Greetings 78ers…

Yet again I must lead this quarter off with the tragic loss of two classmates.

Steve Fikar lost a courageous thirteen month battle with appendix cancer back in May. Funeral services were held at Emerald Coast Funeral Home in Fort Walton Beach FL. where he was highly involved in his community. Janet would very much appreciate condolences at 753 Boulevard of the Champions, Shalimar FL 32579-2241. A superb obit was posted at the funeral home web site at https://www.emeraldcoastfuneralhome.com/tributes/LStephen-Fikar.

Damon Lum also passed in May and was interned at the USAFA Cemetery on 28 Jun. Another nice obit is at https://www.tributearchive.com/obituaries/24904308/maj-damon-neal-lum-us-air-force-ret/colorado-springs/colorado/the-springs-funeral-services. Unfortunately I don’t have spouse contact info but if anyone does please let me know.

I’d like to give a big shout out to Winston Churchill and Dan Garner as well. Church has been most faithful to keep us informed on classmates passing from his Class Advisory Senate connections (Wayne Hermandorfer is the backup). If you aren’t received these notifications or his CAS minutes updates and would like to, you can reach him at wchurchill78@gmail.com. I ran into him during this past USAFA Graduation Week when we both ended up attending the same commissioning ceremony. Was great to catch up.

Dan is a member of a volunteer group that attends grad funerals at the USAFA Cemetery to ensure members of the Long Blue Line are in attendance. We had coffee during the same trip and he notes that as solemn an occasion as these are, the families are extremely appreciative of grads being in attendance. Our class owes you both a huge thanks! 

Moving to other items, got a nice message from Chris Krisinger who shared what he and classmates from Tiger 10 have been doing for several years. They call it “Huzzah Hoops” and it occurs during March Madness. They’ve been actively using Tourney Time for friendly “braketology” competition. As Chris ‘splains it:

Our ‘Huzzah Hoops’ group of eleven from Tiger Ten have been playing since 2013 with a few even earlier. Greg Davis is the ‘brains and muscle’ behind it happening every year; he’s the organizer and deserves all the credit. Jon Weiss suggested opening it up to all Tigers, but a core group has formed. Jim Kolling is the one Tiger from ‘79 because he was one of the early players. Mike and Liz Ackley came up with the trophy idea two years ago. Jon Weiss was the first to receive the trophy in 2021, and he added the “dog tags” identifying the annual winners. In the last four years we have added a small monetary prize to the winner with each player contributing. Over the years, there have been eight different winners of the tournament with two players winning twice. (Two time winners: Dave ‘Gatormac’ McLeran and Art Pena). The most fun and hilarity of the tournament comes with the on line “trash talk” that goes on among players. And of course, along with winning, bragging rights for a year accompany the trophy. This year’s winner was Dave McLeran

Below is a pic of the trophy complete with dog tags

And the proud winner proudly displaying it on his mantle:

Chris works for Blue Force Inc. (started by two ’76 grads) and is technically in A5 on the Air Staff working AF wargaming. He commutes to Joint Base Andrews occasionally but mostly is able to work from home thanks to COVID and if the present working condition persist sees it going for a couple more years. Interestingly enough his family is highly involved in the airline industry with his brother Kevin (’82 grad) a Southwest captain and Chris’ oldest (GA Tech grad) works for Delta so he and his bride are able to leverage some travel benefits.

Back in April, Ellie and I attended the 40^th F-117 Reunion in Vegas and had a tremendous time. Our class had quite a few of us get to fly the jet, several in the early stages when it was highly classified at Tonopah and guys flew the A-7 SLUF as the cover story. At the reunion 8 of us were actually able to sit down long enough to take a group shot below:

Top row L to R is: Mike Ritchey, Jerry Sink, K.D. Boyer and Mark Renelt.

Bottom row L to R is: Fred Zeitz, Craig Gourley, Scribe and Blake Bourland

Other guys who flew it were Rick Dunham, Rick Glitz, John Peterson, Gar Frith and Jerry Leatherman. Was great to see that many classmates in such a unique program and I was certainly proud to fly it as well. 

Looks like that will take us to the end of this quarter, I’m about out of room anyway. Please be a hero like people this quarter and send me some info on what you’ve been up to or classmates that you are in contact with. Even if you have never done so in 44 years it’s not too late. 

May you all have a blessed Fall and “see” you next quarter.

God Bless

78 is Great!