trip. Tanya spent her summer vacation… I mean, AF Reserve active duty assignment, in Europe. “Reserve duty at EUCOM headquarters [Stuttgart, Germany] was amazing! I worked in the J7 in Exercises and Assessments.” Her sister made several FedEx trips to near Tanya and they hiked all over the mountains of Italy, Germany, and Switzerland.
Peddle trekkers. Someone forwarded a photo of several recognizable ’80 folks. It looked fun, so I asked for details. Marianne (Owens) LaRivee was first to respond. “We talked about a biking or hiking trip at the last reunion, and we settled on a bike trip to Normandy: the Normandy beaches, American cemetery, French countryside, Brittany coast.” I would have thought Marianne might end with something like, “It was a trip of a lifetime!” Instead: “We had a fine time.” Sounds like a response on the Form 0-96.
CINC, Brian J. Duffy, “He was actually born in Ireland and has named his senior staff his Irish Brigade. He is from the OEF/OIF generation and we are starting to assume leadership roles across the VFW, trying to move away from the “bar-stool” comrades and posts to organize action to actively work on veteran homelessness, PTSD, suicide (of the 22 veterans we lose to suicide each day, only five received VA care) and reform, not privatization, of the VA.”
Tony, one of the “Irish Brigade”, and Brian. Keep up all the good work, folks! And if you write an annual Christmas/holiday letter this time of year, I’d like a copy. Not only do I love hearing from you, but I could definitely use some items from these updates during the leaner times of the year. Thanks… and God bless. –Don Myers, P.O. Box 153, Tyrone, GA 302900153; (770) 631-1429; DMyers80@hotmail. com; FB group: “USAFA Class of 1980”; Class Website: www.usafa80.org
1981
Kathy (Johnson) and Keith Odegard, Debbie (Wilcock) and Dave Ziebart, Bob and Teri Sajevic, Julie (Richards) and Karl Apfel, and Marianne (Owens) and Dave LaRivee having “a fine time.” Déjà vu… all over again. “So, I’m [Peggy (Dennis) Carnahan] in Orlando for simulator training. Staying at the Doubletree. Riding the elevator down for breakfast and it stops at another floor. In walks Paco Burrell. We had to laugh -- last time we saw each other was in the elevators at the Orlando Renaissance, several years ago. He’s still working DoD simulator stuff for Lockheed. Living in Pensacola. Doing really well.” Not stopping. Tony Wolusky shared some good stuff: “First, I finally finished my Ph.D. in education, after 10 long years, this March. I was also elected the National Judge Advocate General for the VFW at our National Convention in July. I provide advice to the commander, our 1.7 million members, and 6,600 posts on matters affecting the organization as a whole.” Regarding the VFW
Pre-dinner gathering. Moving forward, USAFA has many projects planned with a Sijan Hall remodel, library upgrade, Falcon stadium modernization, and chapel repairs. Many walked through the beautiful new Center for Character and Leadership Development building next to Arnold Hall. It is truly unbelievable and the collaboration rooms available in the building are state-of-the-art.
Our reunion is behind us now. It was a spectacular Colorado weekend (except for the gutwrenching double OT loss to Hawaii). The turnout was good (~380) for an odd year (35th) reunion. Average grad turnout per squadron was 4.75…how did you do?
Reunion dinner (Michelle and friends). Michelle Johnson hosted ’81ers at her place Thursday – the historic Carlton House on the south side of USAFA. Everyone thoroughly enjoyed it and for many, it was their first time there. (Do any of you remember having a football pep rally there in 1977?) Michelle also had an ’81 slideshow during her Friday presentation with many pictures from 1977-81 (back when we all had luscious locks and lean, mean bodies).
Pre-game (Mike Schilz, Rob Bonn, Jeff Braley, the Bird, and Sean Murphy). Bob Bledsoe led a discussion on the class gift endowment with a goal to raise $30,000 by the end of year. Our class fund has just over $62,000, so the class approved matching the $30,000 end-of-year goal in $5,000 increments from our fund up to $30,000. We only need a Members class fund status of approxi50% mately $30,000 to seed/pay for (mostly) reunion expenses. Five cadets from the Nepal trip were in attendance and one cadet spoke passionately about her experiences on the trip. Sabre Society Marty France spoke about the Donors trip he took to Cambodia with 26 the other group the endowment sponsored. Class VP Randy Worrall led a short class meeting and there were rumblings that he should run for president of the United States in November.
CS-11 Dinner (Alex Baggett, Ken Smith, Matt Durchholz, Rich Trentman, and Jeff Braley). Checkpoints · December 2016