Summer 2008 CHECKPOINTS By J. J. "Lou" Michels, '77 Class Scribe

Greetings from the now slowly-warming banks/beaches/trash dumps of Lake Michigan, where the women are all strong, the men are all good looking, and the temperatures are below average. I have an extremely slim mailbag this time around (that's two columns in a row, folks) and will again renew my plea for more information about all the interesting lives people are leading. But at this point, I'll take even uninteresting lives. Drop me a line when you can.

Hoop Dreams: Rick Pialet (Renell), in between his flying stints for United, is one of the founders and principal movers behind an organization called "Friends of Air Force Basketball." Rick has been working hard to promote what is now a very successful Air Force program. He's looking for financial support, much as the football program does, and I encour­age any and all of you to contact him if you are interested in assisting. John Visser (Anne) paid Rick a quick visit during last season-Rick and John are 737 Captains for United and American respectively, and were probably comparing notes on short runway landing procedures at Midway. They saw the Falcons win against TCU (remember when we might see one or two wins in a season?) and to do some AOG Chapter politicking. As proof, I offer the following photo:

At the Hoopfest

Thanks, John and Rick. Keep up the good support of the Princeton offense. Grads Supporting Grads: Paul Pirog (Mary) sent me a picture of his recent Legion of Merit pin-on conducted by none other than by Halter ( Judy). You may remember that Paul is the head of the law department at the Academy; Academy tenured professors are now required to go back into operational duty for a year for "reblueing" and to take advantage of their academic exper­tise. Paul was assigned to work for Major General Halter as the 19th AF SJA.

Classmate Support - Paul and Irv and the LOM

I was able to have lunch with Paul here in Chicago over Christmas. Paul appears none the worse for operational wear, and is only tinged blue around the edges. Thanks for the photo and update, gentlemen.

Mystery Solved, Continued: You may recall that 1 referred to an interloper in the CS-33 rejoin photo from the reunion. In fact, the A-Jacket patch belonged to CS-39, and adorned one Don Brubaker (Charlene). Don was a loyal member of the Cellar Ratz for two years but was moved firstie year to Campus Radi­cals as part of the binge-and-purge activity going on in our first-class summer. Nonetheless, old ties are the best ties, thus Don's appearance. Scott Harrod (Nita) assures me that Don is still a Rat in good standing, which means I don't have to erase his image from the photo. Thanks, guys.

Cellar Rat Reunion

Someone Doing Something Really Important: Dave Gragan (Mary) has been the subject of several entries in this column. First, because he joined the Marines after graduation and opened a never-ending door of speculation as to his com­mon sense; and second because he has moved through a post-military series of positions that are nothing short of fascinating. In his latest job, Dave is the District of Columbia's Chief Procurement. Officer. Any of you familiar with DC city government, or even any large city government, know that the procurement function is a tremendously demanding one, frequently marked by extreme de­lays and inefficiencies in procuring even the most basic services, as well as being a legal morass of procurement schedules, affirmative action issues, and other mangled requirements designed to promote various social initiatives by the city government. DC is no exception; in fact, it is one of the worst in the country. DC Mayor Adrian Fenty handpicked Dave to sort all this out. Dave was the subject of an extremely complimentary article in Government Procurement last year describing his efforts, and somebody sent me a copy for my perusal. After read­ing the article, I sort of envision Dave as kind of procurement Hercules cleaning out the Augean Stables that is the DC purchasing system.

So, a day or two after reading this article, I am sitting at Reagan Airport in DC when some guy with a Marine-type bearing walks up to me and goes, "Aren't you Lou Michels?" It was the very same Mr. Gragan on his way out to deal with some other crisis relating to DC's financing. We had a great chat in the airport, sur­rounded by several of my partners (we were returning from a firm partnership meeting), all of whom were fascinated at meeting somebody in the nerve center of DC administration. After we parted company, one of my partners commented that even though we were in school together, Dave somehow looked much younger and still had all his hair. Solo law practice looks better and better ever~ day. Dave, great to see you, but we'll do our next meeting by videoconference.

Video Highlights: Don "Coon Dog" McCune (Bernadette) made FoxNews recently, commenting on the FAA's grounding of airplanes at Southwest and American. After listening, it's hard for me to believe that Don is actually practicing attorney-his comments were clear, concise, and illuminating, to such an extent that the interviewer couldn't figure out any follow-up questions. Nice work, Don, in explaining a very complicated situation so that people like me could understand.

Miscellany: Cleaning up from the reunion, Lee Monson (Julie) will be retiring from Boeing this spring after a long and distinguished career. Well done, sir, but I look forward to hearing about the newest venture soon. Jeff and Leslie Perldns, not satisfied with running marathons in terrible heat, are now doing ballroom dance competition. Jeff promised to send me pictures, in which he looks like "the monster in Young Frankenstein," but so far, no joy. Ifthat pros­pect doesn't keep you reading this column for the next year or so, I don't know what will. Good luck, guys, and I hope Leslie is wearing the steel-tipped dancing pumps.

Many of you will remember Joe McBrearty, the Chief Master Sergeant at the Zoo when we were there. Joe stays in touch with those of us that didn't irritate him too much as cadets and he sent me a picture of Steve and Theresa Miller at one of the football games last fall.

AirForce/Army Tailgate with on former Wing King and Chief McBrearty and his family.

Again, I continue to be impressed by how none of these people appear to have aged much since I saw them last. Must be the altitude.

And finally, a bit of personal news. I managed to finish building a house up near Divide and put furniture into it at the beginning of May. So, I will be commuting for vacation and other purposes between here and just north of Cripple Creek on a regular basis. I hope to see those of you in the Springs area more often.

Close Out: That's it from here. Pretty slim pickins if you ask me. Shoot me some emails for next time or the column will be really short. Be seeing you.