• West Point Stringer.  I need someone at West Point to keep me up to date on what's happening up there so I can pass it along to you.
• I also need you to feed me information for the Hot Poop page just as you do to Ed Ruggero for the Assembly.
• Send pictures!  Many of the pictures that are in the scrap book section are my shots.  I'd like to see more variety.
• Send more Old Corps tales . . . those were popular the first go around and serve to chronicle our class history.  I've been tracking the Go Naked sayings for fun...
• Send in pictures, obituaries or remembrances for our Taps section.

And now for the news that I do have:

• Listserver Moderators.  Doug Lobdell is mobilizing his USAR battalion and passed the listserver duties over to Mike Luttman (H-1), Rich Polo (I-1) and Steve Tobin (F-2).
• Promotions.  Many of our classmates that are still on active duty made the "due course" pin on to Colonel in November and December 2002.  Congratulations to you all!  I guess I can retire now . . . all of my roommates still on active duty (Bern Ruiz and Tom Koning) are now colonels, despite my bad influences!
• Assignments.  From various e-mails I have gathered that:
  • COL Bern Ruiz is at TRADOC Headquarters.
  • COL Tom Koning took command of the New England Engineer District.
  • COL John Luce is with USARSO, coordinating the move to Fort Sam Houston.
  • LTC Bob Morris is the Deputy Commander of the Fort Worth Engineer District.
• Fund Raising.  The telethon was successful in jump starting the class gift fund raising campaign.  Pledges and gifts to date total $281,137.07 as of 30 November 2002.  Go to the Fund Raising Status page for more details on giving percentages and totals by company and regiment.
• USMA 1980 Forum.  Recent discussions on the USMA 1980 Forum Listserver include:
  • Theft of Personal Information from Tricare.
  • Crackdown on Middies for copying music files onto their computers over government owned networks.
  • Trent Lott, Jesse Jackson and many political musings based on these gentlemen.
  • Taxation on Overseas Earnings.
  • Coach Todd Berry and the dismal performance of the Army football team at the Army-Navy game.
  • New lyrics to the tune of White Christmas by Mike Conrad.
• New Member of the Long Gray Line.  Shaun Alan Collins, son of Peter Collins (D-4) will be joining the Long Gray Line this July in Michie Stadium.
• Message from John Shimkus.  John was voted back to Congress in November 2002 in Illinois (two incumbents vying for the District after the District boundaries were changed following the 2000 Census):

I too want to wish everyone a Blessed Holiday season.  I continue to follow the forum and have enjoyed the bantering.  Keep up the great work.  Those who have decided to leave the forum have missed some great debates for ill and good.  The levity interspersed ensure we keep this all in perspective.
       I have enjoyed more downtown since the election.  My wife is involved in full time church ministry so the holiday seasons are still quite stressful in our family.   Eighteen months of honeydo's pile up and I am just about to finish my next big project which is a large fence around the house.  It's not too plumb but it is standing.  Next on the list is our first dog.
       As many of your know I  voted on authorizing the use of force in Iraq.  I still fear war and think about it everyday.  To those of you still in full time service my prayers and thoughts are with you. 
       As I return to Washington my door is always open.  Many of you have taken advantage of the opportunity.  I encourage others to do the same.
       Merry Christmas,  John

• Mid-life Crisis for Mike Luttmann.  Mike signed up for the Colorado Rockies Baseball Fantasy Camp in Tucson, AZ.  The adventure starts on January 8th, with a camper's meeting at Coors Field in Denver, where we'll get the chance to hit baseballs in their indoor batting cage and meet the staff (major league players and coaches).  The actual camp is February 3-8 at the Rockies' spring training facility, Hi Corbett Field.  This summer, we'll also be invited to some special events back at Coors Field.  Read about Mike's exploits at:
           Colorado Rockies Baseball Fantasy Camp
  Mike says he will try to update the page from Arizona if possible, but if not, he'll still post pictures and daily "diary" entries when I get back.
• Ranger Class Photos.  Jim White passed on an URL that has pictures of all the Ranger school classes back to 1952. As he said, "It ain't pretty, but it can be amusing."   http://www-benning.army.mil/RTB/ranger/photo/photo.htm
• Death of Paul Grim's wife, Pamela.  A note from Paul Grim (E-3) on 1 October:

It is with great sadness that I must announce the death of my wife Pamela of malignant melanoma last Monday, 23 September.  Pam fought bravely for the past six months since she was diagnosed the beginning of April and went peacefully around 7PM in her home outside Fayetteville, NC.  I was at her side at the time of her passing.

