Greetings 78ers…

I need to start this quarter off with sad news and an apology. For a variety of reasons I received late notification of Randy Dockendorf’s June 25^th passing (car accident east of Rapid City) and did not include the news in the September article disappointing several people. Steve Clark and John Hoar were particularly close to Doc and greatly impacted by his passing. Meeting at the Millard Prep School they were close at the Zoo, went to UPT together at Reese and remained close for all these years. Thankfully, Doc’s obituary made it in the September issue of Checkpoints thanks to Steve and John who wrote a most heartfelt tribute to their nearly lifelong friend in the Gone But Not Forgotten section (p 97 of the mag). Steve sent me a shot of them during UPT which is below. John is on the left with Steve in the middle and Randy on the right. Randy had visited Steve in Denver the week before his tragic accident. Those of us who knew Randy (I remember him well during our cadet days and some in UPT) remember a kind and extremely generous person who was great to be around…and those qualities never changed. He will be very much missed. I’ll try my best to stay ahead of any news of classmate passings and again my apologies to you guys for missing this one. 

Steve mentioned that he has been in Denver since his 2001 USAF retirement. He recently retired again after running the Denver Public School school bus program and says he is “in the second year of his third life of real retirement. Thanks for the info and to both Steve and John for keeping me straight!

Back in August, our Legacy class of 2028 had their Acceptance Day parade with our own Dick Newton honored to be the guest speaker. His excellent speech can be seen in this YouTube video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tA4wYhuyndY&t=1s) starting at the 12:35 minute point. Joining Dick at the parade and pictured below L to R were Dick, Blake “Buddah” Linder and Kip “Bonemass” Warton.

After Dick’s speech, Dick handed out a specially signed copy of Contrails to the eight Outstanding Basics from BCT (one from each squadron) at the17:52 minute point on the same video. Our class president, Steve “Dalbs” Dalbey did amazing work coordinating and sending all 8 contrails to eight distinguished classmates to sign and then gathered them all back for Dick’s presentation. Signers were: Dalbs, Dick, MGen (Ret) Steve Goldfein, Gen (Ret) Ed Rice, Gen (Ret) Hawk Carisle, VADM (Ret) Al Myers, Jack Kucera, and Paul Madera. A distinguished group indeed…well done everyone to so ably rep our GREAT class for this special event! 

Speaking of special event, the Kucera Event Center was dedicated on 6 Sept in a well attended ceremony. Jack and Vianne were appropriately honored for all they have done in so many areas. Below is a great shot of all our classmates who attended the event. L to R: Jim Weidman, Dave Scott, LC Crowe, Bob Chmielewski, Mike Skolaut, Bill Phipps, Jack, Wayne Hermandorfer, Konrad Gruca, Mack McCollum, Ed Hunt, Ron Furstenau, Mark Bushell and of course, The Bird. 

I continue to be amazed at the significant contributions that our class has made and continues to make. One such experience was recently reading America’s Secret MiG Squadron by ’62 grad Col (Ret) Gaillard Peck an excellent narrative on the 4477 TES Red Eagles (highly recommended). This was the unit that flew MiG 17, 21 and 23 jets at Tonopah Test Range north of Nellis from ’78-‘88. Many of us had the experience of flying against these guys in Red Flag and/or Weapons School (mind was a Green Flag in ’81 when I was at Torrejon). Anyway it turns out that we actually had three classmates fly in the squadron the ten yeas it was in existence: Nickie Fuerst, Hawk Carlisle, and Scottie Rogers. Col Peck made it abundantly clear in the book just how selective being assigned to the squadron was. Having three guys from the same class in an organization that selective is a notable achievement I thought. 

 That will do it for this installment. As a final plug, we can always use help with Legacy Class activities if you’re in the Springs area or can make it out. Please contact Kip directly at kip.warton@gmail.com. 

God Bless

78 is Great!