Terrell, North Carolina 28682
828-478-9813
gerardd@charter.net
www.west-point.org/class/usma/1968
After the hurricanes, I still can’t account for Joel Pigott and Johnnie Miller, and hope that they’re too busy with NASA and oil platforms to check in. In Mobile, Don & Stephanie Jones boarded up and rode out the storm with no major damage. In Louisiana, Frank & Jennifer Robinson told Nellie Laughton that they left Covington and rode out the storm in Shreveport, and had quite a time dealing with Frank’s 91 year old Dad and his companion. Frank’s & Jenn’s sons, William and John, were in shape for the clean-up effort since both had summer jobs doing maintenance work. BG Weeks had “only” eight feet of water in his house – a good start on the pool he wanted… Dan Adams weathered the hurricane in New Orleans with little damage; however, he opted to drive to Baton Rouge after the levee broke when much of the city (except for his area) was flooded, and civil unrest began. He too helped deal with his Father by moving him to his brother’s (Rich Adams, ‘67) condo in Florida. Although Marvelous Marvin Markley’s apartment was high and dry in the French Quarter, his “Mama didn’t raise ‘slow children’,” (actually, MMM asked his Mom if he was gifted, and she said he must be because she wouldn't have paid for him), so he left New Orleans before the hurricane with a suitcase, golf bag, and laptop in the trunk of his white Cadillac, and his company put him up in Houston, where he rode out Rita. Bob & Maureen Shaw also left New Orleans ahead of the storm and headed to Little Rock, AR to stay with their daughter. Bob’s company has a major office there also. When they returned to New Orleans, they found that their home had sustained superficial damage and security had improved as their neighborhood was being patrolled by a battalion from the 1st Cav (Bn Cdr is an 85 grad), an MP company from the Texas National Guard, and a SWAT team from INS. In Houston, most folks rode out the storm. Les & Kathy Wright live in NW Houston and made it OK. Bob & Carol Shimp “hunkered down” since the freeways seemed to be more dangerous than the storm. Julia Bodenhamer reported that, since their home is about a mile from the coast (mandatory evacuation zone), Jim made the early call to pack up and head to Fort Hood with Julia’s mother to stay with their son, Jon. They settled in to enjoy the closeness of family (Jon and his bride are expecting Jim’s & Julia’s first grandbaby in April – about mid-way through Jon’s deployment to Iraq) and do some jet skiing. Upon their return, they found everything safe and sound. Brian Utermahlen lives about 10 miles NE of George Bush Intercontinental airport (just north of Houston), and prepared by sending Dianne with their daughter, son-in-law, and grandkids to stay with his parents in Vicksburg MS. He then gathered enough water, food (more Spam than was made in all of WWII, and more beans and franks than all the B-1 units issued in RVN), and ice. After the block party he threw just prior to the storm, he started running low on beer and candy, and put out an urgent re-supply call. We are so blessed.
Prior to the storms, Bob Shaw and Chuck Jones reported spending a week at the WP Society Leadership Conference. All classmate attendees agreed that it was a great conference, and the Acceptance Day parade – 4,100 cadets certainly fill up The Plain – was especially impressive. Chuck noted the reason he loves Colorado weather so much – he had forgotten about the 95 degrees and 95% humidity at our Rock-bound Highland Home… During that time, Dutch & Megan Hostler continued to collect Marchback contributions for our Class gift. Thanks to you, Dutch has racked up almost $90K over the years for our fund.
[Photo #1: “John & Angie Calabro, tony & Charlie Dodson, Chuck Jones, Megan &
Dutch Hostler, and Bob Shaw at the ‘05 WP Society Leadership Conference”]
Those of you who opted out of the class Alaska cruise that Dick & Kathy Shipley put together for us, YEEWWW REEAALLLLLY MISSED A GREAT TIME! I wouldn’t say that those of us who went were all close as cadets – we came from three Regiments and six Firstie companies – but we all shared the bond of being classmates and Class Gift Fund more than “fair share” contributors, and grew with that. Yes, the pride of being a Military Academy Graduate, love of the great outdoors, being with our wonderful brides, being grandparents, eating good food, drinking good scotch, and smoking smelly cigars also had something to do with it. Our days were spent whale, salmon, seal, otter, and glacier gazing, hiking, kayaking, dune buggying, flying, taking train trips, eating, and wishing that you all had come along to share the fun and help eat the food that we finally had to push away. Except for the over-eating, drinking and smoking, we did exercise and consoled ourselves with the knowledge that health nuts are going to feel stupid someday dying of nothing.
[Photo #2 – “B-T/L-R: Mary Lou & Elwood Cobey, AJ & Jon Dodson, Barbara & Dave Gerard, Joyce & Dale Hansen, Karen & Henry Riser, and Kathy & Dick Shipley on the Radisson Mariner of the Seas in Alaska”]
Chuck Mahan still bemoans that he and Jamie couldn’t go with us, but Jamie’s parents took priority. As for work, Chuck is no longer with Home Depot and is now “full time” with SAP America.
