Greetings 78ers…

I hope everyone had a blessed Christmas and New Years! Am trying not to float away after all the rain we received in Dec/Jan here in CA. You probably read about the severe drought we’ve been under…well the snowpack in the Sierras is 250% above normal with most of the state’s reservoirs around the 75% mark (up from the 30’s) so that’s a good thing. Sadly the central and northern portions of the state had more than their fair share of mudslides and flooding. 

In the news, I heard from David Morrow who was sworn in this past November as the County Court Judge for Rankin County, MS. He hears civil as well as initial criminal matters and was appointed by MS governor Tate Reeves in September. At David’s investiture ceremony, the guest speaker was MS Congressman Michael Guest who called David “a man of honor and integrity.” After his AF stint, David attended Mississippi College School of Law and was admitted to the Bar in 1998 and was involved in county service along with his law practice. His initial words to the crowd were: “I pledge to you that I will walk with God and that I will make decisions that He would have me make.” 

Below is a great shot of David being sworn in by the Judge he replaced with bride Sara holding the Bible for him. Congrats David!

Last quarter I mentioned about Ron Magnus’ election to the National Academy of Construction’s Hall of Fame. I forgot however, to include the excellent recent shot of Ron that accompanied the announcement. I rectified that below (sorry Ron):

Rick Reaser continues to ably serve as the VP of the L.A. AOG Chapter and regularly hosts televised USAFA Football games. He did so again in Nov for the Armed Forces Bowl when we totally dominated Baylor…what a game! They had a respectable turnout with a group shot of several of the guys below.

L to R are: Joe Wendlbeger (83) and son Sebastian, Rick with Joe’s other son Alex, Joe Whitehead (99) and Jason Zarb-Cousin (also 99) and daughter Cosette. 

Since Dan Mesnard retired from Delta Airlines in Aug of 2020 (after 30+ years) he’s done some bucket list activities the latest personally building his own Velocity twin airplane. He was proud to share that his build will be the first 6 place offering from Velocity. Dan is building it at their hangar/factory 45 minutes south of Merritt Island FL…pretty much 7-8 hours per day. It went to paint a couple of weeks ago with his ultimate goal of getting it airborne by March or April then to Sun-N-Fun and Oshkosh this year. Quite the undertaking…safe aviating Dan!

Speaking of bucket list activities, late next month (Feb 25th) Fred and Cheryl Zeitz will be joining Ellie and me for a two-week trip to Israel! We discussed it at the Stealth Fighter reunion last summer and decided to make it happen. My daughter and Israeli son-in-law have lived in Jerusalem for many years and run several excellent ministries in the area. One of the income streams for their work is to conduct in-depth tours of the country and we’ve been meaning to attend one literally for years. Since we’re not getting any younger, we decided now is the time. Will post a pic or two in next quarter’s article. 

I was contacted by several classmates encouraging me on the AOG board election which I tremendously appreciated. By the time you read this the election will be complete and I either made it…or not. I was honored to run and represent our great class and that’s good enough. My sincere thanks to all of you who voted for me during the election.

Lastly, I heard from the AOG reunion folks yesterday and they are anxious to get the ball rolling for the 45^ththis year (yeah, you heard right!). By the time you read this you should have received a survey asking folks opinions on a variety of topics. If you didn’t get a chance to answer one please contact me or the AOG to get your druthers known. The biggest challenge is going to be getting a committee of COS guys to work the particulars. Will get the word out on our website (www.usafa78-is-great.org) or LinkedIn group (78 Is Great) to keep everyone up to date. 

Many thanks to the guys who took the time to write and my perpetual request is for you guys to shoot me something to share with the class. Really doesn’t need to be much and our classmates will appreciate hearing from/about you. Don’t be shy!

May you all have a great winter until next time. 

God Bless

78 is Great!