March 2001
Jim Walsh reports that there was a fine turnout on 11 Nov for the
dedication of the Rocky Versace
Plaza and Vietnam Veterans Memorial at the Mt. Vernon Recreation Center in
Alexandria, VA. There were citizens of
Alexandria, veterans, West Pointers from many classes, and lots of
classmates. Jim and Tom Boyle remember seeing Art & Babs Bair, Frank & Elaine Besson, Pete &
Judi Dawkins, Terry Enright, Bill & Bobbie Fitzgerald, Art Griffin, John & Mary Gurr, Powell
& JoAnne Hutton, John Meloy,
Bob & Barbara Novogratz, Jack
& Barbara O’Brien, Rex Rhein,
Tom & Marty Roberts, Ed Robinson, Skip Schow, Warren Smith,
Connie Tully, and Dick Welsh. Keith Phillips, Al’s youngest son, a Georgetown grad and Army
CPT, was also there and a pleasure for his dad’s classmates to talk with. The 3rd U.S. Infantry, “The Old
Guard,” presented the colors; the Mayor of Alexandria was the MC; Pete Dawkins
gave an excellent keynote address; and John Gurr dedicated the CPT Rocky
Versace Display Case. Thanks are due to
all of them and the Friends of Rocky Versace for making the dream a
reality. Meanwhile, the effort to have
Rocky awarded a posthumous Congressional Medal of Honor continues to make its
way through the labyrinthine bureaucracy.
1959:
Cash & Betty Mullen at the Ranger memorial.
Pete Dawkins was this year’s recipient of the Business Executives
for National Security Eisenhower Award at an affair on 16 Nov. The presentation was at a black tie dinner
at Cipriani in NYC, with Dan Rather as Master of Ceremonies and LeRoy Neiman
among the speakers. Other winners of
the award, now in its 15th year, have included President Carter,
John Whitehead, Vice President Gore, Josh Weston and Senator McCain.
1959:
Cash Mullen and Bill Breen.
And speaking of restaurants in the
Big Apple, Tom Leo tells me that Bob Shapiro is now the owner of Thalia,
an upscale restaurant at the corner of 8th Avenue and 50th
Street. There was a lunch for 59ers on 28 Jun that included Leo, Shapiro, Pete
Dawkins, Peter Keogh, Bruce Medaris, Bob Rizzi, Tom Russell, Peter Stromberg, and Steve Werbel. The food, the service, and the company were excellent!
1959:
Jim & Phyllis Walsh with Frieda
& Tom Borlund at Benning Ranger Memorial.
A report from Rog Ware in October was of his attendance at the Marco Island (FL)
Film Festival where he was invited to see a special presentation of the film
“Jericho,” produced and directed by Gil
Dorland and Merlin Miller ’74, who are principals in Black Knight Productions. Rog liked the film a lot and noted that
audience appreciation was high. It’s a
Western filmed in Texas, New Mexico, and Colorado; and, according to Rog is
excellent in story, scenery and acting.
Emmett & Teddy McCracken still dominate in Bluffton, SC, where
Emmett was recently elected to a four-year term on the Town Council. He notes that he has gone from County
Council Chairman to Mayor to Town Council, which a friend opined was an effort
to find his level of competence. His
prostate surgery in November, says Emmett, ranks up there with a Ranger School
stream crossings in November in terms of fun.
He & Teddy were planning a February trip to Korea to housesit and
keep up with five grandchildren as oldest son Jack and wife Carol return to the
U.S. for a pre-command session. Jack is
Dep Cmdr of 501st MI Brigade in Seoul and will assume bn cmd this
coming summer.
1959:
Plebe Marchback
16 Aug: Medaris, Eberhard, Carrier, Coen.
John McNerney belongs to the Professional Chess Association (as does
Kasparov, he points out) and has entered several tournaments, recently. More importantly, and to get right down to
it, he’s winning money. He and Margie
are still in McLean, VA, have seven grandkids and, says John, still have two
daughters to marry off. He retired last
fall from Lockheed Martin, bought and renovated a beach house in Delaware,
moved in last July, bought a boat for the dock alongside the house, and has
learned to fish and catch crabs. Not
bad for a chess whiz!
1959: Houston
Mini: Dick Sundt, Sandy Beach, John Corby, Nete Sundt, John & Elaine
Guthrie.
Cash & Betty Mullen are in Salem, NH where Cash has been with
Raytheon for just over ten years. They
are avid moviegoers and have a standing date on Saturday nights to go out for
dinner and a movie. As a hobby they
dabble in writing action/adventure novels, where Betty does most of the
writing, says Cash, and he helps with the editing. And he still has a strong interest in automobiles. He retains and babies his rebuilt ’84 Buick
Grand National, but hasn’t had it on the drag strip yet. He goes to auto shows when the weather is
nice.
1959: A-N
Game Group: top row: Bill
Turpin, Felicity Gillette, Barbara & Jack O’Brien, Frank Besson, Bill
Fitzgerald, Mike Gillette; bottom row: Elaine Besson, Mary & John Gurr, Cadet
Ducrot.
The Mullens saw Bill & Susan
Breen when they visited the weekend before Thanksgiving on the last stop of
their yearlong trek after Bill retired in fall of 1999. And they saw a host of classmates at the
Ranger memorial service for our classmates at Ft. Benning in October, an event
reported here last time. Now they are
beginning to look for a place to retire, probably in the South or Southwest,
Cash thinks.
As we see in the accompanying
photo, John Cox was still in good
form to compete in the 65 to 69 year age group in the 800-meter freestyle at
the World Masters Swimming Championships in Munich this past August. John swam three individual and two relay
events. His St. Petersburg (FL) team
placed first among all U.S. teams and placed second all over in the world.
John & Kay are already planning for the World Championships in
New Zealand in 2002.
John says the New Zealand outing will probably be part of his
retirement trip after spending 37 years with Special Operations both military
and civilian. They will try to combine
the trip with visits to Australia and Vietnam if everything works out. And they welcome classmates to their home in
St. Pete anytime we wish to get out of the cold weather and into the sun.
1959:
John Cox with other nationals at Munich Swimming Championships.
There have been mixed reports about
the Navy game, some saying it was exciting and some saying we were robbed on
the call at the last-ditch onside kick.
There has been uniform dissatisfaction with seating for the game, not
only from our class but from classes senior to ours; and at this writing most
are still awaiting a good explanation.
But Bill & Bobbie Fitzgerald
are onto the solution, as they have been for some time. They meet every year with a group that
rotates hosting the game, and this year it was their turn. Bill allows as how they undoubtedly were
more comfortable and saw a lot more of the game, such as it was (there’s
another opinion of the game), and I think they feel that way every year. Anyway, the group consists of those in the
accompanying photo along with those missing this year: the Huttons, McNerneys, Moellerings and Weekleys. Bill hopes for
the group, as well as for the game, wait
‘til next year!