Ken was clocked by two players on the last day of practice and spent two days in the hospital.

Coach Ken

In keeping with the philosophy of giving back to the Academy, Dick Sexton was one of 250 local graduates who helped the Academy cope with the Covid response--which ultimately was able to process some 1400 personnel per day. In July, he also helped welcome the new doolies and their parents to the Academy. He notes that there were many more parents accompanying their fledging cadets than in our day.

When the Air Force sent Walt Futch to get his Master's degree in Applied Math, with a concentration in computers and data processing, it sparked an interest in numerical analyses. This was intensified with further training in finance. All this led to, in later years, exploring opportunities in investing. With his interest in computers and numbers, Walt wanted to learn about the workings of blockchain technology. This is used in the control and mining of cryptocurrency. While Walt does own some cryptocurrency, he very strongly recommends to his classmates to not invest in something they do not completely understand. And even then, to invest only money that they can afford to lose.

On June 11, 2021, the Super Sabre Society unveiled a large, bronze plaque on the wall of Air Force Academy's Southeast Asia Memorial Pavilion and Plaza of Heroes. It honors honoring eleven Academy graduates who flew the F-100 in the Vietnam War and never made it home to their loved ones. The names include Mike Hyde who flew with the 510th TFS, "Buzzards of Bien Hoa."

As members of the class prepared for the burials of Jim Clark, Jim Bujalski, and Andi Biancur at the Academy Cemetery this last July, we were shocked to learn that Don Stevens died unexpectedly (to us) of prostate cancer at his beloved "Cabin" in Maine. We mourn the loss of all.