Bob Kay
40411 Tesoro Lane
Palmdale, CA 93551
Home:(661) 274-2201
Work: (661) 824-6426
Email: president@f4phantom.com

On a very sad note, I'm very sorry to say that Bruce Gasper passed last month. The AOG doesn't have any info and his bio in the Register of Graduates is very old. If anyone has his family's contact info and could pass it on. I'll get it to the AOG as well as print it in the next article.

On a more positive note, we have our first four-star in Ed Rice. It was announced last month that Ed has been selected for the rank but no word yet on where he will be going. Congrats Ed!

Bob "Z" Zielinski sent a very cool picture of himself and his two boys. He currently resides in Las Vegas (Nevada not New Mexico) where he is flying 737s for a corporate airline out of McCarran International Airport. His eldest son, Capt Todd Zielinski/Class of 2004 (Kunsan AB, Korea, assigned to the 8th Fighter Wing flying F-16s), his youngest son, USAFA Cadet Ryan Zielinski/Class of 2011 (is a second classman at USAFA flying as a glider instructor pilot in the USAFA Soaring Program), and Bob were all on hand for a Fall 2009 Football Weekend at USAFA. They gathered in the 4'h Cadet Squadron hallway (he mentioned that it was "literally a construction project in work as cadet rooms were undergoing repair and remodeling"). They took the picture in front of the "Fightin' Fourth's Battle Wall" since all three of them are "Fightin' Fourth" legacies - they all were or are in the 4th Squadron during their third class year.

This past Saturday, I attended a course at the Aero Club at Edwards Air Patch where I work and the young man teaching the class was one Tim Taylor. .. Jr. .. son of our own Tim Taylor. Young Tim did an excellent job providing info to us new CF!s who have attained the rating(s) from the recent FAA Military Competency rulings. He is a '04 grad and was in Air Traffic Control for several years before separating from active duty but is still in the Reserves here at Edwards. He started private flying at 17ish and is now a 1000+hour CFI and CFII as the primary instructor at the Aero Club. Papa Tim has a great deal to be proud of in his son. He retired from the AF in '99 (last assignment was commander of the 94'h ATS at the Zoo) and flew for a couple of airlines before landing a great job at UPS. He and Lorraine still suffer terribly in the Springs while he commutes to Louisville for his UPS gig. Besides son Tim, daughter Kristi is in New Your City so they are considering getting back in to the cadet sponsorship program to get rid of some excess food around the house.

Speaking of Louisville, Tim (Sr) also mentioned that he ran into Greg Willis earlier this year yesterday in the UPS Louisville ops center. Greg has been with UPS for many years and is an JOE (evaluates new guys on the line I think) check airman living in Phoenix. They go all the way back to their Northwestern Prep days in Minnesota before the Academy!

Finally, guess there's a lull in the action before all the summer moves but the only one that I saw this quarter was Joe Reynes returning from Iraq and going to Joint Forces Command in Norfolk. Great work doing the real mission while in Baghdad Joe.

Afraid (or thankfully depending on your point of view) that is all the info I have this quarter. Please consider sending in an update to me in the next few weeks so the Summer article is more informative. There are a huge amount of you guys who have never written so take the plunge or my threat to put in Kay info will come true. God Bless --'78 is Great!