INTRODUCTION: Who wants to be scribe? It’s time to pass the baton. In the last two years I’ve been in touch with over half our class, I’ve enjoyed getting to know you all better, and I’ve greatly appreciated all your compliments and feedback. But I’ve been asked to come out of retirement to become medical director for a hospice, and our class officers have nominated me to be your ’73 rep to the AOG Senate for the next year. It’s appropriate now that the task of spreading the word on our classmates be passed on to new blood. If you have any interest in being scribe, discuss this with me.
SQUADRON NOTES: Somehow I’ve managed to ignore the whereabouts and activities of our CS-05 and CS-12 classmates…no more.
Dirty Dozen news… Dave ‘Whale’ Gessert was our class’ first scribe, back when email and word processing were poorly developed concepts. He uses both as National Geospatial Intelligence Agency senior engineer. Sheri teaches special education in the Fairfax VA school system. Gene (Mianne) Malberg retired to Mecosta MI and built next to the lot owned by brother-in-law Rick Johnston who’s with GM as a facilities engineer; Debi works collecting loans for a local bank. Bob (Deborah) Allen retired as commander of the Air Force Weather Agency at Offutt and moved to Hawaii where he works for Northrop Grumman at USPACOM. They have an AF commissioned daughter and two sons who hope to become blue-suiters. John Carr is a GS-14 at WPAFB’s Center of Acquisition Excellence assisting SPOs; he and Gwendolyn have three children out of the house. Bob Paling is a Sun Systems program manager living in Nashua NH; Renee is an LPN working for a gastroenterologist there. Dr. Arnie Penix practices orthopedics in southeast Ohio and is sports medicine physician for teams at Rio (pronounced ‘Rye-oh’) Grande College. Wife and artist Bonnie indulges Arnie’s passion for big game hunting. Marla called for Roger Healy as he was swamped as a Boeing program manager at Buckley ANGB; with five grown kids they have a bit more time for riding his BMW cycle.
Rick Karvosky of CS-12: “My favorite mode of transport when in Iraq. Price is cheap…unfortunately, no frequent flyer miles
Mark Mayhew is busy as a Masters student in Portuguese and Spanish Linguistics at the University of Arizona; Mark and nurse Marty both are on the faculty at Pima College. Scott and Jean Mills retired out of the Pentagon in 1995 and turned a trail running fetish into a second career; they moved to Carlsbad CA for the lifestyle where Scott consults for Asics Running, Inc. Bob Mize teaches science at Steilacoom HS in Lakewood WA and serves as Kiwanis president; Emily is now working on her PhD in nursing. Larry Nolen (Maureen) is in charge of IT and GSA schedule contracts for Arcata Associates in Las Vegas. After 20 years Razz Rassmussen sold his medical supply business in June and went road biking through the Alps; he’s just back from a five week trip to the East Coast seeing old friends (including Dom Mazza, Ken Betts) and intends to do “something that gives me a sense of making a contribution to my small corner of the planet”. Tom Ream is upgrading to left seat in the Airbus for Fedex; he and “professional volunteer” Nancy live in Tennessee. Dale Williams took Delta’s retirement lump sum and shortly thereafter Edie and son told him to get a job…Dale and son now enjoy flying for NetJets. Rick Jones also left Delta for Singapore Airlines. Bill Swan: “Owned Bed and Breakfast in Taos. Sold it and founded DotCom in 1999, sold in 2001 for pennies on the dollar…Started sunglass and optical retail store…studied and became optician …doing fantastic after 5 years.” Lannie Westbrook wrote en-route toTrinidad as VP for negotiations for World GTL Inc on the first commercial gas-to-(diesel)liquid plant in the Western Hemisphere. He’s working on a Masters in International Tax Law and Mary Anne just finished hers in Counseling. Mark Ferris is a solo financial advisor in Connecticut; his “YankeeCents” web site is very useful. Jean is Citizens Bank senior VP for community lending. Mark sent a CD with 92 #1 hits from 28 June 69 to 6 June 73 put together with Jon Eller for the 30th reunion. Jon is Director for the Institute for American Thought at Indiana University and tenured English professor.
