5423 Myrtle Wood
Sarasota, FL 34235-4624
(941) 371-4843
Email: RCtherose@aol.com
WEB COLUMN
Extremely alert reader Percival FitzHugh-Smythe ("Smitty") sent this photo from a recent issue of La Jolla Yachting captioned: "The Earl of Van Inwegen with Lady Pat at The Classic Crew." Van explains: "Photo was taken at the US Crew Classic on Mission Bay, CA. USAFA didn't have a team, Navy and Colorado did, and the University of Washington was the overall winner. Note my protest by wearing a golf tie!" (Following their entrance into the world of "crew," Van and Pat were off to buy him a cravat and attend a cricket match. Or was it Polo? Fox Hunt?)
"Just finished Fiesta here in San Antonio," writes Les Hobgood. "It's a 10-day party for real party animals. I start with the Corvette Sock Hop on Friday, Corvette Car Show on Saturday and Bluebonnet Run (in the Corvette) on Sunday; Monday is the River Parade, Tuesday through Friday is NIOSA (Night in Old San Antonio) where 10,000 of my very closest friends hold forth in a four square block downtown and consume food and beer--the food is Mexican, French, German and Cowboy. The beer is very good and cheap, since I work next to the beer booth and we bribe them with German Fiesta Medals and get free beer in return. I am Co-Chairman of the booth and responsible for getting our workers all the free beer they can drink. This responsibility weighs heavily on my shoulders, and I deal with these pressures by consuming even more beer. Saturday is the King William Parade and Festival, with a jazz theme. I got out of rehab this morning!" (First photo is Les with the Bavarian Guard Captain, and Chairman of the German Hall Booth; Second photo is Les w/ hisCorvette and Van w/ his Thunderbird).
Norm Haller and Mike (A) Clarke visited Tampa for a meeting of the National Academies' Standing Committee in support of the U.S. Special Operations Command (USSOCOM) that Mike directs--I drove up from Sarasota and met them at their Hyatt. Mike is Director of the Air Force Studies Board of the National Academies and Director of two Standing Committees for the Intelligence Community and US Special Operations, while Norm's a Consultant to both of those august bodies (R: The better story might be about Mike's wife, Nancy, who's worked in the White House since '78, and is Chief Florist, and plans to write three books after she retires). During an afternoon over a wide-ranging span of topics, the discussion ascended to those in our Class who went to MIT for their Masters' Degrees: Mike Buchen, Norm Haller, Frank Mayberry and Jack Schira, all of whom attended the MIT following our graduation in 1960, and Mike Loh, who went 13 years later.
Jack Schira later provided this backdrop to Mike Loh's "breather" before going into the ivy-covered walls of MIT: "Mike Loh was scheduled to go to MIT the same time I was, with Norm Haller, Mike Buchen and Frank Mayberry," writes Jack. "I was scheduled to go to U. of Michigan. Brigadier General Sullivan, Commandant of Cadets, called us all in to his office together (I thought for congratulations), and he chewed our asses for being stupid. He told us we should NEVER give up pilot training for something like a Master's Degree because it was a pilot's Air Force and we would be branded as second class citizens; Mike Loh decided he would go to pilot's training. Later, I switched to MIT from the U. of Michigan just before graduation. Astronauts-to-be Dave Scott and Buzz Aldrin were there when we were there, and '59ers Chuck Zaleski and Brock Strom were in their last year."
Mike Loh later wrote me: "Yes, I earned a Masters Degree in Aero from MIT in July 1973. I won a Daedalion Fellowship after I returned from the war in SEA, and applied it to MIT. I spent June 1972 through July 1973 really humping to do the masters course work and write my Master's Thesis meeting MIT's lofty academic standards. Since the technology had grown from slide rules to IBM-360 computers with the FORTRAN language, I really had to hustle."
