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By the time you read this, you'll know the
final outcome of AF's football
season, but so far it's been a disappointing series of games
for the Falcons (other than the
Navy win, of course). At this point. I'm convinced I'm bad
luck for the Birds -- I've been at a
couple of games and they've all been
disasters.
Outside of the pigskin
antics, I hope everyone enjoyed a pleasant autumn.
Up here in Chicagoland, fall means
battening down the hatches in
preparation for the winter that will be in full swing when you
read this.
On watch: I am trying to get better at
touching base personally with
classmates as I get out and around some of our football
venues. Part of the problem is
simply timing, and part the result of
you guys having some discernment about the
nature of the
people you want to be seen with. I can't
control the timing, but am working
on the other issue as best I can.
There's only so much modification 1 can make my
personality, however.
I got out to the TCU game in September and
made face to face contact with Duff
Muir (Bonnie) and Lee
Gustin {Kathryn}. The football game was lousy, the
company was great. At Notre Dame, Pat and
Cyndee McVay made a point of
connecting, despite the fact
that they had to wait for one of their two
grad sons to make it in to Chicago
on the morning of the game, and forgetting ilia
South Bend exists in a different time zone
than the rest of the Midwest
Again, a lousy football game, which made it a
lot easier to spend time visiting
with Pat and Cyndee. Pat continues to do extremely well in his
STRATCOM executive position; Cyndee spends
most of her time keeping
Pat out of trouble and chasing their kids
around the country. As I have noted
before with respect to some of our classmates, none of these
folks seem to have aged very much
in the 34+ years since our permanent departure
from Colorado.
I continue to wander into the USAFA Law
Department when I am back in
Colorado, and through the good graces of Paul Pirog
(Mary), I keep getting stuck in
front of classes to do some ad hoc teaching/entertaining.
One of the benefits of this association is
getting to attend the DFL football
tailgate when I'm in town. At said tailgate before the San
Diego game, I made contact with
Paul and. Mary (who have recently celebrated
two weddings and appeared none the worse
for wear), Scott and Susan Hutt,
and Fred Swartz (Carmel). Notwithstanding the
discernment issue
above, the three gentlemen actually
consented to appear in a photo with
your humble narrator, thus:
Lou. Scott, Fred, and Paul pre-game.
Scott and Susan are living in the Springs.
while Fred continues his medical
practice in Oklahoma. Thanks again,
gentlemen, for a terrific Thursday
afternoon.
Initial contact:
Fred told me that his picture has never
appeared in
Checkpoints, and I think that's correct. He also claimed that
his name has never been mentioned,
but I am certain that somebody bad-
mouthed him in my presence sometime
in the past 35 years. In any event, 1 have
several other validated, first-time
entrants into the class scribe sweepstakes
-- Rick "Mallard" Turner
(Judy) and Bill Hejl (Gwen). Mallard
brought me up to speed on where he's been
and been doing since he departed
the North Gate, and it's been an interesting ride. He and
Judy live
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in Colurnbus, Ohio, where he is
working with Chemical Abstracts. He has
remained close friends with Tom Kingsley,
who started in rotorcraft and.
after retiring from active duty. went back to seminary to
become a Catholic priest. This is
not as surprising as it seems—if helicopter pilots did not
believe in miracles they'd never get into
their aircraft. Tom is now assigned
to the diocese of Charleston and Mallard and Judy visited him
there last summer.
Mallard's association with clergy becomes
even more relevant when you
consider that he's survived two major heart attacks (one of
which resulted in his being
clinically dead for ten minutes) and a heart transplant.
He and Judy have also raised two kids and
become Ohio State fans. That last
part is troubling. but I'm sure Father Kingsley is working on
the situation
as we speak.
Tom Kingsley and Mallard Turner
On a swing from Columbus down to Charleston.
Mallard touched base with Dutch
Remkes (Susie), who lives on the North Carolina shore, and
just missed contact with Doug Vick
(Linda), who has now relocated from
their place in Texas to just outside Charlotte with EDS.
As for Bill and Gwen Heil,
they are working a farm in North Dakota.
along with their son, Bill's brother and
another partner. To keep his hand
in the blue world. Bill moved to the North Dakota Air Guard,
where he retired in '07 as a
lieutenant colonel. I spent many of my formative years not
too far north of Bill, in Winnipeg.
Manitoba, and my hat is off to anyone
who can not only weather the weather, but
make it produce as a going business
concern. Anytime either of you gentlemen are returning to
Chicago please give me a yell.
Somewhere back in the dark recesses of the
Checkpoints archive l believe 1
mentioned Dave -Chef" Boyarski (Jane), but it's been a while,
and he graciously fired off a
message to let me know that he has retired from
Lockheed and is back in God's country up
in the foothills near Monument.
Dave's son and daughter-in-law are both
Air Force captains at Robbins: Dave
strongly encourages people to get some retirement time blocked
since it is working so well for him.
Surly slipping:
Stan Hill (Cindy) dropped me a line from Fayetteville
to give me an update of his activities. I
initially thought he was referring
to Fayetteville. North Carolina, but Stan quickly disabused me
of the idea that he would reside
fetched up against an Army installation. It's Fayetteville,
Georgia and he's pushing metal for Delta.
He and Chuck Spitler
(Theresa) flew together down to Bogota and
swapped sailplane stories on the
way down, although they resisted the urge to actually try
gliding the airliner, much to the
relief of the passengers. Stan and Cindy have one
son at Georgia Tech, and a daughter in
2013 at USAFA. John and Mindy
Herd are sponsoring Casey Hill in
the Pink Panthers, along with the rest
of the former 38'" Sy Big Pink Crew in the
Springs: Bob Eskridge (Sheila)
who works at Lockheed; Greg Pfeiffer
(Nikki). Delta captain. Bob Ryan
(Tauni) flying corporate out of Denver,
and Bill Weide (Judy). at Delta.
Stan dropped me a photo of Chuck and
himself in Bogota (good thing the
sign is there):
Stan Hill and Chuck Spitler
I'll try and connect to the Pink Panther
tailgate at the UNLV game when
I
am there in November; thanks again, Stan.
Off Watch: That's
it from the home of the most pummeled quarterback
in NFL history. I hope everyone's holidays
are going/have gone well. Shoot me
some information and check out the Facebook page for a reunion
updates and information. Be seeing
you. |