As many of you know, Pam and I have been separated for five and a half years.  However we have still remained close.  This has been very painful for me and our two daughters, Betsy (now 15) and Jenny (10).  I am currently in NC where I am starting the task of finalizing Pam's effects and selling our house.  Betsy and Jenny will be moving to Arlington, VA to be with me in about 3-4 weeks, depending on how long it takes me to clear the house.  Betsy and Jenny have handled this in a manner better than I would have ever dreamed -- giving me and the rest of Pam's family the strength to get through the past few weeks.

We held a memorial service in Fayetteville last Wednesday and Pam was buried in her hometown of Northampton, PA on Friday, 17 September.

I'd like to thank those of you who passed on prayers and best wishes -- especially Erin Misner and Kurt Westerman.  I'm sorry I didn't keep everyone updated with Pam's deteriorating condition, but I just didn't have the strength.

I'd also like to thank Joan and Dan Grey for their help last week.  Joan,as a hospice volunteer, came to the house last Monday at the request of Pam's family to spend a couple of hours while they got some much needed rest.  It must not have been easy on her since she knew Pam.  I was just going through some of Pam's cards, crying after reading some of them, when Joan came unexpectedly through my door.  Needless to say I lost it and needed her shoulder!  Later that night she called the house to see if we needed her to come back and when my mother-in-law told her Pam had passed away, Dan and Joan immediately came to the house to provide moral support. I'll never be able to thank the two of them enough...but this is a start.

If any of you have any questions, please e-mail me personally.  I'll answer any and all of them -- although it may take some time.  Please keep Pam in your prayers -- she was a wonderful woman and great mother.  She will certainly be missed.

• Plebe March Back, Class of 2006.  A classmate's report on the 3rd annual Old Grad March Back with the new cadets returning from Lake Frederick:

. . . did the march-back thing in Aug.  The 15-mile march-back was much more difficult than what we ('80) went thru if my memory serves me correctly, in fact I thought I was back in mountain phase at Ranger school (BTW at march-back from '80 - Donald Bridge (E-4), JB Becker (E-4, only Class of 1980 to do all three march backs), William Duffy (C-4), and Mark Kulungowski (A-4).  We linked up with the Plebes at 0200 and started at 0300.  By 0310 we were drenched in sweat.  It was a tactical road march, though we never saw a hardball road like in our march-back: 5m intervals, full rucks, and no nonsense.  There were a few injuries due to falling down the mountains, etc.  In fact a couple of new cadets decided to use me to break their falls <ouch!>.  The Plebes reported that they had no free time at Lake Frederick, except for about two hours on the last day.  Again if I recall correctly, Lake Frederick was a party for us.  I marched back with 4th plt, G Co., camcorder interviewed each of the smacks (and cadre) and will give them each a DVD of the interview for their memory box, so they can remember who was in their Beast platoon.  Sounds like the Corps definitely HAS NOT.  Word is that Leo Brooks is putting in a good regimen that will reverse some of the trends that have happened over the last years.  Go Leo!

BTW, I told one of the beanheads to get his neck back, and he just laughed at me and said, "sir, that is so old Corps".

• Theft of Personal Information.  From the Military Officer's Association (formerly know as TROA):

The Department of Defense (DoD) has announced a computer theft of the personal information of TRICARE beneficiaries serviced by the TRICARE Central Region health contractor, TriWest Healthcare Alliance Corp., headquartered in Phoenix Arizona.  The computer files were stolen on December 14, 2002.  On December 23, DoD requested TROA and other military service organizations to alert their members of this incident.

The theft involves the personal identification information of an unknown number of active duty and retiree TRICARE Prime enrollees.  There is no indication that other regions in the TRICARE system have been compromised.  The Defense Criminal Investigative Service and the FBI are investigating the crime.

TriWest has indicated it will be contacting its TRICARE Prime enrollees to advise them that, "Although we do not know the intent of the crime or if any of the information will ever be accessed or misused, we want to advise you that the theft of your personal information, to include your Social Security Account Number (SSAN), may potentially place you at risk for identity theft."  DoD has ordered other TRICARE contractors to assess their own security measures, in the hope of preventing future thefts.
 
The DoD TRICARE Management Authority issued a news release on the incident on 23 December: http://tricare.osd.mil/newsreleases/2002/news0236.htm.  The release contains an email address, computertheft@triwest.com, and a toll-free number for potentially affected beneficiaries in the TRICARE Central Region to contact: 1-888-339-9378.

The TRICARE Central Region includes the states of Colorado, Idaho, Iowa,
Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Utah, Wyoming, Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada, and extreme west Texas.  A map of the TRICARE Central Region can be found at http://www.tricare.osd.mil/beneficiary/.