Greetings 78ers…

It is with great sadness that I report Greg Intoccia’s (CS-05) passing on 25 May 2019 in Olney MD. His memorial was held on 31 May at Donaldson Funeral Home in Clarksville PA. Their website (www.donaldsonclarksville.com) has an outstanding video of Greg’s life in the Obituary section (dozens of pictures from USAFA graduation on). A Mass of Christian Burial was held on 1 June at St. Peter Catholic Parish in Olney. Greg will be interred at Arlington National Cemetery on 30 Oct 19. Mary and their daughters invite any classmate who is in the area to meet at the cemetery admin building no later than 1200 EDT. Condolences can be sent to Mary at 18500 Viburnium Way, Olney MD 20832-3077. 

Greg was an International Affairs major at USAFA and had an MA in Poly Sci, a J.D. and a Ph.D. He was a JAG during his active duty days as well as in the reserves. He was the special counsel for the Cybersecurity and Communications Reliability Division of the FCC and was extremely active in his community. Our thoughts and prayers go out to Mary and the girls during this difficult time.

John Albert sent a very moving message and picture of him standing besides his CS-29 roommate Tom Kanataken last month at MorningStar at Bear Creek in C Springs (2450 Lower Gold Camp Road). MorningStar specializes in individualized memory care for people with Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia. Sadly, Tom developed early onset of dementia and has deteriorated to the point where he struggles to express himself. John said that Tom does enjoy visits from old friends and classmates as the pic below shows. Tom’s bride Sue wanted to pass on to any of us living or visiting the area to please contact her at skstanton54@comcast.net or 719-337-3430 and she would be happy to facilitate a visit.

Tom had been flying for Delta since ’99 after taking early AF retirement in ’94. He went to Test Pilot School and flew/tested every bomber (to include the FB-111) in the fleet as well as teaching in the Aero department at the Zoo. 

John took early retirement from Southwest last year and settled in Olympia with his bride Michelle (Cicchini, ’81). He said he sure doesn’t miss the early wakeups and the other joys of commuting. Thanks so much for sharing about Tom with us sir.

Our own Ed Rice has been the USAFA Board of Visitors Chair for several years and retired in San Antonio. Ed is an independent consultant and as well as the Executive VP for the United Way of San Antonio and Bexar County. Back in April during the BOV meeting my lovely bride Ellie (both of us are USAFA Admissions Liaison Officers here in the LA County area…our empty nest activity when we aren’t visiting kids/grandkids) was asked by USAFA Admissions to brief the BOV as one of 5 invited ALOs worldwide on program issues and challenges we face. Ed and Ellie had a chance to chat a bit and she shared that he and Teresa are loving life on the River Walk!

Speaking of my bride, she’s been doing great things for years teaching AF financial literacy with her nonprofit Heroes at Home (yep, shameless plug) where myself, John Weida and Fred Zeitz are on her board. We have telephonic quarterly meetings and it’s great to talk to Pyro and Dr. ZZ during the meetings. After getting his EE Ph.d post AF retirement Fred is a principle scientist with BAE Systems in Boston working on some type of programs (he’d have to kill me of course if he told me anything about it) with retirement hopefully in the not-so-distant future. He wants to take bride Cheryl to a lot more exotic places that they’re able to visit now. John, on the other hand, hung up the spurs last year just prior to our 40^th where he was the SAF IA Director of Foreign Policy, Programs and Strategy. He and bride Bonnie moved the house and dogs from Reston VA to the Springs. He’s catching up on all the stuff he couldn’t do when he was working and sent the pic below to prove it. They truly love the CO lifestyle and couldn’t imagine living anywhere else (I’m taking notes Pyro!).

There are several classmates in the greater L.A. (L.A. and Orange Counties) area and when we aren’t riding out 7.1 mag earthquakes (that 5 Jul installment was sure fun…NOT!) many of them are hanging out either in the local LA AOG chapter or the AFA. Rick Reaser is VP of the AOG chapter and runs an engineering department for Raytheon in El Segundo. He has been e-mailing/in contact with several classmates as well: Burner Sargeant (CEO at Marvin Test Solutions in Irvine), Archie Riggins (Director of Ops for VTI Instruments also in Irvine), Lance Smith (commercial pilot), Glenn Dildy (Program Manager at LA AFB), J.T. Sink (Biz Development for L3), Larry James (JPL Deputy Director in Pasadena), and Dave Thompson.

That’s a wrap for this installment. My sincere apologies for being a slacker last quarter and not submitting an article but received absolutely no inputs. I truly appreciate the inputs I received this go-round and please consider sending something (anything) especially if you haven’t responded lately…or at all. Hope you all have a blessed Fall.

God bless

’78 IS GREAT!