memoirs. He found himself living Lee’s adventures with him. Tom loved Lee’s straight-forward approach to each assignment and challenge. He loved his humor, especially when it involved our classmates or others that Tom has met or known. If you have not read the two volumes, please reconsider. You will not be disappointed. Teri and Nelson O’Rear continue to enjoy northern Indiana. Their daughter’s family joined them from Grosse Pointe Farms, MI, for Christmas, and their local son’s family hosted everyone for Christmas dinner. Tom and Liz Hill live in their local area. During one of their recent periodic talks, Tom was quite pleased with Clemson’s football victory over Alabama to sit atop the final team ratings. Thanks to all who shared with the rest of us this quarter. –Earl N. “Nelson” O’Rear, 50582 Stonington Drive, Granger, IN 46530-8243; (574) 273-2597; Email: enoandtjo@gmail.com
“I’m still working on second book, Cold Warriors: Pillar of Fire, hopefully due this fall. Very sorry to hear about your back situation and hope you are making a fast recovery. Our best to Caroline. We remember fondly our visit to you in 2010. Blessings, Bo.” Thanks for the update, Bo. See you at the 55th. And this from Harry Paddon: “Pat and I went to Hill AFB for a reunion of my Vietnam F-105 squadron, 34th Tac Fighter Squadron, which was stationed at Korat RTAB. The 34th is now at Hill AFB and was the first unit to get the F-35. The new 34th gave the old 34th a close-up look and inspection of the aircraft. Great airplane. Then Pat and I spent a week going through Zion and Bryce Canyon National Parks and a couple of days in Las Vegas after the reunion.” Thanks for the email Harry, and for the picture of you pointing to your name on a list of pilots on a blackboard in the squadron. It had a month in 1968. That was the 100-mission date; the magic date for the pilots to rotate back to the States or elsewhere.
1962
Hi Redtags. Well I’m home recuperating from back surgery. The doctor pinned the L-4 and L-5 vertebrae together so that I will be able to stand erect again. Been home four days now. Had a good surgeon; no complications and no pain so far. Got this from Lew Svitenko in October: “Hope it was a beautiful birthday Jack. Hope you enjoyed it to the fullest. They are more precious each year as we get longer in the tooth!” I can attest to that, Lew. Thanks for the email. Info on our elected Class officers: “On Nov. 17, 2016, at 12:37 PM, MJ Kellenbence, Class of ’80, wrote: Class President: Col. (Ret) Richard L Klass Class Vice President: Maj. Gen. (Ret) Donald W Shepperd Class Secretary: VACANT Class Treasurer: Mr. Jerry L. Smith Class Historian: VACANT Class Scribe: Lt. Col. (Ret) John W Jamba Class Advisory Senate: Maj. Gen. (Ret) George W. Larson Thanks everyone for the updates. If changes occur or if you add a secretary and historian let me know.” Thanks for the updates. Any RTB interested in filling a vacancy should submit their name to Dick Klass. Received an email from “B0” Ohman: “Greetings from South Texas. We are now down here in San Antonio at Blue Skies of Texas West (formerly Air Force Village II) with Nan Smith (Kinney, ’62) and Don and Ginny Hallager. Great place with very friendly folks. Much history of the Air Force (and other services, too) here. Invitation to all RedTags to come for a visit. Update on family: Nannette (‘01), with husband, LtCol Ryan Menath, son-in-law, ’01, is in Grand Forks, ND. Ryan is getting a doctorate in history at University of North Dakota heading back to USAFA History Department in the summer of 2018. First granddaughter, Felicity, USAFA, 2028, joined her brothers Ryker and Brecken, last February. Son Nick is a sheepherder, and multi-business owner in San Angelo, TX.
Harry told me he had just talked to Russ Goodenough about a book that Russ was currently writing. I hadn’t heard from Russ in years so I called him and got an update. Russ is happily retired and is writing a book about the Vietnam War. It is over 300 pages right now so Russ had Bob Davey edit the book. I told him that I heard that he had ejected from an F-4 over Ocala, FL in 1964. In 1965, the Air Force found a malfunction in the F-4 design that affected the plane during dogfights/ Members scissors maneuvers. The plane 79% would nosedive to the right and enter a spiral/spin. That’s what happened with Russ’ plane; so he ejected near Ocala over a forested area. He finished his upgrade and subsequently rotated with Sabre Society Donors his squadron to Vietnam. On one of his missions, his plane 12 was hit and he was forced to bail out over Laos. He was rescued and returned to his unit. I’d say that he received some intense, unwanted experience in ejections from a jet fighter. He’s doing fine right now, though. Now for the 55th reunion update. I just talked to Jim Mack about the Colorado Contingent’s plans for the 55th reunion. They plan to have the reunion
on the weekend of the Navy game in October. They plan for minimum walking/travel. First, on Thursday they will plan a golf outing for the brave and hearty golfers in our class. Then on Friday they will arrange a visit to the new CCLD building or whatever you want to visit. Then on Saturday, we go to the stadium and watch the game in the press box on big TVs. It will be a game versus the Naval Academy at Navy, No shivering in the Academy’s cold wind. We’ll be inside. Then we have dinner at the hotel. This is a preliminary program. If you have a suggestion, let them know when you get their contact letter/email. Got an email from Jerry Singleton with more information about his trip to Joe Guilmartin’s “Festschrift” which took place at Ohio State University in September. “A Festschrift is a German term indicating a collection of writings to honor an eminent scholar. There were three non-academic presentations on the second day. Gen. Ron Fogelman (USAF Chief of Staff, retired, Class of ’63, who was a cadet taking military history at the Academy when Joe was teaching there) and Gen. Al Gray, (USMC commandant, retired, who was in charge of the evacuation of Saigon in which Joe participated in April 1975) were both unable to attend in person but each sent 15-minute videos of remembrances about Joe. Joe made some powerful friends in his career. I was the third non-academic presentation and was allowed 10 minutes to speak about the military side of our friend and brotherin-arms. Guilmartin and I were classmates at the US Air Force Academy, in helicopter training and overlapped briefly in late 1965. I recounted some memories of those times, related a story from Joe about firing the last shots of the Vietnam War on his last mission out of Saigon, and a couple of classic Guilmartin witticisms.” Lastly, I want to thank the Redtags for your kind emails and messages about my stay in the hospital and rehab center. I was in the hospital for two days for surgery on my lumbar vertebrae. It went extremely well. No post-op pain. Can you believe that? Then two weeks in a rehab center for therapy. I’ve been home for five days and am still progressing very well. Looking forward to seeing as many of you as possible during this coming year. Sincerely, Jack Jamba. Go Redtags! –John W. “Jack” Jamba, 4 Judy Court, Satellite Beach, FL 32937; Home: (321) 777-5520; Office: (321) 861-6279; Cell: (321) 432-1370; Email: jwjamba@aol.com
1963
2017! Can you believe it? To start, Gil Merkle sent the following from Linda, Cy Rickards wife: “In November, Cy and I traveled to Georgia, where Cy was able to get together with Gary Saban, Doug Hardgrave and Jeff Heal.” The happy group is pictured on the next page.. “In August, Bud Gilligan and his wife, Joyce, and Doug Hardgrave and his wife, Jan, came out to California, where we all met up at Les and Judy Denend’s home in St. Helena. Checkpoints · March 2017