CLASS NEWS in Florida at the F-15 CTF as a contractor. I ran into Col. Mike Lawrence at the Pentagon (at the start of October). I ran into him in the halls as he was returning from briefing Congress. I was there to support my husband’s retirement (Col. Andy Freeborn, ’92). Last spring I worked on a joint test & eval project that supported a bigger project for Brig. Gen. Paul Bauman. It was nice knowing that some of our ’91 folks were general officers. I’m still working as a government civilian at AF Joint Test Program Office—Nellis AFB. Currently, I’m the acting Joint Test Development division chief. Andy is joining me in Las Vegas post AF retirement and is looking for a job. We are looking forward to living together full time for the first time in three years.”
Todd just took over as president of SetPoint but is keeping his day job at Virgin Galactic. Thank you for sharing, Lynn! Congrats on getting to start a nice, long, period with Andy by your side. Last week I was in southern California, driving all over the place, during which I had a special catch-up session in Irvine with Lori (Maher) Svitenko over coffee. She is doing well and her husband, Sam (’90), is running for the AOG Board. If the election’s not over, go vote for him! Lori and I came to an agreement that our kids are awesome! While in Los Angeles I also had the great privilege of meeting with Eric Buhr (’93) who might very well travel to China with me. Eric is now the technology director of a new energy company; wow! Which reminds me, if any of you ever wish to do anything remotely professional in China, I would LOVE to talk to you in advance during your planning stages. In a form of response to attending our 25th reunion, Brian Wish, (possibly also in response as well to L. Todd Wood’s article “The United States Air Force Academy Doesn’t Train Warriors Anymore”) wrote an excellent, thoughtful article on the changes fundamentally shaping the development of future USAFA graduates. Titled “It’s Not Your Parent’s Air Force Academy,” I recommend you search for Brian’s article and read it. You’ll find easy links to both on our FB page. My favorite quotation from Brian’s article is: “Was I just too dumb to quit?” Brian, you were NOT too dumb! Back in August (my brain was somewhere else) Brian had also attended the pin-on ceremony for Brig. Gen. Heather Pringle and her assumption of command of Joint Base San Antonio (502nd Air Base Wing) which I neglected to report in the 136 · usafa.org
run-up to our reunion. Congrats, Heather! Brian, good on you for being so engaged and reporting on these things. Also in San Antonio are Brig. Gen. Linda (Washburn) Hurry, Col. Andy Foltz and Col. Jim Cluff. They got together for a Christmas thing. The heavens continue to populate with Bold Gold stars…
Brig. Gen. Matt Isler thinks deeply of Bold Gold as he is carried over the desert sands. Soon after our reunion, Dr. Brian Williams took a much-needed trip to Hawaii and popped in to see Jerome Osurman; they had a great visit! Chris Howard was brought onto the College Football Playoff Selection Committee! He will do a great job. Here’s a cool “two-part” series: Kip Wilkowski posted just as his 29 November flight to Denver was taking off that the first officer was John Shirtz! Kip reported “Yes, I will be critiquing his landing,” followed by John’s admission of feeling the pressure! Ha ha. Great landing; met the family; Wilkowskis barely made the next connection, it seems. Then, two weeks later, John Vaughn and John Shirtz ran into each other at World Arena. (Was it because Vaughn was wearing a blue Air Force sweatshirt?) After 25 years of not seeing Shirtz’ name come up much for Checkpoints, twice in one month was notable! I think maybe we all had better “keep our eyes peeled” for Shirtz! Okay, dear friends, that is all I have the time to compile for you at this time. Enjoy the return of spring! –Carson Tavenner, 7912 Carlisle Place, Arlington, WA 98223; (301) 367-8969; Tavenner@hotmail. com Welcome to another 1992 update! I hope this finds all of you happy and healthy this quarter. I’m short on space today, so I’ll just get to it. DEA Agent and Doctor. Sean Lawler has reliably kept me up to date about his time as a DEA agent. He recently completed his PhD (yes, that kind of “doctor”) in management at Colorado Technical University with a concentration in homeland security and a focus on school security from active shooters and terrorists. Sean separated in 2004 and has been with DEA ever since initially as a special agent in
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New Jersey/New York and the last six years with the Aviation Division HQ in Fort Worth, TX flying Learjet 60s, Citation Bravos, and Cessna 206s. He’s also a stan/eval pilot and serves as a DEA tactical instructor, a DEA firearms instructor, and an active shooter instructor. If all that doesn’t sound like it keeps him busy enough, he recently started a consulting group that improves security for schools, hospitals, churches and businesses. Specifically, Sean provides tactical instruction to teachers who carry concealed weapons on campus, putting together realistic scenario-based training exercises to discover the existing gaps in security, inoculate school staff members against the stress of an attack, and provide basic immediate tactical medicine for shooting/bombing victims. And, he also volunteers as a USAFA ALO for the north Fort Worth area. Finally, Sean mentioned he’s convinced DEA to start recruiting at the AOG-sponsored SACCs and attends some of them personally. So look for him there if you plan to attend and are interested! Update from Oklahoma. Ross Sauter emailed me with the news that he retired from the Air Force Reserve at Vance AFB last May on the 24th anniversary of our graduation. He’s been flying for Delta Air Lines for the last two years and enjoying life in his airport community home on Lake Keystone outside of Tulsa, OK. TB92 in Hawaii. The local ’92 contingent here has been active linking up with other classmates lucky enough to visit the Islands. First, Ken Moss and Frank Flores were in town for the PACAF Commanders Conference in Members November. As I’ve mentioned 49% previously, Ken has been the 374 AW/CC at Yokota AB since this summer and Frank is the commander of the PACAF Regional Support Center responsible for 40 remote Alaska sites and five geographicallySabre Society separated locations across the Donors Pacific Theater at Joint Base 14 Elmendorf-Richardson in Alaska. Locals, James Shigekane, Art Primas, Tom Dobbs, Mike Cardoza, and I met them for dinner. Good food, good beer, and great company! Speaking of Ken, when I was in Japan in October, I played golf with Ken at Tama Hills Golf Course (the Yokota AB golf course). It was a beautiful morning and we had a great view of Mt. Fuji from the 6th tee box. If you make it out to Tokyo, I recommend playing golf with Ken as his foursome gets treated better than he deserves since he is the Wing CC. And, Ken’s a good golfer and as entertaining as ever! I also ran into Pete Knox when I had lunch in the clubhouse. He recognized me and came over to say hello. I didn’t recognize Pete at first because