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Class News: 1963 May 7, 2007
Contact Information: Norman I. (Skip) Lee
Big news! Congratulations to Ron Fogleman who received the United States Air Force Academy Thomas D. White Award. This prestigious award is presented annually to a U.S. citizen who has contributed significantly to the national defense of the United States. The award was presented to Ron on May 2nd at the Academy and it is a big deal. Ron is joining some elite company. Since its inception in 1962 recipients of the White Award includes two US Presidents, five Chairmen of the Joint Chiefs, innovators like Clarence J (Kelly) Johnson, and significant contributors to the nation like Jimmie Doolittle and Bob Hope. The permanent Thomas D. White plaque is displayed in Arnold Hall, with inscriptions of the names of the annual winners. More News: Steve Dotson was elected to the AOG Board of Directors. The AOG announced the preliminary voting results on May 4th. Mike Christy was also a candidate (and a current board member) but was not re-elected. Boo! I think Mike did a terrific job during his tenure and he deserves our thanks for his leadership and dedication. Get your Ad Novos Mundos the First Thirty Years DVD now before they are all gone! Any of you who attended the 1993 reunion will likely remember the magnificent multi-media presentation brought to us by Ron Fogleman as a tribute to the first 30 years after graduation. The original tape was in the Beta format (remember those?) and according to Jimmie Butler we had a bunch of VHS tapes dubbed from the Beta. The VHS tapes were distributed for a donation to the Class Fund. Jimmie had the Beta from 1993 and it is now converted to DVD. The DVDs are a very good representation of what we saw that night in 1993 (ed. note: I have a copy of the DVD and it is a significant improvement over the VHS tape and the audio is especially good). Jim Diffendorfer approved a project to distribute copies of the DVD for a $10 donation to the Class Fund. If you get a copy you will surely be pleased. For a copy, send a $10 CHECK made out to the CLASS OF 1963 FUND and send it along with YOUR ADDRESS to: Jimmie H. Butler, 7635 Delmonico Drive, Colorado Springs, CO 80919. E-mail Jimmie at jimmieb@earthlink.net with your address and tell him a check will be on the way; the DVD will be in the mail a day or two earlier. The old Honor Code still works for us. It’s a guess but half the class probably has not seen the presentation. So please pass on the info to any/other classmates you contact. Gil Merkle posted some excerpts of an audio recording from our graduation on the class web page earlier this year so check it out. Thanks to Jim Kuhn for the recordings. Gil says he is planning to create a Class Newsletter link in the next web site update. The Class News is currently found in the Stories link. http://www.usafa63.org/. You will like the color photographs. Bob Hayes announced the 45th Class Reunion will be held during the Navy Game weekend of 1-5 October 2008 and the reunion site is to be the Colorado Springs Marriott (site of the 40th gathering). As soon as it becomes available, reunion information is being posted on the AOG Web Site http://www.usafa.org/index.asp. The other day I was going through some papers from previous class events and ran across the book of bio sketches from the 35th reunion put together by Jack McTasney, Butch Verdier, Jimmie Butler and others—there are some truly great stories there. I also found the companion CD done by Jim Gaston The USAFA Class of 1963 After 35 Years. That was a productive reunion. Could we possibly pull something together for the 45th? Speaking of reunions here is a picture from the recent past:
Who are these guys?
The date for this year’s mini-reunion is set for October 20th. This time the gathering will be for the football game against Wyoming and should be the same format as previous minis with a tailgate about 3 hours prior to the 12 O'clock kickoff in the northwest parking lot and the cup turning ceremony and dinner to follow the game at the AOG. More details of the event will be published on the Class Web Site when they are available. The date this time was pretty much dictated by the home game schedule; plus, the desire by the attendees to avoid, if at all possible, bad weather. Weather during the Army game in November is always dicey and there wasn’t a home game date, other than one night game, available prior to Oct 20th. On that point we need to think about the 50th in 2013. Do we want to be at USAFA in November? This year’s mini-reunion is guaranteed to be a great time so make some plans and put it on your calendar. John Heimberger reports he is an Operations Coordinator at Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston. When I asked what an Operations Coordinator does, John said he helps keep 12,000 acres of airport safe and running smoothly. The Airport is the 6th largest in the world handling 116,000 passengers daily on over 800 flights and experienced 42.5 million customers in 2006. (expect that to double in the next 15 years to 85 million) Can you imagine? They have five instrument runways with a sixth planned. They even grow $2.5M worth of alfalfa annually and have 98 security rangers on horseback that patrol the outer perimeter. Dick Troy sent a picture from his recent trip to China. His visit included the General Stilwell Museum in Chongqing (old Chunking). Dick said that a photo at the museum of LtCol Ed McComas of the Flying Tigers prompted a comment to a friend about Gail McComas which caught the attention of another visitor, Dennis Hamlet from Baltimore, a two-year member of the Class of ’69. This led to the picture below which was forwarded to me for the magazine. Small world eh?
Do you recall a blurb in the December 2006 magazine about Scott Seward’s Birch Shores Resort? Brent and Jeanne Maxon had attended a previous gathering of a mini-Fightin’ Fourth’s get together. Anyway, this maybe the first ever Brent Maxon entry into the 1963 Class News:
the Maxons
That’s it for this time. I need to get this thing done and mailed out to the AOG so I can make my Tee Time. Many thanks for your inputs they make this task fun. Please keep them coming. Take care out there.
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Dennis, Vinegar Joe and
Dick