the video. If you Google “best classroom April fools prank ever” you will find many links to the video and articles about it. Later, Steve provided me the “rest of the story.” He did a few local interviews and several national media interviews—Huffington Post, People magazine, New York Daily News, and others. Needless to say, Steve gave all the credit to others, especially his students and talked about what fantastic students he gets to teach. Unfortunately I missed most of the CNN clip, but I did catch one thing because the closed captioning was on. The anchor was saying something about “this guy’s 15 minutes of fame…” Well, Steve, for our entertainment, I hope you have more than “15 minutes of fame” ahead of you! Thanks for sharing. Pentagon Sightings. In the Puzzle Palace I run into classmates from time to time. I see Ken Ohlson every day as he sits one row of cubicles over from me in the same Division in J33. I regularly run into TJ Twiford, Michael Bob Starr, Chuck Henderson, Brent Griffin, Mike Mote, Troy Sullivan, and a host of others working in the building. I recently ran into Kim (McQuarrie) Tebrugge in the Pentagon Athletic Center (PAC). Kim is a Reservist and is assigned to the HQ USAF Public Affairs office. With all the (mostly unfavorable) USAF news lately, she has had her work cut out for her. She’s been working quite a few number of days as she is taking some time off from her private sector career as a strategic communications specialist. I had one of my last lunches with Mike Rokaw here in the Pentagon… at least for a while. Mike is headed off to Los Angeles AFB once again where he will be leading one of the GPS program offices—group level command. He and the family are looking forward to returning to the sun and sand of Southern California. For a Long Island native he surly has taking a liking to the West Coast. I have also made the long walk from the Pentagon to North Parking more than once with Mo Krishna who is also working on the Joint Staff. If you’ve ever had to make that walk, you know it’s quite a ways. Anyway, it gives us a good chance to catch up. We’ll both be staying on in our current jobs for another year or two. Until next time. This wraps up another edition of the True Blue notes. Keep the email coming and if you get to DC, I’ll be disappointed not to hear from you. The Joint Staff is a blast (not really), but I always have time to have lunch with old friends, so stop by. True Blue! James. Michael D. Sundsted 1805 Macadams Place Alexandria, VA 22308 703-307-0903 Michael.Sundsted@whmo.mil Class Website: www.zoomienation .org–”Class of 1993”
89%
Members
(19 Sabre Society Donors) (Editor’s note: We did not receive an input from Mike for this issue. Please send him your information and photos for the next issue.) Craig Allen 85 Quail Creek Drive Del Rio, TX 78840 H: 830-313-7089 C: 660-864-5374 kegsdoolittle@yahoo.com
for Southwest and serving as the 163rd FS/DO flying A-10s in Ft Wayne. Lando said that Chris Chocolaad was in his ROTC Det/CC training class at Maxwell last summer. Chris went on to the University of Nebraska at Omaha. Finally, Lando said that Bill Allen is living in Denver as a defense contractor. Bill got married last year and he and his wife just had their first kiddo a few months ago. Thanks for the update Lando. Kent Hennings dropped me a line from Cave Creek, AZ, which he said is on the north side of Phoenix. Kent said he has been married for 10 years now and that he and his wife have three kids, with the youngest just arriving this spring (their second boy). He said he is looking forward to seeing people at the reunion and getting in some golf rounds. I hope to join you on the links Kent. Trey Chastain checked in from Kadena where he is finishing his third year as the 18th Maintenance Group Deputy Commander. Trey said they have loved their time there, but they are looking forward to heading to Ramstein, Germany in Aug to begin a new staff job. Recently, in the Pacific region, Trey said he has seen Mike Ritzman and his family. Trey said they took a trip together with the Ritzmans to Thailand. He has also seen Dave Eaglin, Dave Mineau and Daymen Tiffany during his time in Kadena. Finally, Trey said that Will Kelley visited recently from Korea, where Will has a civilian job. Trey and Will are pictured below. Thanks for the update Trey!
Will “Leroy” Kelley and Trey Chastain in Kadena. Joe “JT” Thill sent me a note from Pentagon where he is a fighter flight test engineer, working as the Chief, USAF Red Team. He said he will soon be moving on to Wright Patterson AFB to work for AFRL Special Projects. He attached a recent pic that Joe likes to call “Big Chief with Little Chief.” Joe also relayed that Ted Gatlin is the MQ-9 SPO at Wright Pat. He also said that his old roommate, Col John Newberry (4-below to Col), is the deputy PEO at WPAFB. Nice work. Finally, Joe said that he and his wife, Bridget, Barton (‘95) just had their seventh child in Jan... he said his house is always rockin’. On a somber note, Joe relayed that he and his wife tragically lost their six-year-old son Grant about a year ago in a tragic accident while they were on leave. Joe said they say they have six kids at home with them and one at home in heaven. Great to hear from you Joe, and sorry for the loss of your son.
78%
Members
Summer 2014. Our reunion is right around the corner. Mark your calendars for 24-28 Sep 14, which is the weekend of the Boise St. football game. Check the AOG website for details. Kevin Pfeil is heading up the Reunion Committee. The AOG page for the ‘94 20th Reunion has links to the U.S. Air Force Academy Class of ‘94 Facebook page, as well as the ‘94 Reunion hotel, the Cheyenne Mountain Resort. Check it out, make plans and I hope to see you this fall. As we lead up to this event, I’ve been hearing from a lot of Sabre Society grads and have gotten some good updates. Donors John “Lando” Landis emailed me from Syracuse University, where he is the AFROTC Det Commander. Lando said that he is totally enjoying campus life and leading cadets to their commissioning. Lando said he has recently heard from Steve “Bugs” Bunting, who is a Langley flying F-22s as the 149th FS/CC. Lando also has heard from Southwest pilots Robb Brimmer and Calley Poarch, as well as Ed Castaneda who is flying
9
CSAF and Joe Thill Betsy (Moore) Russ sent me a message from Colorado. She lives just north of USAFA with her husband, Steve Russ (‘95), who is the Defensive Coordinator for the football team. Betsy said she has been out of the AF since ‘99 and has been a full-time mom pretty much ever since. She said that Matt Glover is at USAFA working in the athletic department. Betsy also said that Stan Lawrie is there as the 4th Group AOC. She said they see Stan quite often, as their daughters are great friends. Also a Group AOC is Shane Haughian and Byron Miranda is there finishing up a tour in the Mech Department. Betsy also said she saw Zach Zeiner recently at a Christmas party. Finally, she said she gets to see fellow Colorado residents, Carla Hunstad and Julie (Adair) Cook (‘95) quite often. They are
145