into the 70s and 80s. This reminds us that football and reunion season is upon us. Although there isn’t an official Class of ’80 reunion, some of the ladies had a spontaneous gathering. We hear from MJ (Van Valkenburg) (Wayne ’78) Kellenbence, who is currently working with the AOG Graduate Programs entailing legacy class events, graduate and cadet rings, graduate Terrazzo tours, and even Colorado license plates for grads. “Three days a week is perfect. Leaves time to visit the grandbabies. July 29th, Tanya (Senz) Regan hosted a get-together at her house. Linda (Garcia) Cubero was visiting her dad in COS and Diane Moyer was showing her niece USAFA. Tanya threw out the invite and as you can see, 10 ladies made the event. In the back row from left are Betsy (Joviak) (Mark ’79) Pimentel, Linda, Diane, Karen (Cole) (Mike ’77) Selva, and MJ. Front row: Karen (Barland) Lucas, Peggy (Davis) (Eric ’81) Hillebrandt, Tanya, Sue Helms, and Allene (Dowden) (Steve ’80) Saleck.
A spontaneous gathering. In the category of bucket list accomplishments, Mike Opatwosky forwarded this note: “So, what is it that you do when your family drags you off for a week-long ‘vacation’ in Orlando in August? Well, you protest, you complain, you sweat and you melt, and then. . . you revolt. I revolted by going to Stallion 51, in neighboring Kissimmee, to fulfill a dream—stick time in a P-51! An hour-long flight that I flew 90% of—wisely, minus the landing and takeoff. Wow, what an experience for a landlocked medical doctor. By my parent’s report, I have been familiar with the P-51 since age 2 and built my first model of it at age 3. It’s been a love affair ever since. An amazing experience—highly recommended!”
The doctor is In! For some, travel it is, and we catch up with Janet Therianos on location from the Kenai and Denali
in Alaska. “Jim and I live in Northern Virginia. I retired in 2009 and stay home to help care for some family members. Jim and I love to travel when we can. I started a clothing outreach about a year ago called clothes4kidsva, which has taken off—there is so much need out there. God has blessed our efforts and we’ve provided a couple thousand bags of clothes to help others in just the short 18 months since we started. It’s a very rewarding effort. Jim works for a very small company that provides aviation program management services to U.S. government clients. He stays very busy and I get to hear shop-talk every day!” Alvin Sears was spotted along the Appian Way in Italy. “Friends, couldn’t resist to take a short vacation to Rome to help celebrate Allison’s upcomMembers ing birthday. A whirlwind trip, 52% but cool stuff, staying flexible as travelers should.” When queried as to why the photo of the Colosseum (with Alvin in the foreground) had so many small holes, our own Mike Pampush provided the answer, Sabre Society Donors detailing the salvaging of metal from the structure. 38 Round about to Atlanta and on the Delta employee bus, Don Myers spots a familiar face: Hank Wiley. As the conversation began, Don notices a “Navy” lanyard around Hank’s neck. When asked, Hank displays the photo of a newly-commissioned Navy lieutenant (O-3) that shares his last name. Seems Hank’s daughter, Alice, just entered active duty as a new dentist. She had recently finished the intense, five-week, Naval Officer Development School in Newport and was assigned to Naval Station Great Lakes, outside of Chicago. Oh, she was accepted to five dental schools and, with the Navy scholarship, chose the most prestigious, Columbia. Wife, Jamie, is a wealth manger with USAA, and son, Jimmy, is a double-major in math and physics at CU Boulder.
Proud parents of a new naval officer. We have experienced many events this past quarter both terrestrial and celestial. In worldly news, Air Force Maj. Gen.l James C. Witham, the National Guard Bureau’s director of domestic operations, was pictured briefing reporters on Hurricane Harvey response and relief efforts from the Pentagon briefing room. As if one hurricane isn’t enough, Jack Barker, PhD, decides to ride out Hurricane Irma at home in Miami, following a family sojourn to Ireland.
Finally, for those celestially minded—a solar eclipse. Respondents varied. Dave Anderson chose to do yard work with 85 percent totality. Luke Howard planned a golf outing in Charleston, SC, only to be rained out. Sharon Boyd claimed an 83 percent from northern Virginia. Fritz Wiegman sent photos from work. Dan Gill also went to South Carolina, where the clouds parted for a mere 10 seconds of corona viewing. Mike Carlson spent the weekend at Chilhowee Gliderport, TN, and launched 10 minutes before totality, touching down following the sun’s reappearance. Bud Uyeda drove to Lenoir City, near Knoxville, to get two minutes of totality. And Holly (Emrick) Svetz sent photos of a science experiment to view the 93 percent coverage in Parker/Aurora, CO. To be sure, all were not serious, with Brad Higginbottom responding, “Used a colander to view the eclipse; it strained my eyes.” Or maybe he was . . . . To end with some really good news from Diana (Green) Francois, “My health is getting back on track. I had a stem cell transplant with high dose chemotherapy the end of March. The result is the multiple myeloma cancer is in remission! Yeah!” Keep those cards and letters coming. –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 Hope all of our Texas and Florida ’81ers are recovering from an unusually overactive (and very destructive) hurricane season. This will be the holiday edition of Checkpoints for your reading pleasure. Our Falcons are having a transitional year with the loss of 32 seniors, but are certainly exciting to watch. Unfortunately, we lost to Navy in one of the most exciting games ever. The Falcons, as shown in that game, and again against UNLV and Nevada, are never out of any game. Class News: Cliff Perrenod was at USAFA in May for Col. Ben Pollard’s (Prep School commander from our era) funeral. Cliff said they had a nice flyover of a C-130 and two Members Canadian Snowbirds. Cliff is 51% still supporting SMC as a test and evaluation engineer at Los Angeles AFB. He sees Steve Thalmann and Bill Kaneshiro. I ran into Marty France in the Blue Silver club before our big win over UNLV. Marty is still Sabre Society Donors passionately leading the Astro Department to new levels. I 20 expect to see him more often as basketball season begins soon. I caught up with Jim Kilty at our 40-year high school reunion in Bellevue, NE. Jim is still busy with his three sons and flying for the airlines. It is always great to catch-up
1981
Checkpoints · December 2017 · 125