INTRODUCTION: Colorado residents have a lot for which to be thankful, still one occasionally gets a real good deal. So it was on a perfect June day that John and Debby Regni opened up the Carlton House to his ’73 classmates and spouses for lunch. The picture below shows those of us happy to enjoy their hospitality. To John Regni’s right, closest to furthest, are: Judge Kirk Samelson, Dale Birch, Ron Scott, BJ Stanton, Clay Stewart (descended from Leadville, enjoying the thick air) and John Cotten down from Denver. On the stairs above John, clockwise, are Joe Kahoe, Tom Mayberry, Dennis Haugh, Al Maurer, and Bill Gillin. To John’s left, closest to furthest, are USAFA Public Affairs czar Johnny Whitaker (who snagged this photo), lawyer/aviator John Stefonik, high school educator John Mann, Warren Smith, and this free-loading scribe. Apologies for not printing the photo with the wives; unfortunately printing it here would not have shown the faces recognizably…and, frankly, the wives’ youthful looks made us look bad. As it was I had this photo stretched vertically to make us look thinner.
John Regni and classmates on the side of the historic Carlton House…a perquisite to the job of Superintendent.
SQUADRON NOTES: Time to rectify a grievous oversight: in the last eight ClassNews I’ve not mentioned anyone from Double Deuce CS-22. My bad; they are worth publicizing. Quite a few of them are in Colorado. Both John McDevitt and Randy Kalkman work for Northrop Grumman in C Springs. John is in charge of business development for the Intelligence Group in the Western Region; now that their three children are out of the house (two grandkids, so far) Trish let him buy a Honda S2000. Randy is deputy for Mission Systems supporting NORAD/NORTHCOM; DebraAnn and he have son starting college and an older daughter who spent six months in Iraq as a contractor. Dr ‘Big O’ Mitchell continues rebuilding bodies with Front Range Orthopedics. Dave and Julie Harmon returned to Colorado Springs in 1981 with TI. They have a son and two daughters in college and Dave now works for Synthes, which manufactures medical devices. Rich Eilers just left “an office with windows for a cubicle and higher pay” as executive architect for IBM Federal; wife Sue commutes from Burke VA to Fort Belvoir to teach elementary school. Joel Allen is now consulting in telecom and traveling around the world; at home he’s trying to get his golf game back; with their two kids grown wife Kathleen works as a clinical RN. “Steamer” Boyle is senior IT Program Manager for the city of Sacramento CA and Laura is full time mom for three children still at home. Gene Cuomo left the Pentagon and DIA in 1997 and now is senior systems engineer with McClendon Corporation in support of National GeoSpatial-Intelligence Agency; he’s got two grandchildren and with wife Kenna (also a RN) has two pre-teens still growing at home. No longer flying the KC-10, Mike Laney commutes from New Jersey to Memphis to fly Fedex and fishes and hunts when able. Paul Manley retired from the Pentagon as an O-6 and, after handing off his Flexlite INC business, joined Boeing's Missile Defense Systems division working international business development in the DC area. Paul and Janet have three grown daughters, one married and another almost, and one son attending James Madison who is on the wrestling team. Pat Stanberry gave me details on Wayne Stanberry who travels from the Dayton area as Safety and Risk Manager for Griffin Industries, she’s hanging in there as senior auditor for the Defense Contract Audit Agency. After 13 years, Bob Neal sold his travel business and is selling residential real estate in the Seattle area; he has 3 grown sons and five grandchildren, and is rumored to be dating a registered nurse. Tony Strawa is an atmospheric scientist with NASA near their San Jose home; Yvonne is a nurse involved with cardiac research at Stanford and they have a daughter just out of UCSC and two sons at home. Tom Larned commutes to Newark to fly Continental from his Lyman ME idyll he shares with Sandy who works for the U of New England.
Dr. Greg Chapman (Radiologist), Stalker Reed (Delta Airlines), Dr. Mark Coffman (Ophthalmologist), Bill Patterson (US Airways), Joe Kahoe (Defense Contractor), Al Nacke (Delta Airlines)
GENERAL OFFICER NEWS: This is late but congratulations go to Jim Soligan on pinning on his third star; he’ll stay in Norfolk as DCS for Transformation with responsibility to the Supreme Allied Commander Transformation for modernizing NATO and making it relevant to the current world order. Does John Barry relish challenges? He just took over as Aurora (CO) Superintendent of Public Schools: “I start[ed] my new job with 33,000 kids on Jul 17th--wish me luck.” Howard “Mitch” Mitchell has left Colorado Springs for Booz Allen in their Northern VA offices.
ODDS & SODS: Father Michael Hub sends news from SC that “I am still a small family size parish priest in a rural community, doing my best to serve the real Commander-in-Chief.” He sent a picture of Marine 2Lt Ryan Hub in Ramadi Iraq surrounded by adoring kids.
CLASS LEADERSHIP NEWS: The Class of ’73 is gaining a leadership reputation within the Associate of Graduates. AOG president Jim Shaw told us that he wants to use our model for donating, executing and then tracking the impact of our class gift, the largest to date.
Reps to the Graduate Leadership Conference (L-R): Tom Blase, Ron Scott, John Kuconis, Jim Callard, Bill Harris, Randy Putz, Steve Dahlrymple, Bob Munson, John Muse, Bruce Meyer, Rich Comer (not shown: Rowe Stayton)
GRADUATE LEADERSHIP CONFERENCE: ’73 had the largest class representation at the two day Graduate Leadership Conference in February (see photo). Getting volunteers to attend this two day meeting with USAFA senior staff and AOG officers was not a problem; we had classmates from across the USA pay travel expenses out of pocket to bring their opinions and recommendations to the meetings. There was ample two-way communication, both in formal sessions and 1v1 conversations. Impression: both USAFA and the AOG have been through concurrent rough periods; both now are on a track to become stronger institutions.
CLASS GIFT: During the GLC the AOG staff arranged a separate meeting with ’73 reps and Center for Character Development (CCD) staff to review how our class gift has been executed and how our monies will continue to be used for future symposia. Even though the two day National Character and Leadership Symposium (NCLS) has improved with our class gift, they have been unable to use all of the offered money due to constraints in what they pay for speakers and how many attendees USAFA can handle. The ’73 reps recommended that their Class: consider converting unused funds to an endowment, provide the CCD with speaker recommendations and recruit onsite active ’73 support for the 2007 NCLS. At our prodding the AOG agreed to provide more detail on finances as well as to send out individual notes to members of the class reporting on their gift.