"I am at it again, running for State Representative in the Ohio 69th District," said MIT-grad Jack Schira. "At 70, the prostate is gone, radiation is completed and I may have eight years of robust health left--would just like to make a difference in schools, jobs and Ohio's energy situation. My wife Susan, 52, has reached a nice level in Scientific Applications International as Assistant VP in the oil information systems business, and doing work for the Pentagon.
"My oldest two kids, Robin and Jay, have families of their own. My daughter Robin is in her 26th year teaching in Yorktown, VA, and son Jay must be one of the best software engineers in the US because they pay him big bucks in DC working on software for US Defense. My son from my current marriage, Sam (18), is in his first year at Kettering Institute, and daughter Christine (15) is in the 9th grade at Brunswick High School. Chrissie wants to go to the USAF Academy--if she enters 2011, I'll be 77 when she graduates!"
(Mostly) Friendly Fire. Brian and Carol Kaley's beautiful winter condo is in Naples, FL, where Brian works four days a week at Habitat for Humanity pounding nails into affordable homes . . . "I have to attend the Air Force Association state meeting in Orlando which coincides with the Air & Space Symposium at Disney," wrote Ted Stumm. "I evidently wasn't paying attention at one meeting and ended up getting appointed as the state VP for membership--guess I need to get my hearing aids tuned up! . . . "Ron and Connie Yates, Andi and Carole Biancur, George and Diana Pupich, John and Deane McCullough and Jim and Jenny Glaza went to Hawaii in early February--Mac rented a house on the "Big Island" . . . CT and Brenda Douglass' 16-year-old autistic son Dax is now "a busboy at the local Outback Steakhouse, after completing a three-day after-school training program. And, he's just begun driver training ground school" . . . Bill and Kath Gillis on their teens: "Sebastian (15) was in Georgia mid-April with the Order of the Arrow (Boy Scouts), and later inducted into the Latin Honor Society! Cecelia (12) was in Orlando with the Middle School Chorus Group, enjoyed Universal Studio & Adventure Island." . . . Serious pain and stiff neck caused Phil Meinhardt to have surgery at Scripps Hospital in La Jolla to fuse discs 4, 5 and 6 together . . . Visiting Barb and Bill Hales in Greer, SC were Les & Marty Querry and Bill Goodyear in March(photo: Les, Bill and Bill).
"COSGMMITPSA* met April 16, 2008. George Luck was out of town doing Bonanza teaching stuff, but Vic Yoakum, Dennis O'Keefe, Jim O'Rourke, Chuck Diver and Nels Delisanti lunched in Kirkland, WA. Senior biker O'Keefe gave O'Rourke tips on staying healthy while biking, the others talked of various ailments, hip and knee replacements. The photo shows "rain tans," that color North Westerners have from non-exposure to sunshine during the rainy months; some attribute this to rust. Vic Yoakum talked of his cruises, with Hawaii his next port of call in June, Diver was leaving for Michigan for a couple weeks, O'Keefe had just returned from somewhere.
John Paul ("JP") Browning and wife Carole "visited the Academy in October ('07), when we attended a 356th Tactical Fighter Squadron (Myrtle Beach AFB) reunion in the Colorado Springs area, and then went to the AFA-Army football game," wrote JP. In the Naval Reserve for 20 years, JP is a retired Captain (USNR). They moved to Westfield, IN (north of Indianapolis) in January 2007, from Weatherford, TX, where JP retired from Lockheed-Martin/Ft. Worth in January 2003. "The move to Indiana was based on kids and grandkids. Our oldest son, Kirk, lives in the Tulsa, OK area with his two boys, and our number two son, Craig, lived in Novi, MI, when we moved here. Our daughter, Kerrie, and her family moved from Oklahoma to Indiana where her husband took a position with Riley Children's Hospital; so, we thought we were 'splitting the difference' with our move, but our son Craig then moved his family to Austin, TX because of the cold weather. Each of our kids has two boys and they range from five to 17 years of age (that makes six grandchildren). Carole and I still maintain the lake house in Oklahoma for the summertime. See 'ya at the 50th!" (Photo: Carole and JP with their youngest grandsons Dawson, 6, and Darren, 5).
