- Graduation for the Class of
2000 is a week away! Vice President Gore will be the speaker.
COL Dan Kaufman, Head of the Department of Social Sciences was
selected to be the 11th Dean. Jeff Williams goes into space
today (hopefully, finally . . .).
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- Mother's Day was last
weekend. Congratulations to all those women, classmates and
spouses, that have contributed significantly to increasing the Long
Gray Line. Several mothers were recognized at the Post Chapel
here, to include Liz Wong. Liz is the wife of Lennie
Wong (F-4) and the mother to their 6 children. Do we have
any classmates claiming any more than 6 children?
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- Central Area Construction Task
Force News. Bid solicitations for the new Michie
Stadium Athletic Complex are underway. Stony Lonesome
Road, between Michie Stadium and Howze Field, will be closed
from 1 June through 1 September. All traffic will use Fenton
Road (next to the AOG's Herbert Hall), which is nearing
completion, to travel from the Central Post or Buffalo Soldiers
areas to Stony Lonesome (new PX, commissary, day care center, etc.).
The Indoor Marksmanship Center is moving towards 100% design.
The West Point Crew and Sailing Center is still waiting for
funds to begin construction. The Michie Stadium Press Box
is proceeding to 35% design. The proposed Stony Lonesome
Road Realignment project is undergoing an "alignment
report/study".
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Grecian
Formula |
Slimfast |
- Colonel/Princess Aisha Bint
Al-Hussein lecture. Princess Aisha addressed cadets in
Arnold Auditorium, Mahan Hall on 1 May. Check out some of the
photos on the Scrap Book page . . .
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- Construction update.
The demolition of Arvin Gymnasium continues but has slowed
down while the demolition company stabilizes the hillside behind the
demolished structure. The contract for a new Arvin (scaled
back to $77.5 million) will not be let for a year or so. The
entire project is slated to be complete in 2004. The repaving
of Thayer Road began last week (24 April). Thayer Road
will be completely shut down from Mills Road (near Buffalo Soldiers
Field) to Cullum Road from 1-12 May. The project is not
scheduled for completion until early October. If weather
becomes a problem, this will be another reason to stick with bus
transportation for the reunion since we lost 80 parking spaces along
Thayer Road until October. The Thayer Walk project
continues; most of the new curbing is in and some base course work
is being done between Pershing Barracks and Bartlett Hall.
This project has another year to go. The new PX is due
to open in July 2000. The final design for the new Michie
Stadium Athletic Center is under review.
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- It's no secret that the USMA
Library will undergo an expansion in the next five years.
The staff (Dean's Office and Library) are working hard to improve
the services provided and to get usage up. Usage of the
Library has been hampered by an on-going project to upgrade the HVAC
system but more importantly they have really suffered for a lack of
funds. That should change within the next 1-2 years. One
thing I heard today was interesting - the librarians realize they
can't keep food out of the Library and are probably going to go with
the flow to the extent of a DCA run coffee shop somewhere on the
first floor of the new library. I'm not sure that Tommy
Endres has heard about this yet (he's the DCA). I think
the concept has real potential if located in a very convenient and
prominent spot on the first floor, especially since dinner is
optional every night except for Thursday. But I still have to
say, "The Corps has . . ."
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- Got another update on class
grandchildren. Von Marler (E-3) is the grandfather to
Chelsie, born on 17 January 1995 to his daughter, Jennifer.
Anyone got that beat? Congratulations to Von and Jennifer!
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- Jeff Williams (A-4) will is
slated to become the first member of our class in space on 24 April
2000. Lift off is tentatively scheduled for 4:15 pm though the
final "go" depends on the success of work to replace a
faulty PDU, or Power Drive Unit, about the size of an office copy
machine, at the launch pad. If successful, the liftoff is targeted
for April 24 at 4:15 PM EDT for mission STS-101. During their
mission to the International Space Station, the STS-101 crew will be
delivering logistics and supplies, plus preparing the Station for
the arrival of the Zvezda Service Module, expected to be launched by
Russia in July 2000. Jeff's position as Mission Specialist 2
is roughly the same as a flight engineer on a commercial aircraft.
Jeff will also get to conduct a space walk with COL Jim Voss. Read
more about Jeff . . .
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