CLASS NOTES safety and mine :-) Paul recently moved to West Point, and I am confident the O’Sullivans and Belmonts will see each other often; especially at the VMI vs West Point game this fall. Chris Lowrance is also teaching at West Point, and I am sure he has the place wired by now (pun intended). John Ferguson is currently on a short deployment flying B-1s into/out of AOR. He and Molly are still acclimating to the Texas heat, and John continues to instruct at the B-1 FTU at Dyess AFB. Their twins, Dean and Sophie, turned 2 last month and are keeping them busy. B.J. Arvin is about to start his 3rd year as a high school teacher in Donovan, IL. This year will also be his first year coaching high school football and due to the game schedule he missed the reunion. Justin and Jackie Wood celebrated the birth of their second child, Jacsyn Olivia Grant Wood, born on July 1st in Nashville, TN. Her big sister, Jordan, is enjoying showing her the ropes. Shawn and Erin Segreti welcomed their first child, Margaret May into the family on December 30th of last year. Carl and Rachael Hammond were blessed with the birth of their second child, Anna Catherine, in February 2010 and their son, Carter, loves being a big brother! They are still living in Columbia, SC. Mac Semler and his wife are doing well in the Philadelphia area. They are expecting their first child around Halloween and are excited. Mac returned from an amazing school trip to China recently and should finish his MBA from Villanova in the spring. I want to thank all the men that pulled together the reunion actives and fund raising efforts. Your efforts are greatly appreciated. Christian
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Jason Whitaker
I hope everyone is doing well as we near the end of 201 and get ready for 2011. We are less than a year away from our 10-year reunion and I look forward to seeing many of you there. The 10-year reunion will be held on the weekend of Oct. 21-22, 2011. Thank you to those of you who have volunteered to assist with the Reunion Committee and Fundraising Committee. We have a lot of work ahead of us and we will do our best to put together a memorable 10-year reunion. I want to get to the class notes and will follow them up with some administrative matters that are important for us as a class. Congratulations to Parker Reeves and his
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wife, Jenni, who announced they are expecting a baby towards the end of the year. Back in May, I went with Parker, Jenni, Nate Charles and Justin Harber to the DC101 Chili Cookoff in Washington, D.C. Despite the rain we had a great time and enjoyed the music from Alice N’ Chains and Stone Temple Pilots. The show on stage was great but the person watching was even better, oh the sights you see when at an outdoor concert. Parker recently spoke with Tillman Bowling’s mother who reported Tillman and his family will be moving from Florida to the Leesburg, VA, area where Tillman will be working as an air traffic controller. Parker also shared a funny story with me about how he, Jenni, Nate, and Nate’s girlfriend were on Nate’s boat in a lake near Roanoke one Saturday night. They had been on the lake for a little while when it started to rain. Unfortunately the boat would not start so Nate and Parker had to get wooden oars out and paddle forty-five minutes back to the pier. Things like this only seem to happen to Nate; too funny. Congratulations to Adam Zydron and his wife, Courtney, who were married on May 22, 2010. They recently left Chesapeake, VA, to move to Nashville, TN, for Courtney’s emergency medicine residency with Vanderbilt Medical Hospital. Adam completed his M.S. in engineering management from Florida Institute of Technology (Aug-09) and is managing the Midwest operations for H&B Railroad Inc. Congratulations to Charlie Bunting and his wife, Sheida, who were married this year. Charlie and Sheida moved to New York City so she could begin her residency for anesthesia. Also attending a celebration for Charlie and Sheida in Newport, RI, for their wedding was Jon Schott, Adam Maldonado and Brad Muston. Charlie extends a sincere invitation to any Brother Rats to meet up for a beer in NYC. Charlie is looking forward to the reunion next year and sends his blessings to everyone serving on our behalf overseas. I received a sweet letter from Charlene Cook, the mother of Howie Cook. Mrs. Cook is very proud of her son and wanted to add onto the previous class notes about Howie’s graduation from the U.S. Army Flight School at Fort Rucker, AL in March. Apparently what Howie left out is that his uncle, Brian Keefer (Commander, USN retired and a 1979 Citadel graduate), contacted his old Citadel roommate Brig. Gen. William “Tim” Crosby ahead of the graduation to mention to him that his nephew, Howie, was graduating. Brig. Gen. Crosby made plans to be the speaker for the graduation ceremony and during his speech he mentioned the “jeep” incident with the Citadel. Brig. Gen. Crosby pointed out that to the graduating class that someone who participated in the caper was even present for the graduation
and then identified Howie. When Howie’s wife Shelley went to pin his flight wings on, Brig. Gen. Crosby stepped forward and presented her with his original flight wings which she in turn pinned onto Howie. Fred Hair sent me an update from Iraq and I’ll let you enjoy his words. “I’m good as can be over here. Brigade is almost within two months of our redeployment, so you can certainly believe that people are starting to get a little stir crazy. I successfully completed company command and passed the guidon to the next guy for his round back at the end of May. Two years and some change as a CO. I felt like I had the weight of the world lifted off of me when I was finally done. Now I have the pleasure of briefing the division commander on the status of brigade operations during morning updates. Not as hard as it sounds. I wish I had scored one of the early redeployment slots, but I guess they like keeping the worker bees in theater.” Jarret Somers is currently in CA for an outage at Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant and will be there until early November. Jamie Dillon moved to San Diego in January to take a job with Space and Naval Warfare (SPAWAR). Jamie reported Tom Gleason just got out there as well for his assignment at Miramar with the Marine Corps and Alex Tedla is also living on the West Coast. Jamie extended a hearty welcome for any visitors to their new beach town. Jamie commented he frequently travels back to Washington, D.C., where he sees Drew Carbone, who has the coolest 9-month-old little boy named Joey with his equally cool wife, Kristi! Megan Portavoce sent in the following from France. “I am still living in France and just filed my request for French nationality. In a year or so, I shall be Franco-American! I also just graduated with a master in law (Intellectual Property- Patents) from the Centre d’Etudes
Class of 2001: At the DC101 Chili Cook Off in Washington, D.C., on May 22, 2010, were, from left, Parker and Jenni Reeves with Nate (John Rambo) Charles.
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