Greetings 78ers, unfortunately, I have to start off this quarter´s article with sad news of Arnie Douville´s tragic passing in February. Joe Bunecke did an amazing job contacting people for Arnie´s USAFA funeral that was scheduled less than a week after his passing.  Several classmates were able to be there to pay our final respects.  Thanks to Joe and all of you who were able to attend and show ´78 support for one of our own.  Debbie has asked that in lieu of flowers, please send donations to the USAFA Endowment, specifically designated to the Holaday Athletic Center Fund.  You can either send a check to the Endowment at the AOG address or donate online at www.usafa.org. Select GIVING at the top of the page then GIVE TODAY. Choose Holaday Athletic Center as the fund and please make a note in the Notes/Special Instructions box that this gift is "In Memory of Arnold Douville" for proper coding.

Heard from Dan Shick´s widow Georgine who brought us up to date with their brood.  She keeps up with the class via this article and enjoys hearing how everyone is doing. She went on further to share how all her kids have grown yet "seem more and more hungry for memories of their dad."  She is requesting that anyone who knew Dan either at the Zoo or operationally please share as many memories as possible with her via e-mail (georgwho@aol.com) .  She recounted how Stu Patterson '76 told a most humorous story at Dan´s funeral that was a great mood lifter-something about him dumping/burning fuel over London.  Her kids love retelling that one and she would very much like to have more, especially since they are nearly all out of the house.  Specifically, daughter Brittany is no longer on active duty (Reserves out of Hurlburt Field, FL) and works for Booz,Allen, Hamilton in DC;  Aaron is in The Springs running an Edward Jones office;  Adam graduates from college in May (past tense by the time this is read) and is looking for employment: Bethany is a freshman in college: 

Courtany is a high school junior and finally, Christian is at a school for handicapped.  Georgine is staying busy as a vision therapist staying in touch with Gary and Linda Hughes, Ron and Sharon Magnus and Jim and Anita

Schlichting.  Please consider helping out with any memories you might have!

Leo "Lucky" Kowatch said that he´s been "bouncing around trying to figure out what I´ll be when I grow up.  After airlines, 8AF as

Dep Chief Strategy planning warheads on foreheads for OEF & OIF Nov 2001 to June 2004, then "consultant" leading data link fielding for B-2, B-1 and AC-130 until July 2007, then my present gig…. Where I still run into classmates."  His present position is a Senior Principal Engineer for L3Comm in Florida which sounds like a pretty good place to be. 

Kevin Kennedy hung it up last summer and worked on an incredible "transition year."  He ran the AF Marathon just prior to his official retirement ceremony, was the senior AF rep at a funeral for a fellow airman and friend as his last official duty (presented the folded flag to the widow) and was hired by aerospace giant Testron in DC.  He and bride Allison bought a house in Williamsburg VA (their first in 21 years after continuously living on base), qualified to run the Boston Marathon (not sure what his time was) and is seeking the next step in his personal ministry.  I got tired just writing all of this!   Johnny Weida is also hanging it up this summer as he and Bonnie also plan their post AF life.  Thanks to you all for your many years of faithful service to our great nation!

On the active side, Dave "Limo" Scott is leaving the Pentagon and going to Ramstein as the USAFA DO.  He´ll join Craig Gourley who is the Reserve Mobilization Assistant (two star billet).  Also, in the tradition of ´78 NAF (numbered air force) commands Larry Wells will pick up 9th Air Force at Shaw in the next couple of months (will probably have happened by the time this article is published).  Congrats Larry…well done!

Speaking of well done, last year I mentioned that if you go to the AF home page and select "Air Force Senior Leaders" you would see four classmates…well that number is now five if you can believe it: Ed Rice (AETC commander), Dick Newton (Asst Vice Chief of Staff), Larry James (A2: Intell, Surveillance and Recon), Hawk Carlisle (A3/5: Ops, Plans and Requirements), and Bill Chambers (A10: Strat Deterrence and Nuke Integration).  I would call that truly amazing. 

That´s about it for this round gents…am "penning" this the day after Easter (hope everyone had a blessed day) which is also my final suspense day to provide the article to the Checkpoints editor.  Seems I can´t get away from doing my research paper the night before…guess some habits just don´t go away!

Hopefully there will be some more great input this next quarter as we´re traveling to USNA for our son´s graduation and USAFA to put another one in the class of 2015 (oh my, almost 40 classes after us…ugh!) in the next couple of months with plenty of pix so the threat is still there aplenty!

God Bless   

´78 is Great!