Robert Edmund Rakitis (AFA '72) wrote about his trip to China last October: "On our cruise down the Yangtze to Shanghai, I'm sitting on the observation deck of a small motor ferry cruising the Daling River and surveying the Lesser Gorges. "Hey, there's another Academy grad looking for you," said several in my tour group. Then, out of nowhere, appears a somewhat mature gentleman: 'Did you go to the AF Academy?' He was Chuck Liggett from '60. On the final night aboard, we had our picture taken with the Captain at dinner. We both wore the exact same thing: blue sports coat, gray trousers, shirts with button-down collars, blue ties with Chinese dragons." (Photo: Bob "Rak" Rakitis, Captain Shougu Ixie of the M/V Victoria Prince, and Charlie).
Dave and Camille Sweigart retraced Camille's roots on their April '08 trip to Italy: "Both sets of Camille's grandparents came to America through Ellis Island from Italy. We had an audience with the Pope inside the Vatican, visited Rome, Amalfi Coast, Capri, Florence, Naples, Venice, Pompeii, Verona, Pisa, Milan and Lugana, Switzerland in two weeks. We even saw a poster of a political candidate whose name was the same as Camille's maiden name of Scrafone." (First photo--Dave at their hotel in Stresa; second--Camille with her family's campaign poster; third--Pope Benedictus XVI; fourth--"Life on the Road").
Updating his life is our classmate from Melrose, MA (State Flower: Mayflower; State Bird: Black-Capped Chickadee). Arthur Joseph Lewis (Cheerleader 1, Gymnastics 4,3,2,1, Photography Club 3,2,1, Radio Club 4,3, Track 4) reviewed his life: "I spent my Air Force career in SAC in the strategic IBM missile business. I started on a Titan Combat Crew near Lowry AFB, where I was the Launch Control Officer, and finished my career as a Major in Omaha at SAC HQ in the Future Missile Systems Division. During my tour there, I met my wife Patricia, who was a Spanish Professor at the local community college. I retired from SAC in 1972.
"After that, I joined the Hewlett-Packard Medical Instrumentation Division in Waltham, MA, where I worked as an Area Production Manager for several years. I went back to technical school on the G.I. Bill to get updated on electronics technology, and got a Masters Technician license, enabling me to manage a large department of HP technicians making and testing hospital equipment, like fetal and heart-rate monitors. I also started my own TV repair business as a hobby on the side.
"Next I was Production Manager for an electronics firm in Dallas, TX, Intecom (now "Aastra-Intecom"), where I worked for 22 years. I was the Logistics Manager and Transportation Manager for their manufacturing plant in Plano, TX; they make and sell high-end private telecom systems to large corporations, and have customers in Europe and Asia, as well as over 70 locations in the US.
"I'm doing fine health-wise. Patricia and I belong to LA Fitness and do regular workouts and swim several times a week; I also have a set of gym equipment in my garage. Patricia continues to work as the Director of a Christian Day School at our church, Custer Road United Methodist Church in Plano. She has been in the child care-business for over 20 years and is also President of the Methodist Nursery & Kindergarten Association of Dallas. We enjoy spending time with our children and grandchildren, who all live in a neighboring city 15 miles from our home.
"My son, Andy, and his wife Sondra, live in McKinney, TX. Andy went to the University of Texas in Austin for his undergraduate and then to the SMU-Perkins Theological Seminary for his Masters in Divinity; he is ordained and now the pastor of his own church in McKinney--Wellspring UMC. He has two boys, Nathan (8) and Jared (4), who are both involved in youth soccer leagues, while Andy coaches their teams. We have a new granddaughter, Sara Jessica Lewis who is four months old. My daughter, Rebecca, went to the University of Texas in Dallas and received her undergraduate in humanities and then a second degree from the University of North Dallas in music. She taught piano and voice and was an elementary school teacher in Plano before changing careers; she loves animals and is now the Manager of the McKinney S.P.C.A. Her husband, Dennis, is an orchestra director at a middle school in Plano.