While
we were cruising Dick Steiner did three shows a night for a week at the
Magic Castle in Hollywood, CA. Jack Reed and his bride, Marty Tunnel,
flew down from San Francisco to watch a show and spend some time with him over a
weekend. During that visit, Dick stayed in the room at a hotel where Janis
Joplin died (explains that “Me and Bobby McGee” refrain that kept going through
his head). Dick & Suzanne became duplicate bridge Life Masters in early 2005,
and Dick says it’s fun to watch the opponents’ reaction when they learn that he
does sleight of hand and mind reading for a living. Dick saw Bob Veidt
at a couple of tournaments and spoke with Chuck Steel, who is doing well
in tournament play.
[Photo #3: “Marty Tunnel, Jack Reed, and Dick Steiner at the Magic Castle”]
Mike
Havey has said for years, “If we
could only put our uniforms back on we could straighten this mess out.” While
we were cruising, he got back into uniform to swear in his son, Michael, as a
Redleg at Ft Benning (in front of Infantry Hall’s Follow-Me statue) after his
graduation from OCS – amidst an entire family – Kit, sisters Anne and
Kate (w/husband Paul), semi-adopted-Ukrainian-daughter Kira, Kit’s Annapolis`36
father, cousins, and nieces. Michael got Mike’s father’s gold bars from 1939
(Kate got Mike’s bars when she was sworn into the Air Force also by Mike).
Since “this mess” still isn’t straightened out, Mike now maintains it’s not the
uniform – it’s the hair color and quantity… All agreed that FA needs to insert
itself to lend dignity to what has become a vulgar brawl. Afterwards, Mike
returned to Virginia to sort out another brawl at work.
[Photo #4: “AF Col (Ret) Mike and FA 2LT Michael Havey at Ft Benning”]
Upon our return from Alaska, we discovered that what life savings that was not lost when the stock market cratered and spent on the cruise were lost as gas prices soared. Dale & Joyce Hansen returned to West Point to recount to Dutch & Megan Hostler what they had missed. Jon Dodson prepared to speak on the National Security implications of the Military’s Role in Disasters, sponsored by the Heritage Foundation in Washington, DC, and Dick Shipley prepared the Army Capstone course in Crystal City, Virginia for senior Medical Service folks. Dick has designed the course to impress upon new MSC leaders how they must learn from past leaders like Jonathan Letterman, who created Army Medical Service for soldiers during the Civil War – a fascinating chronicle that I slept through during Art class...
[Photo #5: “Andy & Betty Shaffer at the American Diabetes Association Walk-a-thon in Midland, TX”]
Barbara
and I went to San Antonio to see Andy & Betty Shaffer who drove from
Midland to Dallas for the Army-TCU game and on to San Antonio to see Andy’s
doctor regarding his shoulder injury sustained this summer. At the game, there
was a halftime ceremony honoring Vietnam Vets, and Andy got to see Bill
Brown, Ed Lorentzen, Ed Nelson, and Phil Samuel. We stayed with the
Shipleys while Dick was crashing on the final Capstone course details.
To get us out of their hair, they took us out to see Harold & Donna Timboe
and marveled over their beautiful new home in North San Antonio. During the
hurricanes, Harold had teamed up with Larry Jordan to ensure Texas
medical resources were efficiently allocated to neighboring affected states.
Although Harold & Donna treated us to a wonderful meal at their club, we still
found our way back to bug the Shipleys and to urge Dick to put more miles on his
Mustang Cobra... After that, we traveled to remind the Dodsons that they
remain the classmate favorite stop-over in Northern Virginia.
[Photo #6: “Harold Timboe, Dick Shipley, and Orca at the Timboe compound in San Antonio”]
The Georgia State Board of Regents has tapped Dan Kaufman to start up and head a new State College. As school’s first and only employee, while he brings the skills, credentials, and endurance required to develop a curriculum, hire a staff and faculty, and be ready to accept students by the beginning of the 2006 school year, he’s currently enjoying no whining faculty and no grads complaining about the football team.
Peter Wallace checked in during his victory lap stop-over in “Oz” (Brit for Australia), where he put the SCUBA course he took in Fiji to good use at the Great Barrier Reef. Prior to spending a month in OZ, he and Barbara spent two weeks in New Zealand... After OZ, they’re off to Singapore, Sri Lanka, the Maldives, India, and Egypt. Because they have a few stops left on their around the world ticket, they’ll also visit Paris and London before returning to the US in time for Christmas with the kids and grandkids.
Craig O’Connor moved his High Road Restoration car business from Alexandria, Virginia to West Virginia and found a “real deal” (visualize “falling plaster”) on a house and took on the project with his friend who owns the Brightmorning Inn. In his spare time, he teaches alpine skiing at Timberline Ski Resort in Canaan Valley, and is having a ball.
The
main question I’m asked whenever I get to interact with classmates is how we’re
doing with regard to our class gift. That shows you care. While the AOG
reports that we have above average class participation, we’re still several
hundred thousand dollars short of our monetary promise and our goal to make the
“Class of 1968 Rotunda” truly a gift to West Point from our whole class and not
just a few generous and duty conscious classmates. At this time of resolutions
– and competing priorities – please resolve to dig a little deeper and make our
full class gift participation and gift goal a reality because YOU’RE ALL WE’VE
GOT. –