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Checkpoints Fall 2005 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… This will be a moderately short article primarily due to not having much to report this quarter. I know that it has been a crazy time for many of you with so much going on in the news. Speaking of current events, it is with some concern that I write this after the many weather events we have experienced. I wrote last time about Deon Gieg who lives outside of New Orleans. I haven’t been able to contact him so please join me in praying for his family’s safety and restoration of their home if need be. Please let us hear from you Deon if you read this! On a slightly happier note, I had the incredible pleasure this past week of being in Tucson attending the annual F-4 Phantom II Society convention (for a shameless plug, check out our web site at www.f4phantom.com if you are an old Rhino driver). Our guest of honor this year was SEA ace Lt Col (Ret) Jeff Feinstein (’68). He is one of the nicest guys I have ever met and was more than willing to tell some amazing war stories. Needless to say, the event was a huge success mainly due to his participation. While there, I happened to run into Greg Marston in the O Club bar. He is currently the wing commander of the 111th Fighter Wing at Willow Grove PA and still flying the A-10. He was at DM attending an A-10 weapons conference…we got to chat for only a few minutes as I had to blast to our dinner event. Greg still looks too young (think I mentioned that last year when writing about his experience in the middle east) but is having a great time. Had another chance encounter with Dave “Limo” Scott last month (this is getting bizarre). I was minding my own business boarding an airliner in Panama City, FL when I looked to the left and…there he was (we both looked at each other at the same time with the accompanying grins). I asked the guy sitting next to him if I could switch seats and he reluctantly agreed (not sure what the problem was, he got an aisle seat out of the deal). Limo and I spent the next 60 minutes chatting and getting caught up. He’s still at NORAD but looking to possibly move soon. Wonder who the next guy I’ll see is. Gotta love it when that kind of thing happens…better than e-mail! Received a great e-mail from Jim Arnold back in September who still lives in the Springs and is currently teaching in the area. He had the honor of participating in the Warrior Run for the class of ’09 (ugh!) during their acceptance ceremonies. According to Jim: This past weekend was the Class of 2009's Warrior run. As part of that, the AOG has a "ceremony" whereby a "Baton" is passed from a representative of the Class of 1959, through a line reps from each graduating class to a member of the class of 2009 and then this "Baton" is carried through the 33-mile relay run that is called the Warrior run. When the freshmen complete the WarriorRun, there is another ceremony where the same baton is passed back from the freshmen class, through the class reps and finally back to a rep of the Class of 1959. This second or end part is done at halftime of the football game. I had participated in the morning part before, but this year I participated in the afternoon part. Our classmate, Warren Kellenbence represented us in the morning ceremony, and I represented us in the afternoon ceremony. In addition Johnny Weida came through the line of class representatives and shook hands with each of us. Jim also mentioned that he will be attending the AF-Army game in November with Mike Skolaut and son Jay (which should be all over by the time you read this…sure hope the AF hammered the Hudson High boys). Mike and Jim went to the AF-Navy last year so it’s becoming a bit of an annual event. Sounds like fun to me. Great report Jim…thanks for participating and letting us know that there are some great legacy events going on at USAFA. Speaking of Johnny Weida, I was personally heartened to hear that the AF got a grip and decided to award him the second star that so richly deserves. He’ll be giving the reins to an ’80 grad as he and Bonnie move on to Wright Pat and Director of Capabilities Integration Transformation for AFMC (good luck putting that on a business card Pyro). I would like to publicly thank him for working so tirelessly for these past few years under an electron microscope. You have done our class proud sir…”Well done good and faithful servant.” By now it’s a bit of old news, but besides Johnny, our class added three more names to the two star roster (now seven total). New selectees are: Del Eulberg (Director of Installations and Mission Support, Headquarters Air Mobility Command at Scott), Kevin Kennedy (Deputy Director of Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance, Deputy Chief of Staff for Air and Space Operations at the Pentagon), and Dick Newton (Director, Plans and Policy, U.S. Strategic Command, Offutt Air Force Base). Congrats to all of you guys. Sure there will be more to follow. About all that is left to report is a few moves I saw on the Air Force Senior Leader Management Office web site: Former roomie Bill Chambers is now the permanent director of said organization, Joe Mudd is now the Deputy commander of CAOC 6 in Eskisehir, Turkey and Punch Moulton will soon (if he hasn’t already) take over the 18th Wing at Kadena. And…just to show that ’78 can hack the tough stuff, Paul Capasso will help lead the rebuilding of Keesler AFB after being trashed by Katrina as the new 81st Training Wing commander…go get ‘em Paul! Well, this was not as brief as I thought it was going to be. Please keep the info moving if you would…makes it a lot easier to write this thing. Not sure how many more chance encounters I can count on. May you all have a great Fall…see you next time. ‘78 is GREAT!
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Class of 1978 - United States Air Force Academy as of 21 Apr 2018 |
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