Monday, August 11, 2008

Class Update August 2008

Class of 1984

Mike Jensen
12035 Milam Road
Colorado Springs, CO 80908
1-800-GO-AFA-GO
michaeljensen@remax.net
http://www.usafa84.com/

Not at all ready for this! First and foremost, we will be having our 25th reunion next year! Most have asked to have it on a football weekend, but I will be working with the AOG to see what options we have. Let me know what you want to do or see for that momentous occasion. That was tough to get out, because it wasn’t that long ago when these guys were basics with us. (picture of Generals)

Picture (Left to Right): Sam Cox, Terry Feehan, Gen Schwartz (Confirmedas 19th CSAF, Class of 73), John Thompson, Jeff Lofgren our very own Class of 1984 1-Star Selects none of which had ever written into Checkpoints! (so I guess I made a bad career move as scribe!) Sam will be our next Commandant at USAFA (Change of Command scheduled for October 15) Terry is the Vice Commander, Electronic Systems Center, Hanscom AFB, Mass. JT is currently Chief of Staff, Air Force Materiel Command at Wright-Patterson AFB in Ohio. Jeff is Vice Commander, First Air Force at Tyndall. Classmate not shown in the pic is Cheryl (DeVita) Roberson...there withher husband (BGen (S) Darryl, Class of 83).

Great job! Now for some updates from some of our other Superstars!: Steve Shepro just left vice command at Balad to take command of Andrews AFB (316th Wing).

Herman Baker has been working for Consolidated Edison Company (ConEd) in NYC for the past 2 1/2 years now. Still a Col in the USAFR and is trying to change my USAFA LO position to NYC.

Barb Walker * got married on Sep 1 last year. Her husbands name is Steve Wiley and he comes from Scotland (they love the brough). Photo attached with 3 daughters Amber (CU boulder Junior), Brittany (HS senior) and Chloe' (middleschooler). Still Barb Walker and her cancer is in remission! They sold Thunder and Buttons in Feb to Jeff Mielke ’80 and his wife Hillary!

Also doing well is Doug Fogle The Doug Fogle family spent two weeks in Italy during June. Top photo of Doug and boys (Hayden/14 & Evan/12) at the Collisseum then family photo in Pompeii. Attended a Fogle family reunion in Arkansas in July. We are all doing well, all healthy. Doug is back to work at Southwest Airlines. Returned to work in April. It took 4 months for the FAA to get their act together and look at Doug's paper work to get him back to flying. Who said, "we're from the gov't and we're here to help"....
Hayden will be starting highschool this fall. He is busy trying out for the soccer team and Evan will be in 7th grade and he plays for travel team-Chicago Magic soccer as a goalie. I am still in school taking art classes and between all that there doesn't leave time for much else. If anyone is in the area (Chicago) give us a call, Chi-town is just 45 minutes away.
PS--Notice all the gray in Doug's hair. He says it make passengers feel safer


Rich "Bugs" Call is still at UPS (looks as cute as Bradshaw in those brown shorts!) and has just been reassigned to the left seat on the 747-400 in Anchorage. He is in touch with Ken Thalman, Lance Nitschke, and Ed Rutherford Still living in Albuquerque.


Scott Welker made O-6, but retired before he pinned on. He is the new surgeon for theWalla Walla Clinic in WA.

Our oldest living grad, Tom Kolkmeier is a Plant Engineer for a John Morrell plant located in Springdale, Ohio (Northern Cincinnati). His oldest daughter, Heidi, is getting married in August this year. As the most senior (age) in the class, he hit the "magical" 50 year mark in July. He would tell everyone what it felt like to turn fifty, if he could only remember! Another daughter, Katrina, is up at Ohio State studying engineering. His son is a junior in high school and has 2 daughters still in grade school! (I’ve lost count…5 kids?) He went on-line to one of those financial website and computed his projected retirement age - 75.

John Weigand is still DEN, @UAL obviously having very challenging times. He commutes to PAFB as O-6 in USAFR, Reserve Advisor to Director of Ops, HQ NORAD. Brent "Mongo" Johnson commanding the 611 Air Support Group responsible for 40 remote sites scattered throughout Alaska. Will depart in 2009 for???? His son graduated from High School and plans on becoming a pararescue specialist with the Alaska Air National Guard.

