November  2001

Peter Stromberg, our last classmate on active duty, retired as Professor and Head of the Department of English, USMA, on 13 August.  He was promoted to BG at an Academic Board dinner that evening, and the next day departed for Dubai, where he takes up residence as professor in the College of Arts and Sciences at Zayed University, a brand new institution for women.  Ann will follow him there on 1 October.  They have made our class truly proud with their long and outstanding service to the Military Academy and to our country.  Now Tom & Ann Russell will be our last (but certainly not least) remnants at West Point, and they probably will not be there for long.  Ah, me.

Bill Pollock sent some A-2 Mini-Reunion info and more pictures to supplement what Tom Russell provided in the last issue and reaffirmed that everyone had a wonderful time in Colorado Springs on the weekend of 14-17 June.  His list of attendees included Rich & Mickey Skowronek, whose names had been omitted; and his notes included a memorial service held at the USAF Academy Chapel to honor the memory of A-2 classmates Jack Warren and Brooks Sisson.  Jack Neal's eulogy reawakened memories of Jack Warren's remarkable intellect and the helping hand he gladly extended to all.  And Jim Kennedy, with great insight, reminded all of the warmth, the kindness, and the great sense of humor that were so much a part of Brooks Sisson.  

A-2 Reunion:  Front:  Wosicki, Jim Turner, Jane Phillips, Janet Turner,  Nancy Neal, Joe Phillips, Neal, Pollock.  Rear:  Judy Wosicki, Micky & Rich Skowronek, Linda & Bill Toskey, John Slocum, Harris, Russell, Dick & Bucky Maglin, Pat & Jim Kennedy, Ann Russell, Marilyn & Gerry Weisenseel, Vic & Sherry Fernandez, Ann Pollock.  

Bud Steinberg is happily married in Saint Louis, and he and his wife recently were blessed with their first grandchild, a beautiful little girl named Samantha Rose.  Bud is retired but staying semi-active at three business pursuits.  Life is good, he says, and no complaints.  Hank & Brenda Larsen recently drove up to see them from Norman, OK.  It was so great to see them, says Bud, and to reminisce about the late 50s, the lost 50s, and the wonderful adventures of Happy Dos.  

A-2 Reunion:  Neal, John Slocum (former tac), and Russell.  

Gil Dorland wrote from Hollywood, FL, in July that he was gearing up to pen a book on Washington's arrogance of power regarding foreign sovereignties.  First stop will be Fidel Castro in Havana.  Would history be different, he poses, had Ike not shunned Castro just after the overthrow of Batista?  Gil returned to Vietnam for the first time last spring with Le Ly Haislip, about whose life as a Viet Cong Oliver Stone made a movie called "Heaven and Earth."  He had met her while writing Legacy of Discord:  Voices of the Vietnam War Era.  The trip was a real eye opener, he says, traveling as he was with former NVA and VC up the Songs Thu Bon River deep into the Que Son Valley.  The accompanying photo shows him with Le Ly at the base of Hill 63, where he was whacked on Thanksgiving Day, 1967.  

Le Ly Haislip with Gil Dorland.

Tim & Kathleen Plummer are in Rose Valley, PA, where they celebrated their 41^st anniversary this year.  Kathleen has a flourishing practice as a fee-only financial planner, and Tim retired a second time three years ago because, he says, he got too busy to go to work.  He's recently been elected to another four-year term as President of Borough Council in his hometown, and he's trying to find enough time for fly fishing, which has become his addiction.  He builds rods, ties flies, and travels to pristine places.  It was back to Labrador this summer for more monster brookies and Atlantic salmon.  He would like to contact classmates with a similar affliction.  He's a daily lap swimmer averaging 10,000 yards per week year round.  He competes on the Masters swim team, but says that Johnny Cox has nothing to worry about.  And Tim spends much time keeping up with their 200-year-old home.

