Greetings True Blue '92! Unfortunately, I have to start this column on a
sad note. 1Lt Laura PIPER was among 15 Americans who died in a
helicopter accident on 14 Apr 94 in Iraq while on a U.N. relief mission.
She was buried a the USAFA cemetary on 23 Apr 94 & her fiance, Dan
MURRAY shared his memories of her during a ceremony in the cadet chapel.
I am dedicating this column to Laura-'92 will always be with you. Here's
a toast...
I guess all of my complaining worked, because the mail bag is heavily
laden. Here's the recap starting w/ one from Melissa (JONES) ROSS'
sponsor, Col (Ret) & Mrs Chuck Denham who attended her marriage to Andy
ROSS on 31 Dec 93 in the Cadet Chapel. Melissa had Amy (AUKEMA) McCALLUM
as one of her bridesmaids (Amy married Dave McCALLUM ('93)). Andy had
Tim MARTIN as best man & Barry BLANCHARD & Roman ISAJIW as groomsmen.
Saber bearers: Shawn FAIRHURST ('90), Gene CASSINGHAM, Steve SMITH,
Chuck HOWARD, Steve BRODERICK, & Walt ALLEN. Both Andy & Melissa are
flying C-141's at McGuire. Johnnie DeYARMON wrote from Hill and is
working as a Quality Programs Director while awaiting a banked tanker
and rooming w/ Sheldon WHITE. Dean BOERRIGTER visited in Feb; he's at Ft
Ritchie, MD. Others at Hill: Matthew BECKELY (married), in CE w/ Mike
JASON waiting on a banked fighter; & Jim & Gretchen (BARRY) LEE. Other
news: Mike GRUB (Eve) got married at Vance & is at UHT w/ Mick HARPER.
Also, Bret HAUK is flying fighters somewhere. Karen JACKSON bought a
house at Minot and is working missiles. Shane HAMILTON is at Osan
(Intel) & J. ROLLINS is an Army Intel Officer w/ the 1st of 10th
Infantry in Alaska. Nate ALLERHEILIGEN wrote that he & his wife, Susan,
are expecting their first in July & enjoying their new house at
Davis-Monthan (DM) where Nate is upgrading (EC-130-Compass Call). Mike
FREIMUTH is also flying EC-130's. Rob ZERBE will be there soon. Tom
FINNERAN is working at the command post & Brad BALL is also at DM. Joe
ACCARDO, another of my Vance neighbors, is mission ready w/ the 7th ACCS
(EC-130's) at Keesler & set for a 3 month TDY overseas. Through the
grapevine, Chris LEVY will marry in June.
John LANCE listed assignments for Laughlin class 94-07: James FOY, C-17
& Scott GLAZA, C-141, Charleston; Scott WARD, C-21, Maxwell; Mike DEAN,
T-37, Laughlin; Ken SHUGART, KC-135, Fairchild (FCD); John LANCE, UH-1N,
Langley; R.J. NELSON, UH-1H, & Kelly KIMSEY, KC-135, Grand Forks (GF);
Shelley McCOMBS, C-130, Dyess; John RADCLIFFE, KC-135, Malmstrom; Jake
MILLER, C-21, Wright-Pat; Pete VEHLOW, C-141, McGuire; Dennis LOH, F-5,
Singapore. Thanks for the list, John. Next, a letter from an old
Tarantula, Bob "Turbo" SEIFERT who was TDY in Saudi & ran into Mike
BARG, Log Officer & Tony BAMSEY, Wing PA Officer. Bob is a Section
Commander & taking Master's classes (that must be a misprint!) w/
Michelle LAMONTAGNE. Bob was at the Zoo for a Ops project officer's
meeting & says the Smacks are getting away w/ murder. But we know Bob.
He ate lunch w/ Brock OAKS who was a firstie after returing from his two
year mission. Kette DORNBUSH is also at Shaw in finance & Meridith MOORE
got accepted to med school in Columbia, SC. See ya, Bob.
And then a novel-like letter from Tony SIMPSON on fine green engineering
paper. Tony is at the U of Washington on an AFIT scholarship awaiting a
banked fighter. Other '92ers there: Paul SCOTT & his wife, Heather,
Michael BRUZZINI, & Ron JAMES. Steve WHYTE, David SWANKE, & Joel JACKSON
have graduated. Tony is enjoying the college lifestyle. While skiing, he
saw John KUBENIC who is in Maintenance at Shaw, & Brian WARREN who is at
Falcon & skied 60 days last winter. From Tony's old squad, the Bulldogs,
Johann VERRET, C-130's, Little Rock (LR), Leonard "Woody" HAYNES, C-130,
Elmendorf, D. Koby ZAHN, finance officer, Dyess waiting for UPT,
Christopher DILLIS is in intel & will be married in June in Denver.
Other news: Erik RYDBERG is married to Jackie (MONGEON) is in F-16
training at Luke & Jackie's at Barksdale. Tony's other information was
covered by the next letter (Tony's email--write him:
simpson@aa.washington.edu). Matt HARPER sent a copy of the Bulldogs
newsletter: Rick BAILEY is at Scott & sharing a house w/ Andy CRUM & Ken
MOSS. Matt CARROLL is at USUHS & may become a doctor yet. Brandon DOAN
is in San Antonio playing golf & sometimes does an Air Force job. Dave
GARCIA is a intel officer at Beale & is married (Gina). Matt took a 3rd
pilot slot to FCD, but due to some General, has ended up at GF & has yet
to fly. Tom MAURER (Jill) is at GF, too & is doing the co-pilot thing.