Joel Henness is leaving Houston! After 10 years in the Texas Air National Guard, he just got picked up to be the ANG advisor to 12th AF CC, out at Davis-Monthan. So Joel, wife and 3.5 year old are heading to Tucson for 4 years. We will need someone to sub in for him in Houston to keep Doi Heckler out of trouble for the next 4 years. Sounds like a job for new Houstonian Jeff Hays (who returned back home with Gina and the girls!)

Everyone’s best friend Eric Wallace * Left Hand Milk Stout won the Gold for sweet stout at the World Beer Cup in April for the second time in a row. This is probably the most prestigious award in the world and it takes place every two years. Awards are given by an international panel of judges. (See photo.) Left Hand Sawtooth Ale was named the best "bitter" in the US by the New York Times. They now have 36 employees and we're the 5th largest craft brewery in Colorado. We're approaching completion of a major expansion to our brewery, replacing our original 20 barrel brewhouse with a 60 barrel brewhouse. His wife Cinzia runs the tasting room at the brewery, so anyone stopping by should say hi and make yourself known to her, so she can track Eric down if he is in town. Speaking of beer, Bob Perry and I keep talking about grabbing one,and by the time you read this hopefully we have. Lori went back to work in the English Department at the Zoo as permanent staff.


Joe Sherman reports family is good (wife Gail, daughter Meagan, son Spencer, dogs Elvis and Lily). His only big family news is honorable daughter will be starting college in the fall at Virginia Tech, not that he is or old enough to have a child starting college. (tell that to Kolkmeier!) He has been flying Sikorsky S-61s and now the new S-92 helicopters for the last year with Cougar Helicopters out of St John's, Newfoundland and Galliano, Louisiana, providing passenger service for oil workers to offshore platforms as well as search and rescue and medical evacuation response for oil companies. It's a good gig, great machines, but being gone for 2 weeks out of every 4 is wearing thin. Hasn’t run into any AFA bubbas in a while, but that's in large part to having gone the interservice transfer route in 1990, spending the rest of his military life flying in the Coast Guard.


Scott & Kelly Cain left the Air Force in 1992 for California. He went to work for my Father-In-Law in the wholesale fuel and lubricants industry. I've been distributing fuels and lubes ever since! In 2005, they formed a petroleum trucking company with another partner and have been running trucks for the past couple of years. Married to his beautiful wife, Kelly. They have two grown sons, Ryan (23) and Brandon (20). Ryan did his undergraduate work at Azusa Pacific University, and is currently in his second year as a Physician's Assistant student at Midwestern University in Phoenix, AZ. Brandon is junior at Fresno Pacific University majoring in English Literature, and History. Scott and Kelly now reside in Clovis, CA.


Tiina Mundy reports that Carol Pugh O'Hearn and her husband Cal O'Hearn just adopted a little boy, Kelly, from China.


Monica (Schweitz) Smith has a nephew, Nick Reed is at USAFA as a basic right now. She says they already get email! (Don’t worry we have someone coming in who might have something to say about that!)


Wallace R. Fajardo * Separated in 1999 as a Major from AETC now President and Principal Engineer of Advanced Consulting and Engineering Solutions, Inc. Living in Dania Beach Florida, they have two boys, Wallace and Julian, and my wife Lillian of 24 years.

Jerry Stanton became a full partner in the patent law firm Harrington & Smith PC at the start of this year and has added 2 more attorneys since then. This summer he went skydiving with my nephew who is also interning at the law office while his wife and 2 kids are off at summer camp. That was his first jump since the airmanship course in 1981, and the first time ever for my nephew. Next year they plan to run with the bulls in Pamplona, so if anyone else is interested in that for the first week of July 2009 drop him a line! (sounds like a TDY for the new Commandant)

Kurt Hornbacker is in the Bay Area at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. An analyst for the export licensing program to ensure that U.S. companies don't export commodities that could be used to make WMD, to the bad guys.He ran into Col. Kyle Lampela a year or two ago in the halls there.

Sunday, August 3, 2008

COX, '84, SELECTED AS NEW COMMANDANT OF CADETS


July 25, 2008


The incoming commandant is Col. Samuel D. Cox who is currently serving at the Pentagon as the Director of Air Force General Officer Management for the Deputy Chief of Staff, Manpower, Personnel and Services.

Colonel Cox, a 1984 Academy graduate, has been selected for promotion to brigadier general