INTRODUCTION: On request, the AOG revealed there are 49 “Legacy” sons and daughters of 1973 grads: 37 graduates and 12 currently at USAFA. While getting information on classmates is sometimes tough, we are not sparing when it comes to bragging about our children. I’m happy to report that I got enough pictures to print for a year…which is good, our kids are better looking than we are.
1973 LEGACY CADETS/GRADS: Leadoff 1973 Legacy was Greg Gempler’s son Keith who graduated in 1997; he’s now an F-16 IP at Luke AFB. Greg is a 767 pilot for Delta and, with wife Sharon, lives in the middle of Colorado. Three classmates have had two children graduate: Dave Skalko (Kelly ’97 and Mark ‘01), Dean Haylett (Marshal ’02 and DeAnna ’99), and Bob Summers (twins Marc and Brad in ’99). Bob and Jeanie Eames have to wait a few years to become double-legacy parents: Colin ’06 and Betsy ’08 are in the soccer program and plan on majoring in engineering. Vic Thuotte and Lee Zimmerman are double-legacy parents via a mutual acquisition arrangement: Chris Thuotte and Renee Zimmerman (both 2002) were married in April; Chris is with the OSI in Kyrgyzstan whilst Renee is Squadron Section Commander for C-17 maintenance at Charleston. Their coming-together story is long, but suffice to say that this marriage started with Vic and Lee’s time evading together in SERE. Vic and Connie also have another grad as son-in-law, Brian McDonald’96, matched with daughter Nicole. Lee and Nancy Zimmerman are in South Carolina where he does environmental law and she’s a USC professor.
Wolf Gesch with Chris ’03 and Gehrig ’27.
Wolf Gesch retired in Spring, TX, after being the AFROTC/CC; now he’s the AFJROTC Area Administrator responsible for 116 units in Texas and Louisiana. Son Chris ’03 is an EC-130H Nav at Davis-Monthan. Boyd and Janice Lease were in Hawaii so it fell to daughter Robin ’02 to let me know that she graduated DG in Astro with minors in math and French; she’s now a T-6 instructor at Moody. Chip and Sue Frazier also just returned from Hawaii (did I miss a class special?); son Edwin III ’99 is initial cadre at Nellis where he developed the Intelligence Sensor Weapons Instructor Course for the Weapons School. Ken and Hermila Vargas-Charlesworth sent news of Capt Erwin Vargas ’99 who, after tours to Kyrgyzstan and Korea, is at McChord organizing their deployments; he was Wing Open boxing champion in 1999 and hopes to return to USAFA as OIC of the boxing team this Fall. I ran into Randy Putz’s son, Jeremy ’07, and had a nice chat; he started with 2006 but took a year off to study Russian in Moscow and is now a Management major with Russian minor. John and Nancy Mann also have their son John in 2007 who will major in CE like dad; they also have a Lt(jg) daughter going through the Navy’s Nuclear Power Program. Also in 2007 is Bart Noble’s son Mark and John Pretz’s daughter Joanne; John promises a picture for a future issue.
Thanks to Steve Dalrymple for the idea for this article; shown are Steve and Diana Dalrymple’08 at Parents Weekend. Diana is on the Superintendent’s list and went to the US Triathlon Nationals as the #1 qualifier for the USAFA club.
Tim and Margaret Sisson retired to Vacaville, CA, where Tim teaches in the school system; son Logan ’00 picked up a Masters in Ethics out of the Zoo before flight school. Logan flies C-21s at Scott and hopes for a C-17 next. BJ and Donna Stanton had to finally say goodbye from their Monument home to Stuart ’01 when he graduated and went to MIT; he’s been at LA Air Station since and hopes to come back to teach in 2006. Abby Albert’s first assignment was to the C-130 “Blue Tailed Flies” squadron at Ramstein, the same first squadron (then at Langley) that John Albert entered as a 2Lt navigator. John and Gini are now relocating to Arlington VA with the State Dept after 30 years of successfully avoiding DC in the Air Force. Mike and Renee Harmon’s son, Mike ’99, is at SOS en-route to Kunsan where he’ll fly the F-16. Presumably the young captain will pay a courtesy visit to Air University Commander LtGen John Regni who used drop by his cadet room and write comments about the cleanliness on the mirror. Jessica Regni ’03 finished the T-1 at Columbus; besides sweating checkrides Jessica was concerned about what Dad would say as guest speaker at her 10 June graduation. Jack Christensen was in the first Doolie class in CS-40 and Dave ’99 was in the last Firsty class to graduate from CS-40; Dave’s now at Tyndall as an F-15 instructor. Jack is recovering from surgery: “it’s the second on that knee, I’m earning frequent bleeder points with the doctor.” Bruce Wright wrote that daughter Jessica ’04 is “as fired up as I have ever heard her” entering the T-38 phase of flight training and expecting to graduate this September.
The Legacy data suggests that 1973 fertility peaked about two years after graduation as we had ten Legacies in the class of 1999; not mentioned already are John Blecher’s son Jarod, Dan Pierre’s son Douglas, and Jim Russell’s son Scott. The second fertility peak occurred four years later as there were seven Legacy graduates in 2003. Bruce and Janet Meyer’s son Scott was in that year group; he lettered as a Falcon lineman for three years. After T-38 training he will instruct in the T-6 at Moody. Classmate Jeremy Kahoe will go from Altus to Charleston in the C-17 with wife Cassidy. Parents Joe and Deborah Kahoe are in Colorado Springs; Joe’s signature block says he’s Program Manager for Homeland Defense Initiatives, ARINC Engineering Services. Others in that 2003 group are John Barry’s son John, Steve Gulasey’s son Stephen, and Gene Malberg’s daughter Sarah. Mark Englebretson’s son Eric was 2003 but medically separated before graduation, he’s now doing computer graphics work in Atlanta; Mark is a high school counselor and coach in Colorado Springs.
1973 graduate General Officers captured at the February 2005 Blue Summit. Details are in the ClassNotes text.
GENERAL OFFICER NOTES: Check out the '73 star cluster! From left to right (all are in DC area unless noted). BGen Brad Young is Mobilization Assistant to the Director of Maintenance and Logistics at HQ/ACC Langley AFB. LtGen John Corley spends $34B of our tax dollars yearly as Principle Deputy, Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Acquisition. Appropriately, right next to him, MGen Joe Sovey decides which programs to fund as Director of Capabilities Programs at Wright Patterson. LtGen Don "Hank" Wetekam will juggle the BRAC bag of hot potatoes in the coming year as Deputy Chief of Staff for Installations and Logistics. MGen Don Wurster is the Deputy Director of the Center for Special Operations (USSOCOM) at MacDill. LtGen Norty Schwartz is Director of the Joint Staff. MGen Rich Comer is Chief of the Office of Coalition Coordination (USSOCOM) at MacDill. LtGen John Regni is Air University Commander at Maxwell AFB. MGen Frank Klotz is at FE Warren as the 20th Air Force Commander. MGen Steve Lorenz is everybody's best friend as he disburses $107B a year as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Budget. MGen Jack Hudson is Assistant Under Secretary of the Air Force for International Affairs.
STILL SERVING UPDATE: Sgt Rowe Stayton is back from Baghdad!... and looking for something to keep him busy until he deploys again.