CLASS NEWS Jason Gooch’s retirement—congratulations! He apparently wasn’t messing around and retired to the day (probably to the hour) of his 20 years… literally retired at 20 years, 0 months and 0 days. The award for no wasted time goes to Gooch. Congrats!
Bill also recently worked Counter-UAS issues with BJ Lopez, who is a civilian on the Air Staff.
member to send me your updates and until next time, Keep the Pride! –Andrea Themely, andrea.themely@gmail.com
1996
Jason Gooch’s retirement at 20 years, 0 months and 0 days! From left are Phong Nguyen, Patrick Albrecht, John Moro, Jason Gooch, Renardo Brown, George Hock, and Chad Bondurant. Norm Lee wrote from Osan Air Base with a photo… he is flying for Kalitta Air which is a 747 cargo company. They fly globally for DHL and other civilian cargo airlines, as well as regularly for the US Air Force and other militaries. He was recently at Osan Air Base doing a PacRim rotation. Norm’s family is doing well and his oldest just started school. He wrote that he may go work somewhere else but wants to get a selfie at the Taj Mahal first… send that selfie in when you get it, Norm!
Norm Lee’s selfie at Osan Air Base…Taj Mahal next edition! Congratulations to all of our classmates who just pinned on O-6 and will pin on in the next few months! Bill Barrington and Chris Ingleton both recently pinned on their new Eagles on the same day in October at the Pentagon… see pictures. Bill told me that Keith Crawford Members also had his ceremony at the 77% Pentagon, but he works as the SOCOM liaison to Immigration and Customs Enforcement. And I saw Chris Zuhlke’s photos on Facebook from his promotion ceremony at Nellis… congrats! Bill told me he is Sabre Society Donors now on the Air Staff as the A10 Action Group chief, and his 10 wife, Cathy (’97), is a division chief in J33. Other classmates at the Pentagon are (not all-inclusive!) Renae (Bartalone) Hilton, Jeff Kronewitter, and Rich Carrell. 132 · usafa.org
Bill and Cathy Barrington and sons Will and Adam at his O-6 promotion ceremony.
Terence Parker, Chris and Cindy Ingleton, BJ Lopez, and Daryll Taylor at Chris’ O-6 promotion ceremony. I also had the privilege of spending a couple days recently with Julie Grundahl shadowing her in her position as the 11th Wing vice commander at Andrews Air Force Base. She is doing an awesome job (as usual!) and she and Scott Grundahl and their daughter Grace are doing awesome. And lastly, I was super lucky enough to catch up and have dinner with one of my dear friends Karen (Hanchett) Slocum as she flew into town for the recent Air Force Association conference where she accepted the Air Force Citation of Honor for her squadron! Karen is the commander of the 19th Space Operations Squadron. She and her squadron were recognized for the amazing gamechanging work affecting combat operations all over the world. Congratulations Karen and the 19 SOPS! Karen and husband, Jason, are doing awesome, and it was great to see her during her whirlwind trip in which the airlines lost her luggage, kept her up all night with updates on where said luggage was, then failed to deliver it when they said they would, almost making her accept the award from the Chief of Staff of the Air Force in her jeans, but luckily allowing her to have her luggage when she drove back over to the airport, saw her suitcase in a window, and banged on the door until they let her in, even though they were not going to because they said “we don’t open for another 30 minutes.” Airline travel at its finest. I was literally ironing and piecing together uniform parts for her, and she was about to be Karen Themely to accept the award using my name tag and service dress, but thankfully she didn’t have to be. Crisis averted. Hope your winter holidays are fulfilling! Re-
Hello Bricks! Thanks to each of you for making our 20-year reunion the largest in AOG history (or so they tell me!). We had 507 total with 374 ’96ers (registered only) and many more just showed up to events when their schedules allowed. THANK YOU! The following folks played a huge role in putting the reunion together: Linell (Bartholic) Letendre, Tom McElhinney, Gigi (Angeles) Simko, Jenn (Graving) Maceda, Melissa (Baumann) Phillips, PK Carlton, and Kerre (Ellis) Meffre. I tried to get as many names in here as possible but ran out of space so if I missed you— we’ll get you in a future edition. Too many updates from the weekend… so I am posting a few generic, catchall pics and a couple from Bricks that couldn’t make the reunion. Wednesday night was great with a few of us hanging around the Cheyenne Mountain Resort (CMR) bar for a few hours. At some point Members Wednesday night I saw Craig 69% Hancock and his wife, Joy, Jeff Goggin, Reid and Lori (Ediger) Rasmussen, Jennifer Hammerstedt, Robbie Kilroy, Tom and Esther (Obert) McElhinney, Erin Pyle, Shane Reniker (who I found out I went to high Sabre Society Donors school with), Carrie (Barker) Wood, Dave Michaud, and 9 Scott Gibson, plus lots of others around the fire pit. Mark and Maria (Villapondo) Holbrook were back for backto-back reunions—looking forward to seeing them every three years from now on as we hit the ’95 and ’96 reunion circuits. This was a good mix of folks at the CMR bar and we closed down the bar starting off the reunion the right way. Thursday was a blast as more and more folks showed up… I had an opportunity to welcome many of you at the registration desk. It was great to spend a few minutes catching up with Matt Soria, Elizabeth (Biskup) Clay, Jai and Annie Pope, Jeremy and Claudia Johnston, Vernon and Patty Fletcher, Rick Dwyer, Robin Orth, Eric and Tracy (Dupree) Coyne, Charlie Nelson, Brian McCray, Justin Cooper, Tammy (Smith) Schultz, Kristi Cummings, Mike and Valerie (Hardaway) Malley, Brent Maier, Shawn Anger, Matt and Deb Brooks, Ray Chehy, Mike Artelli, Scott Dyer, Joey Gower, Jeff Hogan, Dave Jesurun, Jacques Joffrion, Andrew McWhorter, Chuck Metzgar, Fred Millet, Brad Morrison, Chris Ratigan, Chris VanHoof and Glenn Rineheart plus so many others. Tom McElhinney and Reid Rasmussen hosted a great golf tournament; luckily they knew the rules