’81–Second to None!
We enjoyed celebrating with many of you at our recent Reunion! Cadets who we sent to Nepal and the Cambodia trip shared what the experience meant to them personally and professionally. Leadership, teamwork, understanding diversity and service were the common themes. We continue to encourage everyone in our class to support the Class of 1981 International Cultural Immersion Program Fund endowment. These programs give cadets an opportunity to gain first-hand knowledge and experience with varied and diverse cultures, helping them build the skills they will need as future uniformed officers and civilian leaders to succeed in today’s global environment. Our ’81 Class has raised over $311K toward our $1M goal to support this effort to date. We are asking all classmates to consider committing to a small monthly gift over the next five years.
in the Arizona Bowl. Gregg sees Scott Alexander at the A-10 Training Squadron. Gregg travels quite a bit and sees Chet Nowak (still with Raytheon) at the airport. He used to see Lionel Trujillo (FedEx), but Lionel has moved to Las Cruses, NM. Gregg along with many other AF fans was at the bowl game in December. Allen Schmid’s wife was kind enough to take pictures. The Wing Commander (a grad) at Davis-Monthan AFB told the base to be at the game (alternate work location)! Steve Thalmann emailed Gregg about the game not realizing he and Gregg were classmates – awkward! Actually, they had a good laugh about it. Gregg recently had dinner with his Doolie roommate, Bill Napolitano, while in Hampton. I was chatting with Frank Cheeseman at a recent AF basketball game and his son has an appointment to the Coast Guard Academy and is leaning heavily toward attending. Also, I recently heard from the kindest man in our class, Eric Garvin, expressing excitement for my wife and I as we build our “final” home near Monument, CO! (Only eight minutes from the North Gate!) Eric and Anna live in Palm Coast, FL in their “final” home.
Match Challenge Update! Our ’81 class voted to allocate $30,000 out of our class discretionary fund to the ’81 Endowment, on a dollar for dollar match. THANK YOU to all those who helped rise to the challenge! Please continue to spread the word to give! http://usafa81endowment.com
Laura and Jean Floyd in the Seattle owner’s box. Gregg Montijo sent me a huge update from the great state of Arizona and site of a big AF victory
Gregg Montijo, Michelle and Allen Schmid at the Arizona Bowl. In the truest of Falcon brotherhood, 4th squadron ’81ers held a mini-reunion for our classmate, Rigo Santiago, in Katy, TX. Rigo was unable to attend our October 35th reunion as he is battling pancreatic/liver cancer. This past January, 10 ’81ers and spouses traveled to Texas to enjoy a weekend that included go-karts, laser tag, putt-putt golf, a formal dinner and church with Rigo and his family. See photo below. (Dean Carlson, Marvin Fisher, Eric Garvin, Tim Hawes, Rick Duchene, Dean Latas, Tom Masiello, Darren McKnight, Michael McNerney, and Sean Murphy attended.) Their AOC firstie year, Ken Roth, and three-degree year, Russ Plank, also attended!
Darren said the event was a blessing for all. They decided every five years is just not good enough. (Way to go Fightin’ Fourth!) Always great hearing from all of you! Get and stay connected! Our USAFA Class of 1981 Facebook page now has 190 members. Keep the emails and pictures coming. It is funny for a lot of us that our memories of the Falcon football team are so tied to the years we were here and it was rough with only nine wins over four years, but you realize AF has been quite good for many, many years. Nine bowls in the last 10 years and many before that. Ask Boise State which has lost three years in a row to AF. Go Falcons! ’81 Second to none! –Rich Trentman, 17223 Carriage Horse Drive, Colorado Springs, CO 80921; Work: (719) 4527708; Cell: (719) 640-9586; Facebook: USAFA Class of 1981; rtrentman@falconbroadband. net; Class Website: www.usafa81.com
1982
Hi Folks, Sadly, I’m leading off with bad news, which many of you may have already heard. Andy Raines passed away suddenly in late November. Ralinda Gregor was kind enough to let me know right away. Andy had a long, distinguished flying career while on active duty, with the Kentucky Air National Guard, and finally as a captain at UPS. He and Sheila had been married 31 years and had eight children and one grandchild. I know you’ll keep Sheila and the rest of Andy’s family in your thoughts and prayers. On a decidedly happier note, and literally as I was getting ready to hit “send” on this article, I learned that the president intends to nominate our classmate and former Congresswoman Heather Wilson as the next SECAF! That’s great news for Members both Heather and our Air Force. 46% Congratulations, Heather! Andy’s passing reminded of our other GBNF brethren, and that makes me think of happier times like class reunions. Can you believe we’re rapidly approaching our 35th? I’ve Sabre Society Donors reviewed the math over and over, and although I struggled 25 with triple integrals and matrices, I’m pretty good at addition and subtraction. There’s no denying that 2017 – 1982 = 35, despite the “new math”. So here we are! Although we don’t have reunion dates yet, I’m sure we will by the time you read this. So if you don’t know what they are, wander over to www. usafa82.org and it’ll be obvious. That’s because we have a new webmaster (Alex Abuyuan) who
CS-04 mini-reunion for Rigo. Checkpoints · December 2016