Don & Mary Helen Reinhard are in Marble Hill, GA, which is "Nawth Jawja" in Don's parlance.  For four years they have been building a house and glass studio on 24 acres in the wild woods and have had a bear wander through to observe their efforts.  Don has become enamored of digging holes and trenches in the red clay and claims to have an expert badge in the D handled shovel.  Highpoints of the effort have been rains that fill up trenches with silt, grandurchins taking a bath in an ice chest while roasting marshmallows over a campfire, daughters and a son-in-law rigging a shower from an Igloo cooler mounted on a stepladder, and grouting mispoured concrete walls with over 50 bags of grout mix.  Doesn't retirement sound wonderful?  They were hoping to have the place finished sometime this year.  Don says they rarely see classmates because they live so far from civilization (65 miles from Ft. McPherson); but he does keep up with the WP Society of Atlanta, of which he has been a Governor for eight years and was President in 1998.   

A-2 Reunion:  Vic & Sherry Fernandez, Janet & Jim Turner, Joe Phillips, Russell, Dick & Bucky Maglin, and Ann Pollock.  

Tony & Sandra Pokorny are in Lawton, OK, where Tony has a new job as vice president at Cameron University.  He sold his software company after 18 years and has now opted for academia.  He will be primarily responsible for research and development at Cameron, concentrating on information technology.  He and Sandra love to hike and recently spent a week camping at Havasupai Falls in the Grand Canyon -- truly a spiritual experience, he says.  He sees Jerry Stadler and Hank Larsen, our other Lawton denizens, from time to time.

Joe Phillips writes from Tucson that he sits around the pool trying to keep cool in the Arizona summer while wife Jane finishes a mini-career as an RN.  He monitors the assisted living for his 92 year old mother and they enjoy visiting their four super grandchildren and their parents in Texas and North Carolina.  Joe says he is genuinely delighted with his spiritual journey as a Christian.  He recently completed two semesters of evangelism explosion training and has actually been used to witness to two adults who now wish to become Christians.  Bill & Linda Toskey visited this spring from Washington State for the first time and, says Joe, they were as pleasant and as sharp as ever.  As reported last time, the Phillipses attended the A-2 mini-reunion in Colorado Springs in June.  

A-2 Reunion:  Weisenseel, Kennedy, Joe Phillips, and Russell.

Ed & Pat Robinson remain in Alexandria, VA, where they are basking in his second retirement (from Analytic Services, Inc.) in 1998.  They enjoy their children and grandkids and travel whenever and wherever they want.  They were doing the Upper Northwest, including the inside passage to Alaska, in late June, and probably planned their next venture enroute.  In his spare time, Ed works on his family genealogy and says that the internet provides resources never before available.  You can look up his family homepage at www.familytreemaker.com/users/r/o/b/Edward-C-Robinson/index.html.  It makes a great legacy for his family and reinforces some of his other passionate interests in Revolutionary War, War of 1812, and Civil War history, and antique weapons collecting.  And Ed plays golf twice a week, usually at Ft. Belvoir, or sometimes at Quantico, where Gil & Ina Roesler are members.  Besides Ed and Gil, the golfing group includes Jerry Hilmes, Mike Gillette, Art Griffin and, occasionally, John Wilson.  They want to expand the group as classmates retire, and the entry requirements are a snap.

Ed & Pat have three children.  Son Steven is a senior vice president with Paine Webber in Bethesda, MD.  He and wife Stephanie have a boy, Timothy, 11, and a girl, Nicole, 3.  Son Scott, a bachelor in Tucson, is an engineer with Ratheon Corp. and is a scratch golfer.  Daughter Sheryl is taking time off from her Alexandria, VA, patent law firm job to enjoy and raise her new daughter.  She and husband Kevin have daughters Kellie, 9, Kerrie, 7, and now Katelyn, 1.

As you probably know, LTG Hal Moore's Ia Drang Valley book, We Were Soldiers Once, and Young is being made into a movie with Mel Gibson.  Ed Robinson had a front row seat in this action, and we look at some of his recollections in next issue.