Mark Ferris of YankeeCents Financial Services (with lovely model Jean) demonstrates the concept of ‘liquid assets’…which he makes in his basement
Frat Five news…Greg Beyer opened a successful (but-I-couldn’t-do-it-without-my-AF-retirement) pizza business in Minnesota; Celeste helps with the business and does before/after school daycare. Dave Quackenbush (Molly) is CFO for 30,000 member American Institute for Aeronautics and Astronautics in Reston VA and skis with George and Lois Kehias who live near WPAFB. George uses his second BS in Computer Design for Ball Aerospace while Lois is a GS electrical engineer at Wright Labs. Monnie Gore got a masters in architecture and an MBA; he is El Paso county Director of Facilities Management which gets ‘crazy’ working with multiple commissioners around Colorado Springs. Wife Jennifer is bravely undergoing chemotherapy for ovarian cancer…we’ll be thinking of you two. Roy Hart is VP for Business Development for IT firm Genexus; he and Ricki have horses on their property in Wylie TX to keep them busy. Ex-roommates Larry Faber and Herb Huber live in Boerne and Austin Texas, respectively, and (nearly) concurrently had cardiac stents placed. Larry just retired from USAA and Herb uses his B-1 syllabus writing skills to produce training programs for Temple Inland employees. Jack McCalmont takes long vacations to sail the Yangtzee or drive the Gobi desert, next trip is Africa or Antarctica. He funds these as manager of financial contracts for MTC Corp. in California. Kevin Nehring is ‘retired retired’ from medicine and works on the home he built whilst Peggy provides healthcare as nurse-midwife. Scott McLaughlin also ‘retired retired’ to San Antonio, takes care of elderly parents, and spends time with Denise who works as librarian at Fort Sam Houston. Jeff Knight is a self-employed financial planner in Petosky Michigan; brave Brenda went skydiving with her three daughters and son-in-law. Robert Marsh is QI Coordinator for Denver-based Donor Alliance, a non-profit organ/tissue recovery program. Deborah works for Pikes Peak Mental Health and they are now proud grandparents. Retiree Dave Thomas remained at the Pentagon to work fiscal and admin law issues for the AF General Counsel; Billie runs a gift store in Fairfax with the help of one of their two daughters. Bill Orcutt lives in a residential airpark outside Fort Worth and flies the Bonanza A36 for a law firm; wife Glenda is a caregiver for elderly women. Pete Cooper flies for American, commuting from Laguna Niguel to LA; he just put a small block engine into a ’56 Chevy. SWA pilot and Tucson resident Al Phillips is back, and still groggy, from a trip down the Danube with Brenda; they’ve successfully raised three children and now have a grandchild. Monica updated me whilst Roy Pence was away as an Atlas Air 747 pilot; she’s a secretary at a Charleston SC middle school and they have two children out of the nest.
ODDS & SODS: Tom Butler is also an Atlas Air 747 pilot commuting from Woodbridge VA. Son Brian completed OTS, after 10 years enlisted, and started UPT this January. Bob Fraser asked that I mention fellow NSA spooks John Petro, Larry Polkabla, and Charles Meyer; all protecting us from evil-doers. Vince Parisi wistfully visited the sad remains of Craig AFB and noted the museum lacked our UPT patch which he’ll send. He’s very happy at AFRL’s Human Effectiveness Directorate at WPAFB.
Congratulations to LTC Peter Kehoe; he had his final C-130 flight on 29 Sep 2006, retiring after 33 years and 11,719 flying hours.
NATIONAL CHARACTER AND LEADERSHIP SYMPOSIUM, 22-24 FEB: Every February the NCLS brings speakers to USAFA to discuss their character-related personal experiences with cadets and college students. This is what our Class Gift funds; and a number of our classmates have been involved in providing ideas, oversight, and review of the program. Every year the NCLS leaves a deep impression on those who attend; the theme this year is “All Created Equal--Human Dignity and Respect.” If you are interested in attending as a 1973 representative for one, two, or all three days shoot me an email (rmunson1@comcast.net) now.