"Since I retired from industry, I have spent most of my time working on our home. We do most of our own landscaping and repairs. Pat and I love the ocean, so we take frequent trips to Galveston Island, TX and stay near the beach. We and our kids and grandkids all spent a week together there in a beach house this past summer. Because of my technical background, I enjoy working on HDTV and computers, and we have a home theater and Pat and I love to watch DVD movies at home. I also have some Webmaster experience and help with updating my son's website with his sermon audio MP3 files. We plan to stay in this area, but might move closer to Houston to be closer to the beach."
"My son Kevin now holds title to our Acroduster and has an FAA airshow waiver in it," writes Frank Gorham. "It has been down for almost a year for engine rebuilds, new propeller, and routine maintenance items, but will be back in the air soon with both of us flying it. This photo was taken on a press flight promoting a small local air show two years ago. Kevin is in the picture, and I'm flying the photo ship C-172--that same plane is now my office as I achieved my CFI rating last fall. That's me in the 2002 Sport Aerobatics cover photograph."
"It's called "The Wright Brothers Master Pilot Award," and at the FAA award ceremony we were presented a beautiful etched plaque, framed certificate, lapel pin and broach for my wife, Emma," wrote Mike (J) Clarke. "It is awarded to those who have flown safely for 50 or more years--consecutively--without an accident while making recognizable contributions to aviation. We were fortunate that all my Air Force assignments allowed me to remain in the cockpit, so with my civilian flying I have been at it since 1954, and continuously since 1956. Three individuals in aviation must recommend you. We were pleasantly surprised last year when we were contacted and informed I had been nominated, and was being requested to fill out some forms and supply my career, aviation, and aircraft flown background. I am probably one of the first USAFA graduates to receive this award, as I had a pilot's license before I entered the Academy. The qualification window for USAFA graduates who did not learn to fly until after graduation will not open until sometime in the year 2010. Those few of us that had a pilot certificate when we entered the Academy, and had active tickets/medicals, were allowed to maintain our flight proficiency, even during our Doolie year. I think there were less than six of us between our class and the 59'ers, and the Academy used to bus us up to Boulder every three months to fly for 30 minutes and shoot a few landings."
And regarding our 70's Birthday Cruise, Jim Glaza says that "We have 19 classmate couples (38 people), of whom seven couples will extend to Prague. There are approximately 17 cabins remaining out of 70 total cabins. The cost for the basic 13-day trip up the Danube from Bucharest to Budapest is around $2500-$3500 per person after rebates from me, with an extra $650 per person for the four-day extension to Prague. While the trip is ostensibly to co-celebrate our joint (more or less) 70th birthdays, the real reason is a fun and games Mini-Reunion."
Fourteen of the DC-'60 stalwarts met on Founder's Day, April 1st, 2008. Al Johnson and Jerry De la Cruz brought everyone up to date on MiniSki XVIII, and Al said his new home in Camden, ME is almost finished. Bill Taylor still helps the AF solve Tactical Air problems. Bill Carnegie is contemplating leaving New Jersey and living just outside Front Royal, VA; Bill now has two 300 games in his favorite pastime of bowling; and, his daughter will become the new Director of the Simpsons TV show. After four years, Bob Badger has finished his fictional book (some characters resemble '60 classmates) and is now looking for a publisher, and he's already started book two. Mike (A) Clarke echoed Bill Taylor's words that the AF is in a "world of hurt." Ken Alnwick is still working with the Navy on Maritime Domain Awareness, and when not doing that he coaches lacrosse. Tom Burke lost his brother John, a few weeks ago; Tom still works on AF issues and the problems of the aviation industry. Leon Goodson is working when he feels like it, going to Tennessee and Seattle and still rides the motorcycle. GJC Fries is recovering quite well from the hip surgery, is the proud grandpa of 11 grandkids, and his daughter got married and went to Hawaii in May. Bill Hockenberry's (he left our Class 17 Oct 56) wife broke her leg. Bob and Lutzi Fischer will be heading on a cruise of the Caribbean this summer; Bob also said he had a nice conversation with Charlie Sands, who's living in Arizona.
