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Checkpoints Summer 2004 Class Scribe Bob Kay 40411 Tesoro Lane Palmdale, CA 93551 Home: (661) 274-2201 Work: (661) 824-6426 Email: Robert.kay@baesystems.com Greetings '78ers... As most of you most likely heard, Ron Rosepink's memorial service was on Saturday, 26 June at Edwards AFB. I was on the road and couldn't get out there, but was told by Steve Crittenden (more on Steve later) and one of the guys I work with that it was well done. The family was there with the kids and many people turned out to pay their respects. The Test Wing (thanks to their commander, Col Joe Lanni, '80) provided a flyby which was much appreciated. There are still more search efforts in the works but am not sure when. I would like to thank AJ Wallace for his continued advocacy on Ron and his family's behalf as well as the AOG for getting the word out concerning the memorial. Next, I have to publicly apologize to Dave McLeran. He sent me a great picture of him and his kids way back in January. However, my ever-increasing senility forced me to forget to put it in the last article. To add insult to injury, my whining sure didn't help any (good help is hard to find). Anyway, Dave mentioned that his oldest daughter, Amy, graduated from the University of Florida last summer with degrees in math and economics and decided she wanted to wear the uniform. The picture is from Amy's OTS graduation where Dave had the "unparalleled thrill of swearing her in." He even said he can still get in his uniform after being retired for six years... good for you Dave! She is now at Nellis as an analyst in the 18th Flight Test Squadron (Special Ops). Son Charlie, (shown here as a 2-degree) is now a senior at the Zoo majoring in meteorology and looking forward to pilot training. My apologies again.  Proud Papa Fortunately, my whining paid off due to some great e-mails and phone calls. Brian Livie wrote that he and his bride of 26 years (Roberta) became the proud and parents (emphasis mine) of their first grandchild (Hunter) last October 2P'. The proud papa istheir son Vince (USAFA 2001) who is currently stationed at McGuire AFB flying KC-1Os. Hunter hasn't been briefed yet but he will be the 4th generation Livie to wear the Air Force blue and be a pilot (Brian's dad flew KC-97s and KC- 135s among other things)... what a legacy! Daughter Vanessa (23) graduated May 2lst from the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs, with a Computer Engineering degree and is a software engineer for Lockheed Martin in the Springs. She is writing code for the new Missile Warning system going into Cheyenne Mountain. Brian and Roberta had a great 25th last year and proved it by spending two weeks in Hawaii. They built their dream home in Perry Park (just west of Larkspur, CO -- half way between COS and Denver, and south of Castle Rock) and are suffering through the empty-nest syndrome rather well. Brian is VP for Trawick & Associates running Rocky Mountain cps for the Bethesda, MA-based info technology (among other things) company doing DoD contract work. They just won a big Enterprise Network Management contract at Peterson AFB --we're doing consolidated network management of AFSPC's e-mail system. They see Greg and Sherry Hollister on a regular basis, and run into Mike Wright, Joe Bunecke, Rob Harrison and Mike Coulliard every so often. Thanks Brian... was great hearing from you. Also heard from former fellow AOC Steve "Shifty" Clark. (I can neither confirm nor deny any stories from those days). Shifty was hired by Neal Barlow (currently running the USAFA Aero department) several years ago to fly in the 904th Flying Training Squadron (the soaring squadron Neal was commanding at the time). Among Shifty's fond memories was collaborating with Neal for cadet soaring IPs to wear replicas of WWII Glider Pilot wings. Avery appropriate move considering that the forerunner of the 94th was the 94th Troop Carrier Squadron which towed CG-4A gliders carrying the 10 1, and 82nd Airborne paratroopers during D-Day. After retirement three years ago, he landed a job in Denver running one of two bus terminals for the Denver Public Schools (270 buses with over 300 employees). Shifty's "years of Global Airlift experience along with my command time is paying off to some extent" (I'll bet... quite the challenge). He bought a nice place in Centennial south of Denver and says the door is always open. Thanks Shifty ..good to hear from you again. Former scribe extraordinaire and cancer survivor (great news!) TJ Whitehair dropped a line. He's still living in O'Fallon, IL just outside ofScott AFB. "I finished my chemo last Dec (2003) and just had a checkup last month that confirms (at least for now) that I'm cancer free. Well, at least if they cut out enough stuff, you're cancer free. So, I'm in the five-year monitoring period, but definitely feeling a lot better than before they found it." Many congrats big fella. TJ is still competitive shooting with his NRA Conventional "Bullseye" Pistol and some IDPA combat style shooting. He mentioned plans to shoot in the Prairie State Games in air pistol, conventional pistol, free pistol, and sport pistol. Would appear that he knows what he's doing considering he has won five silver medals and one bronze and hopes to bring home a gold this year. Son Andrew just received a master in business (Washington University in St Louis) and works for PriceWaterhouseCuopers as an accountant while studying forhis CPA. Daughter Kristina is a sophomore in HS and is quite the wrestler... even pins a few guys (literally). Back to Steve Crittenden - he called the other day and it turns out that we live two miles apart up here in the California high desert. We're planning on having lunch next week if we can synch up our rather insane schedules. Steve flies Gulfstream IIs from Burbank airport and schleps around some very famous people (he'd tell me who but would then have to kill me). He's been in the corporate flying world for several years where the hours can be a bit brutal but the perks make it worth it. Several tidbits from the east: Ed Rice is now the senior military asst to the coalition provisional authority in D.C. Steve "Goldy" Goldfein recently had the double honor or retiring Steve Lisi and pinning eagles on Reservist Dave Lengyel. Also retiring in June was Mike Catlin (no info on their follow-on job)... congrats to you guys. Chuck Greenwood also hung up his blue suit and is now working for a D.C. consulting firm on DoD issues. Reported last quarter that Roger Burg is on the NSC staff- turns out he works in the White House; Kevin Roper is staff director of the House Appropriations Defense Committee. Bill Chambers and his bride, Bonnie, won the O'Malley award as top AF wing commander and spouse while running the lit!, Wing at Bulling. Bill's now a flesh peddler of sorts at the Pentagon. Doug Raaberg (he and bride, Claudia, won the O'Mailey last year) is at CENTCOM. Incredible... congrats to you all! Dick Newton runs info warfare on the Joint Staff; Wayne Kellenbence is the Director of Staff for the Supt at USAFA and Rick Shook is the Air Force Reserve Command advisor to the commander of Air Combat Command. Well guys, I ran out of room this time. My sincere thanks for all the great info.., please continue! May you all have a blessed summer. '78 is great!
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Class of 1978 - United States Air Force Academy as of 21 Apr 2018 |
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