Archive for whearnes

Reunion Information

As a reminder, our 30th reunion will take place at West Point on October 24–27, 2019. The reunion committee continues to firm up all of the reunion activities and hopes to have a tentative reunion schedule posted to the website in the next couple of weeks.

Steps to complete now…

  1. Reserve your hotel room at the class hotel.
  2. Purchase your football tickets.
  3. Make sure your current email address is on file for our class email list (usma1989@west-point.org) and the West Point Association of Graduates (send it to address@wpaog.org or log into the WPAOG website and update your profile: www.westpointaog.org/profile)

Hotel

RESERVE HOTEL. The reunion committee has negotiated rooms at the hotel listed below. Rooms at this rate are available on a first come, first served basis. 

Westchester Marriott
670 White Plains Rd, Tarrytown, NY  10591-5104
800.228.9290 or 914.631.2200
Rate per night: $154+
Reserve online:  Westchester Marriott 
Group code: West Point Class of 1989 block
Reservation deadline: Thursday, October 3, 2019
Cancellations policy:  Individual cancellations must be made 72 hours prior to the arrival date in order to avoid penalty of one night’s room and tax.

Football Tickets

PURCHASE FOOTBALL GAME TICKETS.  Football tickets for reunion group seating are available for purchase exclusively on the official website of Army West Point Athletics by clicking here and entering your class’s Promo Code: SJS89. You must purchase your tickets by Friday, July 26, 2019 to guarantee seating with the Class. Our class seating is a block of seats on the East Sideline of Michie Stadium (Section 32) for your class. You can handpick your seats or select “Purchase by Price” to enter your ticket quantities and your tickets will be selected for you in the best available location. Persons with season tickets or another type of ticket package can exchange their game tickets for tickets in the reunion area at no extra charge (contact the Army Ticket Office to arrange an exchange). If you wish to sit with a specific fellow graduate(s), be sure to place your orders together. Wheelchair accessible seating is available at the top of sections 8-11 and 14-17 by calling the Army Ticket Office directly.

Tickets for this game are $55.00 each plus a $2.00 per ticket processing fee.

If you are driving yourself on post instead of taking the Class bus from the hotel on game-day and would like to purchase parking at this time, please select Parking San Jose State on the bottom of the Shopping Cart page. If parking is purchased in advance of game day you will receive a $5 discount.

Handicap, RV and Bus Parking – If you need handicap, RV, or BUS parking please call the Army Ticket Office.

Delivery: When ordering your tickets and parking passes you will have the option to select your preferred delivery method: mail (shipped 2-3 weeks prior to the game), will call (opens 2.5 hours prior to kick off), or print at home (will receive a second email with the tickets attached as a PDF document to print).

Army Ticket Office: 877.TIX.ARMY (877.849.2769) 

Swag

Josten’s order form for Class Crest items (pendants, tie tacks, pins w/o stones and charms). A-Pin order form coming soon.

Mike Sullivan (B4) Back With NY Giants

Congratulations to Mike Sullivan as he returns to the NY Giants!

Eli Manning’s most prolific seasons came under the tutelage of quarterbacks coach Mike Sullivan. Now, after a year sabbatical that followed two seasons with the Bucs as offensive coordinator, Sullivan is back with the Giants and he said Manning’s arm is as strong and lively as ever.

Read the entire NY Post article at http://nypost.com/2015/08/06/eli-mannings-hidden-weapon-back-in-the-giants-fold/

Harrick (C1) and Fortson (E4) at the Super Bowl

Jeff Harrick (C1) traveled from Charlotte and John Fortson (E4) from Chicago to link up at the Super Bowl a few weeks ago.  Jeff says, “We had a blast, and it was a great game to watch live.”  Jeff traveled from Charlotte and John from Chicago.  Here are a couple of photos from their seats and down on the field after the game.Harrick & Fortson SB 2 Harrick & Fortson SB 1

USMA Cemetery Changes Eligibility Policy Temporarily

The West Point Cemetery is near capacity for the burial of remains in new gravesites.  Until the West Point Cemetery Expansion Program is completed in the next few years, providing 308 new in-ground casketed and 132 new in-ground inurnment plots, some changes have been made to the eligibility policy.  See this memorandum for complete details — USMA Cemetery Policy 2014.

25th Reunion Weekend a Big Success

20th Reunion - End of Parade

We had over 370 classmates coming for the weekend.  At the game on Saturday, our class donated $600,000 to the Combating Terrorism Center under “The LTC Paul J. Finken and LTC James J. Walton Memorial Endowment”.  We couldn’t have raised those funds without each of you, who chose to allocate some hard-earned money to a great cause in honor of Paul and Jim.

Mike Ehard (B2) Passes

With sadness, we’ve learned that Mike Ehard (B2) ’89 lost his hard fought battle with brain cancer on Thursday, September 11, 2014, at his home. He is survived by his wife, Robbie and three daughters, Sabrina Ehard, Taylor Solomon, of Texarkana, Texas and Jade Furgason, of Bossier City, Louisiana.  Services were held on September 17th.

http://www.texarkanafuneralhome.com/sitemaker/sites/TEXARK1/obit.cgi?user=1401894Ehard

Well done, Mike.  Be Thou At Peace.

Efaw Daughters Featured in NYT Magazine

Alexandra ’14, Anastasia ’16, and Arianna Efaw ’17 are 3 of the 6 featured women cadets in a great photo essay in the NYT Magazine titled “The Women of West Point”.  Fantastic job by the NYT and also by Amy Blanchard Efaw (H3) ’89 and Andy Efaw (H4) ’89 for raising such great kids.  The journalist followed the women throughout the past year. Check it out in today’s print version or online at http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/09/04/magazine/women-of-west-point.html.

Wreath-Laying Ceremony A Huge Success

We started off our 25th reunion year with a great event in Washington, DC — a wreath-laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier on Saturday, 24 May 2014.  The Fife & Drum Corps and the US Army Drill Team performed prior to the ceremonANC 2014 Wreath-Layingy.

COL James Markert (H2 ’89) was the Regimental Commander, 3d US Infantry Regt, “The Old Guard”, at the time and he coordinated with Dave Kammen (F1, ’89), Director of Operations & Plans at Arlington National Cemetery, to schedule this event.

Over 50 classmates aANC 2014 Groupnd even more family members attended the day’s events, ending up at the O-Club for a few drinks. Make sure to join us next time!  There’s no place like Arlington on Memorial Day Weekend.

Paul Finken’s (H1) Family Featured in NYT Article

The New York Times featured the Finken’s in a recent article about how families carry on in the years after a loss.

The moment capsulized one family’s self-guided journey through loss. Over six years, Mrs. Finken and her daughters, ages 14, 12 and 10, have struggled through different phases of mourning, sometimes together, sometimes on individual calendars. But the one constant has been their determination to remember, without letting memory become a millstone.

“I don’t want to squeeze the life out of the memories, because I want them to still be precious and mean something,” Mrs. Finken said. “I also don’t want the memories to drag us down. Because memories can do that sometimes.”

Read the full article online.

Current Class Gift Giving Stats

The most current stats for giving toward the 25th-Year Class Gift can be found in the Class Gift Giving Stats by CDT CO document in the Document Links section.  B1 leads the way, followed by F1, H3, and B4.  H3 leapfrogged several companies to take 3rd place — way to go!  We still have a long way to go to reach the goal — please use the 25th-Year Class Gift Pledge Card to make your next donation.