Send your input to Class Scribe - Gerry Buckosky
at gerrybuckosky@gmail.com
Visit the 1965 Class Notes Photo Album, Photo Album 2 and Photo Album 3 to see all the photos below full-size!
Classmates and Friends of Class of 1965,
This coming September, the 2022 editionof Taps is scheduled to be distributed. It will include Memorial Articles for twenty-six members of the Class of 1965. These Memorial Articles are available now on westpointaog.org/memorials or on the class web site. The classmates honored are:
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Ed Abesamis Ron Bailey Bart Barry Bill Bradley Duncan Brown Bill Connolly Bruce Gailey Carl Gentine Doug Gibson Colin Halvorson Steve Harman Denny Hawker |
Frank Hennessee Hal Jenkins Steve Kempf Oleh Koropey Pete Lounsbury Bob Mace Bruce Marshall John Olson Don Parrish Mike Shulick Dan Speilman Step Tyner |
Sincere thanks are due to the family members and classmates who wrote or contributed to the selasting tributes to those who are departed but not forgotten.
There is still work to be done. A coordinator is needed for classmates without a Memorial Article. These are:
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Joe Bishop Bill Brush Woody Epperson (ex-1965) Art Hester Jack Keith |
Tom McDonald Jerry Stockton Lowry West Jesse Whitten |
If you can volunteer to coordinate the preparation of one or more of these MemorialArticles, please contact ChuckMcCloskey at ccmccloskey@yahoo.com
Dave & Darlene Hopkins
I don't know if this is the kind of picture you want. We recently celebrated our 57th wedding anniversary with Dave & Darlene Hopkins (on the left in the picture) in St Michaels, MD.
Skip O’Donnell
Marylin and I stopped in St George at the Cracker Barrel on our way to Vegas for an early dinner with my WP classmate Larry Isakson and his wife Rebecca. Son and family are now heading to Brazil for another foreign officer assignment there. We had a nice hour and a half dinner/chat with them.
We recently celebrated our 57th wedding anniversary with Dave & Darlene Hopkins (on the left in the picture) in St Michaels, MD.
John Pickler
During a recent Wilson Bank Travel Club trip to Boston, John and Karen Pickler reconnected with Stan and Barbara Genega whom they hadn’t seen in about six years. After living in the Boston area for 25 years, Stan and Barbara are in the process of relocating to the Atlanta area.
Bob Frank
On 11 August, Mary and I had the pleasure of attending the retirement ceremony for COL Erik M. Berdy, USMA ’94. GEN Mark A. Milley, CJCS, hosted the ceremony. In his opening remarks, GEN Milley noted that Erik’s uncle, our Classmate Mike “Igor” Berdy died in Vietnam. Erik retired after 28 years of service and multiple deployments to combat zones to include Panama, the Republic of Haiti, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Kuwait, Iraq and Afghanistan. Erik, along with his younger brother, COL Michael Berdy, is the third Berdy generation to serve in the Army. Erik’s granddad served during WWII. Erik’s father, Andy, served in DESERT SHIELD/DESERT STORM and in Haiti. Erik’s brother, USMA ’96, also served in combat zones and was an Army Ranger. Michael will be retiring at the end of 2022. Their father, Andy, a Norwich University grad, is Igor’s younger brother. I have known Andy Berdy, Nikki and the boys since Andy and I served together in the Pentagon in the early 80s. Some of you have known Andy since our cadet days.
L to R: Mary Frank, Bob Frank, COL Erik Berdy, Andy Berdy, and Nikki Berdy
Erik's last assignment was as the Special Assistant to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff for Legislative Affairs. A dual-hatted position, he also served as the Director, Joint Staff Legislative Affairs Directorate. In the last 3 years, he has prepared the Chairman, Vice Chairman, and other members of the Joint Staff and the Combatant Commanders for more than 720 Congressional hearings and briefings. For all of his accomplishments, Erik was recognized with the award the Defense Superior Service Medal. It was a great day for the Berdy clan.
Jim Heilberg sent this response to Bob’s post.
