Greetings 78ers…

As I’ve had to do in several past articles, this quarter starts off with the sad news of three classmates’ passing.

Bill Chamblee passed in May but the AOG wasn’t notified until September. After the AF, Bill taught high school physics in Arlinghton VA for several years. Upon retirement from that, he an Anne moved to Rigny-Ussé, France living there until his passing. His funeral was held in the town square and Bill was interned in the village cemetery. I don’t know how to contact Anne for condolences unfortunately. 

Jerry Pellett passed in June and was interred in the USAFA cemetery in September when the AOG was notified. Unfortunately I don’t know much else but his obit is published at: https://obituaries.neptunesociety.com/obituaries/arvada-co/gerald-pellett-11352810.

Dave London passed in August however the AOG wasn’t notified. He and Kim have been in Beavercreek OH outside of Dayton for several years where Dave was actively involved with the USAF Museum. His obit is at: https://www.glicklerfuneralhome.com/obituaries/david-g-london/. 

Bill and Jerry’s names were read during the Class Memorial at our 45^th reunion but sadly Dave’s was not since we weren’t aware of his passing until very recently. A bit of an awkward segue into reporting on a most successful event from 2-5 Oct. For those of you who were there (and there were quite a few of us from the picture below at the memorial) I think I can say that it was a tremendous time (except for the game but we’ll get to that a bit later). For those of you who couldn’t make it please plan for the 50^th which will be here before we know it!

HUGE kudos to John “General” Paterson and Blake “Buddah” Lindner for all the organizing and spinning dozens of plates for nearly six months. General has agreed to lead the charge again for the aforementioned 50^th…thanks General! Also great work by the squadron reps for getting the word out in a very timely manner. There didn’t seem to be much heartburn about being informed on events and changes from the many folks that I talked to. The Colorado Springs Marriott was an excellent headquarters location starting with registration Thursday along with the mixer that night. This was a Corona weekend so of course they had first dibs on just about everything. That forced the class memorial to relocate from Arnold Hall to H-1…it wasn’t the ideal location but General did a good job of pulling it off and opening the event. Following Tom Avery’s eloquent invocation Class president Steve Dalby gave an equally eloquent class message. All members who have passed since the 40^th were recognized with a member of their squadron acknowledging “Absent Sir.” We then had two informative presentations by the Institute for Future Conflict (where our own Dave “Limo” Scott is the Academy Foundation liaison) and Computer and Cyber Sciences (former Comp Sci) department. Those who signed up had lunch in Mitch’s after watching the Noon Meal Formation. After lunch, most of us went to our squadron areas many of which had unfortunately been moved since our cadet days. That night were individual squadron events culminating an active day.

On Saturday morning, those who signed up/paid went to the Falcon Nation tailgate at Empower Stadium (Mile High) followed by the game. The traditional pageantry was on full display along with the traditional “prisoner display” where current exchange cadets go to their own side for the duration. As much fun as the pregame events proved to be it was a disappointing game starting with a 61 yard Army run for a TD not quite 2 minutes into the game. Despite the very disappointing 23-3 loss we were still able to enjoy the fellowship of decades of shared experiences. The picture below was taken by Ken Charpie after the memorial. (click picture to enlarge)

The shot below was from Mike Spain who was the first to send a class pic (am certainly hoping for more in the ensuing months). The guys from CS-27 had a nice dinner on Friday night. From L to R are Vinny Gallagher, Phil Farrell, Craig Taliaferro, Marshall Wong, Mike Spain, Rob Harrison, and Doug Whitlow.

Finally, before the reunion, Larry James sent a nice shot from the Kennedy Space Center after launching the Psyche mission on a Falcon heavy rocket on 13 Oct from Pad 39A. It’s on the way to the metallic asteroid 16 Psyche for orbiting and studying beginning in 2029. From right to left, Ernie St Gelais and his wife Marie, Greg Hollister and his wife Sherry, Susan and Larry, his brother and wife, Greg and Diane James. Larry happily reports that the launch was “perfect and the spacecraft is nominal on the first leg of it’s six year journey to the asteroid.” Larry further reports that Greg (retired Colonel) works for Maxar and Ernie is a software consultant after semi-retiring from the software/internet business he founded. Larry finally states that “I’m still loving being the Deputy Director at JPL…no where else to do these amazing missions!” Well said Larry and keep up the great work there.

That’s a wrap for this quarter…my sincere thanks for you folks continuing to send info and I look forward to more stories about the reunion so I can add to next quarter’s article!

God Bless

78 is Great!