Class
News Don Myers 401 Chambray Hill Peachtree City, GA 30269-4247 (770) 631-1429 E-mail: DMyers80@hotmail.com FB group: “USAFA Class of 1980” Class Website: www.usafa80.org
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Members
I’ve been busy with life at home and with all kinds of comings and goings. It’s nice to sit down with a cup of coffee and “visit” with you like this. Please continue to send stuff my way so we may continue to do so. Admin note. Mark Reidinger is our rep to the USAFA Class Advisory Senate. Hopefully, you already got an intro emailing; however, if not (or you have been too busy until now), please check the Forum area of our class website (www. usafa80.org) for information. Mark says he will utilize this medium “to disseminate information and request your inputs on various issues of interest or concern [to] the AOG Board of Directors. There will be more, so Sabre Society check back often.” Donors Movin’ & Shakin’. “Marsha and I [Art Smith, flies for Delta] spent a week in Germany with Tom and Debbie Jones at Ramstein, where Tom is the 3-star Vice Commander of USAFE and AFAFRICA. While there, we got together with two fellow ’80 grads: Don Ralph is a 2-star and the Reserve Advisor to USAFE in addition to flying the 777 for Delta out of Detroit. Jay Neubauer is the USAFE Command Surgeon. Jay and his wife, Deb, will return to Colorado Springs this summer where he’ll oversee DODMERB, the Medical Evaluation Review Board that reviews applicants for officer candidate programs. Tom took us over to Verdun and St. Mihiel to see some WWI sites. On the drive back, we were stopped by the police in a small French town. The officer asked, in French, for our papers and Tom asked, ‘Parlez vous Francais?’ (Duh....) The gendarme was slightly surprised and said, ‘Oui. Et tu?’ at which point Tom’s French 101 suddenly left him. He did present his ID card and we heard the officer and his partner chuckle at General and Air Force. They let us go on our way, but we’re sure they were wondering how we won the war!” Art, Tom, and Jay were in Mach One together at the Zoo.
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Four suspicious characters: Art, Tom, Don, and Jay. Dr. Tom Mabry has been at the Zoo since 1991 in several jobs: T-43 instructor, associate professor, deputy department head, director of laboratories in the Behavioral Science and Leadership Department, and deputy registrar. He’s been in the registrar’s office for 16 years and, as of January, is the registrar and Student Academic Affairs director. Tom is responsible for folks spread across five divisions. John Pray shared the stage with Toby Keith at the Academy of Country Music’s live ACM Presents: An All-Star Salute to the Troops. It was there that John, the President and CEO of the USO, made a surprise presentation to Toby of the Spirit of the USO Award for the nearly 300 shows he’s performed for the troops and families in the U.S., in foreign countries, and on ships. By the time you read this, I expect Paul (Ricki Smith) Selva will be confirmed by the Senate as the next commander of the U.S. Transportation Command. As you know, anyone in these positions today will face some very tough budget decisions. John Morgado was elected to the unenviable position of Chairman of the Negotiating Committee for the 12,000 Delta pilots. As it’s impossible to please everyone, John, I’m sure it would be fine if you at least pleased. . . me! Did ya know we had a classmate representing the USA at the Sochi Olympics? OK, Jeff Mielke wasn’t an athlete while there, but he was a
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member of the US Olympic Committee and kept a blog about his experiences over the couple of weeks. Interesting observations on beer, hotel conditions, friends he made, etc.
Jeff making friends in Russia. Brian Tighe is a captain at American Airlines and is also on their union’s training committee. He’s part of the group working to blend American with US Airways. Next phase. Bret Luedke was feeling a little guilty for the many years between updates. “[I] must admit the last time I contributed was probably over 20 years ago. Doesn’t seem like it was that long, but it was prior to my separating from the Air Force while an instructor at the Test Pilot School at Edwards at the end of 1992. Time flies. I spent the next 20 years working for Lockheed Martin as an experimental test pilot for the F-22 program in Marietta, GA. I had one more stint back to Edwards for a couple years early in the F-22 flight test program, but then spent the rest of my time in Marietta flying first flights of the F-22s as they came off the Marietta production line. I was fortunate to be able to retire from Lockheed in July of last year and have since built a home and moved my family to the far northwest corner of Montana to the booming metropolis of Whitefish, population 6,000. Big change from the Atlanta area, but one we’re loving. Currently, when I’m not shuttling my daughter to and from various activities, I’m mostly a ski bum and working on getting one million feet of skiing vertical at the local ski area. I was born and raised in Billings. Although Whitefish is 8 hours away from Billings it is still like coming home. We wanted to get back to the northwest for the life style. Glacier National Park is about 30 minutes away, the ski hill is 15 minutes, and there are 3 large lakes within 30 minutes. In other words, lots of outdoor things to do year around.” When Rod Wilkinson stepped forward to be the POC for CS-05, he mentioned, “I’ve had my head down for the past year with work-related issues. I was a victim of the Government contracting paralysis and downsizing last year. I had to leave the OSD staff and my company, and landed a job supporting Army CIO/G-6. I’m still learning the language—they didn’t laugh when I pronounced their favorite word as hoo-hah.” Matt Neuenswander “attended Maj Gen John Posner’s retirement in Jan in DC. He and wife, Geri, put on a great affair. John retired at Mount Vernon in the midst of George Washington’s estate. It was very nice. Another one down; I will have to do the math on how many are left. There were a number of ’80 grads in attendance. I hope I am not forgetting any: Fred Smith, Chris Miller, Mike Skinner, Chris Schroeder, and Rich McFarland were all there in force. While in DC I stayed with Bill (BA) Andrews and his wife, Stacey. Bill has a fighter bar in his basement and a dock on the Potomac in his back yard. Bill teaches at the National De-
Post-retirement party: Chris Miller, Matt, Chris Schroeder, Mike Skinner, Franceska Schroeder, and the McFarlands.