Thanks for sending this. I was in the same company as Mike (B-1) in our plebe and yearling years. During plebe year Mike lived on the top floor of the 13th division and Bob Zonne, Bill McCreary and I lived on the first floor across from the orderly room, so we saw quite a bit of him before formations, meals, etc. To say the least he was entertaining – over the top funny - and completely unintimidated by the upperclassmen, especially the yearlings. He occasionally went out onto the stoops early - before the rest of us - to stir the pot. Of course, we weren’t to watch from our windows but with half a dozen or so plebes in the room it was hard not to. Occasionally it was, shall we say, riotous. Ed Klink lived in the 12th division and came out onto the same stoop. Between Igor and Ed (With hat over heart, “Sir, I really DO care!”) the yearlings didn’t have a chance.
Mike’s death hit us all very hard, at least partly because he had always seemed so invulnerable.
As an aside, the father of one of our daughters-in-law went to the same high school as Mike and knew him. As Ted said, Mike was a senior, football star, and BMOC while he was a freshman and a bit intimidated by him. He liked him though and eventually starred at football there later playing at William and Mary.
I didn’t know about all the Berdys in the Army. I met and talked to Andy Berdy a couple of times when he was in the DCSOPS strategy (I think) division but didn’t know about the success of his two sons. Congratulations to Eric and the Berdy family. Thanks to Bob for keeping Mike’s memory alive.
“Igor want pie.”
Pat Kenny and Tom Barron
11 August 2022 was an eventful day for the Class of 1965. As previously reported, COL Erik Berdy, son of Mike Berdy, retired at the Pentagon. Shortly thereafter, at West Point, Pat Kenny and Tom Barron visited the Department of History to bestow upon LTC David Siry, USA-Ret, a certificate that attests to his being made an Honorary Member of the Class of 1965, for his outstanding leadership of the Center for Oral History (COH), which is partially funded by our 50th Anniversary gift to the Academy.
Left to right: Pat, Dave and Tom
COL Gail Yoshitani, full professor and head of the Department and daughter-in-law of Ken and Izumi Yoshitani, hosted the ceremony attended by History Department personnel. Pat was at West Point for AOG’s Leaders Conference and Tom traveled an hour from his home on the Hudson to be present. Tom has been an advisor to COH since our Class gift was presented in 2015.
Left to right: Tom, Pat, Gail and Dave
Over the years, in excess of 300 interviews have been recorded by COH for on-line viewing. Our class has 53 which can be found at COH: Class of '65
May Class Notes
May 31st
The Three Amigos Ride Again!!
“Thank You For Your Service”
These aging friends have also visited Civil War battlefields in Tennessee and Revolutionary War battlefields in North Carolina and Virginia. Much earlier adventures included traveling through Europe together (1964), climbing Mount Hood (1963), river rafting in Colorado, and zip lining over a part of the Grand Canyon. Pending are hot air balloon and glider rides.
you
for your service,” directed mainly at Ben since
he wore a “Vietnam Veteran” cap. People, especially the ladies, lined
up in restaurants and visitor centers to thank him for his service
while Paul and Jay, proudly wearing their West Point caps, remained
mostly invisible. Ben blatantly soaked up this attention with such
humble comments as, “Many others did far more than I did”, and “I just
did my duty.” Paul and Jay found him to be borderline insufferable in
his humility.
At each battlefield, we found some lucky soul to take our picture. At Antietam's infamous Burnside Bridge, it was a former lawyer and now third grade teacher and proud mother of a female infantry-woman. At Henry's Hill (Manassas) where Stonewall Jackson received his nickname, it was a family, the husband of which was from Ukraine and whose extended family still resides in that war zone. At Fredericksburg, it was one of a group of four Ohio septuagenarians who have been doing things together since they were third graders. Of note at Fredericksburg was that Ben's grandfather would have been four years old during that battle and lived in a house on bank of the Rappahannock.
River in the middle of that battlefield. Each photographer we cornered brought an interesting story and was cause for a fun visit and, of course, for them to thank Ben for his service.
Southeastern PA / NJ Class ’65 Get Together; April 2022 Lambertville, PA
The
group of ’65 classmates from Southeastern PA and New Jersey held our
“periodic lunch” recently at the Lambertville Station in Lambertville,
NJ. Rick Kuzman was again the host.
We seemed to be coming out of the “restrictions of Covid” finally. We
had a great time with lively discussions, as usual. We covered Russia,
Tacs, Covid, Roy Garm’s fantastic trip to the Middle East,
grandchildren (a lot of that), and golf. Fred Smith talked about plans
for Army navy and he also brought us up to date on plans for the 60th
reunion, and solicited commitments for help too. We’ll see about the
help.