He spent 2 months flying from Italy supporting Operation Deny Flight
over Bosnia. He flew 18 missions & earned an Aerial Achivement Medal.
Teri (POULTON) ELBERT is a 3rd pilot at McConnell where Andy is a
copilot. Regan RITCHIE took a UH-1 to Langley. Finally, Kevin WESTBURG
is at Falcon where he & Scott BOUSHELL have a cool pad off of Powers
Blvd. That's it for the guys Tony didn't cover from the Bulldogs.
Jeff ORR (Elizabeth) wanted to be famous too, so he wrote to me. Jeff
has an F-16 to Luke w/ Jason CLEMENTS. Other 94-07 assignments: A few
C-26's for Jake BUSS, Willow Grove NAS, PA, Michelle CARSON, Portland
IAP, & Steph RADFORD, McGuire. Others, Matt CICCARELLO, C-27, Howard,
Mike CONNOLLY, C-21, Scott, Jason KRINSKY, KC-135, McConnell, John
MAJEWSKI, T-37, Columbus, Leibo RAIBSTEIN, C-5, Dover, Ned SANDLIN,
KC-10, Barksdale, & Matt YETISHEFSKY, KC-135, FCD. Jeff was at Tyndall
for a TDY & saw Lance McCUISTON (F-15), Ed LEABO, Pete GUBSER, & Mark
HAYES in RTU. In water survival, Jeff saw Kip WILKOWSKI (EC-130, DM),
Jeff HANDY (A-10, Eielson), Jim MEGER (0A-10, Osan) & Mark "Pokum"
Slocum (F-111, Canon) & Chuck DURFEE, Chris ROBERT, Pat McATEE, Jason
ARMAGOST, & Todd EMMONS all F-16's. While in LR to visit Brian SANFORD
(C-130), Jeff ran into Joe DeLAPP (Ramstein), Rick MURPHY & numerous
others he can't remember. And w/ a final note, a former 22 dude, Brian
NEAL is going to F-16's. Brook LEONARD sent me a cool letter & said he
is getting married to Maria in C-Springs on 2 Jul & Tim ANDERSON (UH-1,
FCD) & John KUBINEC will be there. Brook is starting F-16 RTU at Luke.
Thanks for the pumped up letter Brook & no, I have no special typewriter
to uppercase everyone's last name... Ted ANDERSON wrote & said he is
flying C-26's for the Mass Air Guard w/ Timrek HEISLER. He & 7 other
guys were at C-26 training in San Antonio: Tom BURTSCHI (Fargo, ND),
Kevin LANDER (Rickenbacker, OH), Dave RADEMACHER (Dobbins), & Clint
FARRAR (Oklahoma). Assignments from UPT: Tony SCHENK (Julie), C-17 to
Charleston; Mark BOYD, KC-10 to Seymour Johnson, Steve PEEPLES (Larene),
C-12 to Elmendorf, Tim PHILLIPS, C-130 to LR, Lee SMITH, C-130 to Pope,
Brandon Baker, 3rd pilot to FCD, Brad SPOMER, KC-135 to FCD, Lee
COTTRELL, 3rd pilot to GF, & Steve AMMONS (Gretchen) & Jon KIM, UH-1's
to Minot. Others: Rick MOORE, KC-135 to FCD, Jon THOMPSON (Elise) in
Intel at DM, & Chris MARCUS is stationed at a finance center in Tenn.
That was all Ted wrote, because he was about to go fishing. & the last
letter is from Steve BRODERICK (E-3 at Tinker). D'Ron LONGINO is
fininshing E-3 training & Tracy SAILOR is a weapons director aboard
AWACS. Karen BLAINE was in protocol at Tinker, but has PCSed to WP. Doug
BLACKLEDGE & Godfrey GUERZON are at Tinker. Old Vance assignments when
Steve went to visit: Shane PRUITT (KC-135), Ross SAUTER (F-16) & Eric
UJFALUSY (KC-135). Other news: John GLASS (C-27 to Howard), & Rich BROWN
& Jason FROMM (KC-135 GF). Frank SCHORZMAN & Stacie MILINSKI (KC-135
FCD), Greg BIGLEY (F-16), John GURRIERI (FAIP at Vance). Down at
Sheppard, Kristine (BERGEMAN) MARLOW got married to Garth MARLOW
(non-Zoomie IP type). Kristine is the wing Physiological Officer, but
Garth is going to a HC-130 at Hurlburt. Several grads at the wedding:
Cory BOWER (F-15 Tyndall), Rob DITTMAN (C-5 Travis), Joe RIZZUTO (C-130,
Elmendorf) & others.
It's been said, "be careful what you ask for, 'cause you might get
it--well I did. Many letters & so little space; sorry about editing your
letters so much and being brief, but don't stop writing. The beach
promotion party at LA AFB was excellent-- 40 kegs, 100's of people, and
too many '92ers to remember. I did see Fred TAYLOR & must mention him
'cause last time I screwed up his name. Had lunch w/ Michele MEYER
(KC-10, March) who told me what a lot of you were doing, but I'll report
on that next time. Troy SIMON called me today from McClellen and says
he's doing well. Gotta go, my space is full. Take care '92, James.
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