Well, no one can say that I don’t have at least some
readers out there-after my last pitiful request for input,
accompanied by a substantial amount of verbal groveling, I
received enough information and photographs to make this
column a little less anemic than it was for the last two
quarters. My thanks to everyone who wrote-but you should know
that I’ll begin to use up material now at a fairly good clip.
For those of you who haven’t dropped me a line in a while, I’m
always looking for more information.
FIRST RESPONDERS: A voice from out of my
past--specifically my BCT squad roommate --Vince Sharp
(Suzanne) makes its first appearance in the countdown with
news of his retirement at Little Rock several years ago and
immediate employment with the Army. Vince’s email title lists
him as an "Exercise Specialist," and we’re not talking Richard
Simmons here, folks. All right, we’re not talking PX-90,
either, for those of you with a more modern bent. Vince is
heading up chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear
exercise training for local responders and National Guard
units out of San Antonio. He’s handling pretty much the entire
middle part of the United States, including the Zoo, and is on
the road most of the time. He’s also in the process of
completing a Master’s degree in Homeland Security at
Monterrey. Vince closed note with a comment to the effect of
it was "scary" how much he’s learned out CBRNE over the last
few years. I can only imagine.
Roger Gullet (Theresa) wrote with his "first
correspondence for Checkpoints ever!" For some reason I’m
detecting a note of exuberance in that comment. Maybe it’s
because Roger was pleased not to have communicated with a
lawyer all that time. In any event, welcome to the
neighborhood. Roger is a Reserve 6 and the ops group commander
for the airlift wing out of Wright-Pat, operating the oldest
C-5s in the fleet. Roger says he’s living the good life and
only has
Wear his blue suit on Monday because he’s in a bag there
most of the time. Because Roger is a Cubs fan, he knows that
he has now permanently jinxed this season with his optimism
about the remainder of the year. And at the risk of further
insulting Roger’s airplanes, I recall a former C-5 pilot
telling me that when you see three C-5s lined up on the
tarmac, and two of them are up on jacks, it means that the
base has two sets of jacks. Thanks again for the update,
Roger, let’s try not to make it 32 years until the next one.
LINKAGES: Mike Crane (Sue) sent me a quick
message (via ZoomieNation) from D.C. where he is working for
Booz Allen after retiring in 2005. For two years, Mike’s
client has been another classmate, RayJ ohns (Diana), the DCS
for Strategic Plans and Programs. Mike occasionally runs into
Eric Reffett (Lori) who works at Booz Allen-I refuse to
shorten it to "Booz" -in McLean as a senior associate with the
company, and Bobby Wilkes, who is working in OSD following his
retirement from the Pentagon.
Joe Niemeyer (Louise) also posted on ZoomieNation
with a quick update. He is our AOG Senate rep and is now
living in Colorado after working in the U.K. for several
years. He and Louise are in Denver, at least when they are not
out skiing, and Joe assures me that he’s been getting in
plenty of that. Joe will be posting his notes from the AOG
Senate meetings on ZN, and any of you with questions or
concerns, please feel free to contact him there. We have a
class affinity group that has been fairly active recently.
Which is a nice segue into a recent post that I saw just
before deadline concerning Dave Ebelke (Patti) -Dave
just completed his third Boston Marathon this year with a
personal record time of 321:30. Dave is running his own spinal
surgery business out of KC, Mo., and my hat is off to anybody
completing a marathon these days. It won’t happen for your
humble narrator; I suffer from Football Players Syndrome,
which means that anything over 40 yards is a walk.