Here's a photo of Charlie ("Charlie Brown") Sands: "We landed north of Tucson in a small former mining community, San Manuel, which gives us access to my wife Peggy's folks who are to the north in Globe, and our friends in Tucson to the South. We have been in Lexington, MO some 16 years working on historic preservation in this small confederate town that modernization bypassed; so, I have had numerous opportunities to ply my trade: MA in archaeology and museum studies," writes Charlie. "The thing most important to us is the discovery of the Union history in our Confederate town that had been overlooked by the historians and descendents of Lexington. The German Methodist (Episcopal) Church was the first ever School for the newly emancipated Negroes in the winter of 1865-6 (see photo). For more, go to: www.freemansheritage.com."
JT and Diane Smith--whose travels begin to rival the "Travelling Mayberrys"--took son Andy and family (wife Shawn, children Nicole and Cody) for a Christmas Cruise from Canaveral to Nassau (JT's first ride on a Segway--see photo), St. Thomas and St. Maarten. In January '08, they spent ten days in Egypt with daughter Rocella and Diane's college roommate Nell, including four days cruising the Nile from Aswan to Luxor (that's JT on the camel); the third photo is JT and Diane with Rocella (right) and Nell (left). Then, it was a bunch of old timers gathering in May at Wright-Patterson AFB for the Southeast Asia C-123 Reunion; later, in June, a family gathering at Lake Lure in North Carolina; and, following that, they took Rocella's daughters, Cassidy and Holiday, to Costa Rica. In July, JT and cycling buddy, Fred Barney, plan to motor around Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia on their Suzuki V-Strom motorcycles.
"After getting home from my recent Alaskan Cruise I bought a used Jet Ski, which you see in the photo. It followed me home behind my Gold Wing cycle. The grandkids really enjoyed the summer with me pulling them on tubes behind this water machine. January 21, 2008 marked my 44th year with the company I still work for. It has gone through several name changes, but I still think of it as Rapistan, and I'm working half-time since August 2007. With this deal, I don't know when I will finally quit. I still look forward to going to work after two weeks off as much as I look forward to the two weeks off after working for two weeks," writes Gary Van Singel.
The first gathering of the "Carolina '60 Falcons" occurred at Tom and Carole Seebode's home in Columbia, SC on Saturday, 3 May 2008. Included in the group is David Reece Williams--Reece was a turnback from the Class of '59, then left the Academy on 21 February 1958. (The photo's front row has Carolyn Seebode, Millie Canterbury, Barb Hales, Carolyn Thomasson, Martha Alexander, Nancy Williams; back row has Jim Thomasson, Jim Alexander, Kirk Canterbury, Reece Williams, Bill Goodyear, Tom Seebode and Bill Hales.
. Here's a photo from RG Head of 6th Squadron in 1958 at Lowry II --this is another reminder to send this type of photo covering our cadet years to Les Querry at: lesquerry@wildblue.net, since he's still preparing a 50th Reunion CD.
Final Roll Call. Mary Ann Holt, wife of Steve Holt, died January 6, 2008 of lung cancer, and was interred at the National Cemetery in Culpepper, VA.
P.S."Now go back to ARTIFACTS: "List of Turnbacks from the Class of 1959" is a recent addition; then, go to "War Stories" for a newly-added fable from Johnnie Kuenzel about passing massive amounts of gas over Spain in 1963.