It was great to get together again. Out next get together for lunch will be on Wednesday, September 7, again in the New Hope, PA area. This seems to be a reasonable travel distance from most of the class mates in the area. Rick will be the host again.
In between, we expect to get in a few rounds of golf to be arranged by Fred Smith.
Shown
in the picture, taken in front of a Box Car parked in the station, left
to right; Howie Reed, Fred Smith, Rick Kuzman, Roy Garms, Joe Barkley,
and Chuck McCloskey.
Strength and Drive!
May 6th
The gals: Roxy Vann, Rosemary Hallenbeck, Dede Malpass, Faye Hayes (Radcliffe), Carol Bell, Susan Christman and Alice Kenny.
Our
condolences go out to the families of those who have joined the Ghostly
Assemblage of the Long Grey Line this past year:
220116 Steve Harmon
220130 Wayne Marsh
22027 Art Hester
220502 Dick Smoak
220528 Lowry West
- End of Despatch -
Bob Wolff
Our granddaughter completed her degree requirements at UC Santa Barbara but left enough required credits to do a semester abroad in Florence, Italy. Phyllis and I decided to take her on a trip and get her to Florence, so we spent 5 days in London, a day in Bath, and 3 days in Florence. While we enjoyed London, Bath, 2 hours from London, was a refreshing change from the big city. Our granddaughter will be living on the 4th floor of a flat in downtown Florence about 10 minutes from the school. Yours truly had to carry her large suitcases up the four flights as there is no elevator, and no A/C. Hopefully the weather which was in the 80s while we were there will turn cooler soon. While in London, we saw two shows - Grease and Back to the Future, the latter was fantastic and the former disappointing without John Travolta. It wa great to spend 10 days with our granddaughter.
Florence
Unfortunately, both Phyllis and I tested positive for COVID on our return so we are in isolation at home in our 2 BD condo in Rockville, MD. We sold our large house in Potomac after 46 years and experienced much trauma in making the change. I am sure many of our classmates will have a similar experience if you downsize. It was the right decision for us as we also have a condo in FL along with both our kids. So we will be official snowbirds.
A few pics follow.
 Towern Bridge |
 Victoria and Albert Museum in London |
Thank you Bob Radcliffe.
Bob Radcliffe has been and continues to be intimately involved in the establishment of an Endowment for the Army Men’s Lacrosse Team. Specifically, he is now leading the effort to secure endowment funding from the Classes of the 60s. This endowment will provide much needed additional funding in perpetuity for the Lacrosse Program in areas such as travel support, admin support, additional coaches and the equipment needed to maintain a large varsity roster for a sport without a junior varsity program. Appeal for the endowment continues and if you are interested in contributing contact Bob and he will provide needed guidance.
As part of this initiative, ‘65’s Leadership Team saw an opportunity to fund a Class Legacy Project. Bob secured financial support from numerous Classmates, and we were able to purchase naming rights to a locker in the Men’s Lacrosse Locker Room. This locker bears a dedication from the Class of 1965 players and supporters of Army Lacrosse to Class of ’65 to the Army Lacrosse Team.
The locker was dedicated 10 September at halftime of the Army – UTSA Football Game. Dan Christman presented remarks on behalf of the Class. Jack Jannarone, an LAX team member, also made remarks. Additionally, Bob coordinated with all of the Classes of the 60s to secure funding for a locker honoring Coach Jim (Ace) Adams, who coached Army Lacrosse throughout the 60s. This locker was dedicated at the same time with Dan again making remarks.
Back in the locker room at West Point, Dan Chritman (left) and Bob Frank pause for a photo in front of the Ace Adams Locker.
- End of Despatch
Ralph Adams
Last Thursday, Ralph Adams and I hooked up at a Starbucks in Foster City. As part of my trip north, I wanted to hand-off a package to John Swensson. John was unavailable, so he offered Ralph as a pinch hitter. Ralph hit a home run.
Here is a pic of the package:
We met on a sunny morning in the outdoor area. I arrived first and waited. Ralph drove in, exited his car and began to saunter up. He was in my line of sight immediately. We both had grins and shook hands.
Neither Ralph nor I could recall meeting some time 61-65. However, Ralph mentioned how strange it is that two otherwise strangers can spend an hour shootin' the breeze as though we knew each other from a time before. So I gave Ralph the package for John and we both left. It was a memorable hour.