CLASS NOTES on third bird). Less the late starters, all our kids are back in school, starting college and/or new jobs. The continuous cycle of transition continues. All the best to our legacy rats who just started and those who have moved on to upper-class status. I went to the Battle of New Market reenactment in May and had a great visit with re-enactors Guy Gormley, Bill Reagan and Gray Wooten ’87. There was a smart looking cadet contingent from VMI. Guy recently transitioned from the Army National Guard as a colonel after 25 years. He is living in Fredericksburg, Virginia (the heart of Civil War reenactment territory), and is working for Hewlett Packard. Several other brother rats have made transitions recently, as well. John MacMichael and Al Cuellar recently both retired as Navy captains. John is an empty nester and in the midst of moving to a new house in St. Louis, Missouri. He was able to reconnect with Drew McKone via phone recently. Al and Holly are staying in San Diego, California. John Doyle was at Al’s ceremony in person and sent in pictures that were shared on our Facebook page. I was able to see Al in person while on family vacation in San Diego. By the time you read this, Col. Adam Volant will have taken command of Information Operations Support Command at Fort Belvoir, Virginia. During Memorial Day, Andy McAllister attended a work event at the Virginia War Memorial and shared his memories of Terry Plunk with his co-workers. In the meantime, I have spoken with Terry’s mom, and with her permission, we are going to add Terry’s Purple Heart and medals to the VMI Hall of Valor soon (more to follow). In a similar vein, Ron Calder led a battlefield tour group to Normandy for the 70th anniversary of D-Day. He is planning to send a separate article in to the Alumni Review. Greg Bowman checked in with the following update: “I am fortunate and glad to report over the past 30 years that all is well here, no complaints. The wife (Suzann) and I have been married 27 years, and
2014- Issue 4
Class of 1988: Gray Wooten ’87, Guy Gormley, Sam Tate and Bill Reagan enjoyed the 2014 New Market reenactment.
Class of 1988: Retired U.S. Navy Capt. Al Cuellar with his wife, Holly, and daughter, Isabella, at his retirement in June.
Class of 1988: At the VMI ’88 Band Company and better halves reunion were, from left, Greg Rollins, Kristin Stone, Stephanie Rollins, Rich Stone and Sam Tate. Photo by Amy Tate.
we ended up with one son (Aaron) who is 25 years old. We have lived in the Roanoke, Virginia, area for most of those years, with the exception of a few early years in Blacksburg, Virginia, while she was attending Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. After graduation from Radford University, I ended up hiring on with Norfolk Southern in Roanoke, Virginia. I have had a very prosperous and good 27 years of service with NS, if I can get another 132 more months in, I can retire. It is good to be back in contact with the class, even though my time was short at VMI. My brother, Bill Bowman ’85, heads to Lexington for the reunions and ballgames. I might be able to join him next time.” Lew Sigmon arranged a Pentagon coffee pow-wow with myself, Col. Steve Neary and Col. Chris Starling. All are doing very well. Chris will have transitioned from the Marine Corps by the time you read this and will be newly installed as the executive director of the Marine Corps Memorial Association in San Francisco, California. Col. Brent Hashimoto has been sighted in Japan by both Mike Coleman – who has since returned from his six-month tour – and Chris Goff. They were all able to meet up with one another while stationed there. Greg Rollins, Rich Stone and I took our dates out to dinner at Mike’s Steakhouse in Springfield, Virginia. Subsequently, Greg and Rich spent a week together with their families at the beach in Oak Island, North Carolina. More recently, Rich, myself, and Dan Shrimpton shared a night of wit and cynicism with Matt Wauben at Mike Coleman’s house in Falls Church, Virginia, while Matt was in the area visiting his mom. Capt. Ron Maas, San Bernardino Police Department, graduated from the University of Cambridge July 19 with a master’s degree in criminology and police management. Ron spent two years, including 12 weeks in residence, in Cambridge to complete the program. There were senior police executives from throughout the world, which made for a great dynamic to compare different philosophies and processes. While the “Police Executive Programme” has
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