Greetings 78ers…

It is with great sadness that I start this installment off with the passing of John Evans in December. His memorial was held on 28 Dec in his mom’s hometown of Farmington CN and he will be interred in Arlington Nat Cemetery at a later date. He was living in Lebanon Illinois and was essentially retired. John was a career C-130 pilot and after AF retirement did corporate aviation flying and consulting. If you would like to send condolences to his wife Marilyn, her address is 124 McKendree Park Road, Lebanon, Ill 62254. 

Also in Dec, the AOG released the 2019 edition of the Distinguished Graduate Award and typical of our class, two of our classmates made it (out of five total awardees)! Jack Kucera and Ed Rice will be honored at the annual Founders Day banquet on Friday, April 3 for those who can make it (article here). They join Paul Madera who was honored in 2015. This is only the second time two members of the same class have been honored in a single year (first time was last year when two members of ’76 were honored). Also, we’re the second “youngest” (rocks to hear that) class to have honorees, ’82 being the youngest with Heather Wilson. Anyhow, I’ve mentioned Ed and Jack several times in past articles for all the incredible contributions they have made to society in general and the AF or USAFA specifically. They continue to ably represent our “GREAT” class and I have no doubt that this isn’t the last we hear from either of them. Please refer to the linked article above for a snapshot bio. Yet once again that ’78 leads the way…congratulations to you both!

My senility got the better of me last quarter when I wrote about the mini reunion of the Wareagles at last year’s Navy game. I asked all of them to provide a quick line on their goings on and omitted Joe Reheiser’sresponse (good help is indeed hard to find). He retired in June 2009 after 31 years on active duty and did a stint at Alenia-Aermacchi, an Italian aircraft manufacturing company for several years. He fully retired in 2015 and settled in Griffin, GA (about 40 miles south of Atlanta) with his bride Donna. He’s staying busy now as a volunteer mentor for a youth aviation program, flying/maintaining his Zenith 701 homebuilt airplane, playing golf, enjoying their 5 grand kids, and traveling. To say Joe has his priorities right is an understatement! Well done young man and apologize for the acute Scribe buffoonery.

Tom Keohane’s (Delta captain) bride Amy has been a faithful contributor literally for years and continues her installments. Latest is that their daughter (AF doc) pinned on major (stationed at Nellis) and Tom is talking retirement next year. They live in MN and am not sure what the relo plans are if any. Thanks as always Amy!

Rick Reaser continues to do great and glorious things in LA for his virtual USAFA tailgates (how ‘bout them Falcons finishing up 22^nd in the nation? With Navy as 20^th that has to be one of the few times in recent memory that two service academy team have been in the top 25). He helped organize and took part in a joint USAFA/USMA/LA USAFA Parent’s Club/LA USMA Parent’s Club meeting for the AF Army game. Bet that was fun and am sure it helped that we beat Army. Great pic below with Rick on the far left…keep up the great work sir.

Finally, in the small world department, I’ve shared in prior missives how I’m heinously living vicariously through my son Jonathan (USAFA 2015 and “Blitz” to his squadron mates) as he pilots the mighty F-15E at Mountain Home but currently is deployed rearranging some landscape in the desert. Turns out that one of his squadron mates happens to be Rob Zielinsky’s son Ryan (USAFA 2011 goes by “Ram”). As happens many times there are usually reasons/stories behind call signs. Anyhow they flew a recent mission together and Jonathon shared this very cool picture of he (right side) and Ram reminding us why they’re all over there. Thought you guys would enjoy it. Rob is still living in Sin City flying 737s in the “local area” and beyond. 

 That’ll do it for this quarter as I continue to request (nay, plead) for inputs…that’ll never stop. My thanks to this quarter’s contributors and may everyone have a blessed New Year (as I write this in Jan) and winter as we ramp up for another summer. 

 ’78 IS GREAT!