Class News: 1963 March 2008

We have just learned from the AOG of the death of our classmate James R. Cowder who passed away January 29, 2008. A memorial service was held Feb 2nd, at the First Christian Church, 910 S Collins St, Arlington, TX. Condolences may be sent to his family in care of his wife, Mary: Mrs. Mary Munday Cowder, 348 Mesquite Hill Dr., Arlington TX 76002-4478.

Often I use information gleaned from the Class Web Site, especially the Guest Log, which has experienced a shortage of postings recently. About the shortage; our web master Gil Merkle says the Guest Log experienced a lot of 'Rogue' writers (not classmates) posting a lot of trash onto the page and some even tried to hijack the page; so, I've put a password onto the posting form. Classmates probably know the password. The username is 'Nino' (note capital N) and the password is the last name of a cadet who was not easily found; yet seemed to be everywhere (password also starts with a capital letter). If someone does not know the password, contact me at merkleg@texas.net and I'll send it.

Last Fall Ralph Bacue sent a photograph with the following story: “The attached picture records some news that we are proud about—it shows our son, Lt Patrick Bacue, just after I administered the ‘Oath’, with Virginia and me. I used one of my 2/Lt bars in the ‘pinning’—one of those that I had polished a lot so it almost appears a 1/Lt bar. I'm saving the other one for Stephanie, who as you know is USAFA '09. Patrick is also a new Civil Engineer with first assignment to FE Warren AFB, Wyoming, and reporting end of February. In the interim, he is employed by an engineering firm in Columbia, SC.”

The Bacues: Virginia, Patrick and Ralph

Another set of proud ‘grandparents’ this time are Butch and Carolee Verdier. Butch announced “Their grandson, Benjamin Lee Brown, received word today that he has been appointed to the United States Air Force Academy, class of 2012. He will enter on June 26th, 2008, exactly 49 years to the day after ‘grandpa’ entered and 22 years after his father, Mike Brown, graduated. . . . To say that we are excited is a great understatement!”

Reunion: Since the FAC Reunion will be held at the same time in Colorado Springs as our 45^th Class Reunion and many of us were FACs, the FAC Memorial Dedication Ceremony will be included in our reunion schedule as an “optional” event. Jimmie Butler is heading up the FAC Memorial and wrote that in conjunction with recent guidelines for retirees and veterans, we're asking those in attendance at the Dedication Ceremony to wear ribbons or miniature medals. Since slow FACs (O-1s, O-2s, and OV-10s) earned 2 Medals of Honor (posthumously), nearly 30 Air Force Crosses, many Silver Stars, hundreds of Distinguished Flying Crosses, and thousands of Air Medals, Jimmie is telling the USFA Cadets that that morning they probably will see more Silver Stars, DFCs, Air Medals, etc., than they will see in the rest of their military careers. So this is a heads-up invitation for those who will be gathering for the class reunion this October. More info will be coming out with the regular reunion mailings. You can also follow the 2008 FAC Reunion progress at: http://www.facassoc.org/ColoradoSprings.htm.

The Class web site and the AOG web site are ways to keep up with the planning status for our 45^th reunion. By now you should have received in your local mailbox a missive from the 45^th Reunion Planning Committee—it is due out in February and I am writing in January. If you didn’t receive the mailing please notify either Bob Hayes or Denny King. Denny has been working with classmates who are acting as cadet squadron reps to update the AOG’s data base. It turns out there are some serious errors in the data base including cadet squadron identification at graduation. Surprisingly, errors in some squadrons are as high as 50%. Worse, these errors are repeated on plaques placed in the squadrons. I personally checked out 15^th CS and found 5 mistakes. Denny can be reached at denny63@sbcglobal.net or 719-687-7229 and Bob at bcahayes@comcast.net or 719-481-9693.

Among the good articles in the December 2007 Checkpoints—two of which were written by classmates Steve Dotson and Jimmie Butler—is a story of the dedication of an F-4 Phantom static display at Arnold Air Force Base on Nov. 27th. The dedication was to Col. Larry Golberg and Maj. Pat Wynne (’63). Doug Hardgrave tells me that Pat moved into his crew slot in the back seat with Larry less than a week before they were shot down. Doug had PCS’d to Bentwaters. Doug was flying with Larry when they shot down a Mig-17 on 30 April, 1966. Phil Maywald also attended the ceremony along with 100 to 200 others including a member of the US Congress, state legislature delegates and Pat’s brother Mike Wynne the Secretary of the Air Force. The attached photo shows, left to right, Phil, Doug, Pat's widow Nancy, Mike Wynne and Mike's wife Barbara.

F4 Dedication at Arnold AFB

As an interesting aside: Doug Hardgrave’s birthday is this coming March 15^th and he will be 70 years old. He doesn’t look too bad for an old guy. Happy Birthday Doug! I wonder how many of you have crossed that line already. Maybe you could let us in on how you dealt with the required distribution of your IRA.

Did you receive the e-mail from Bill Flynn announcing the TV show "Comanche Moon," Larry McMurtry's prequel to Lonesome Dove? The show aired on CBS in mid-January. Bill played the part of an English Butler. I hope that many of you caught the show and enjoyed it as much as we did. Bill’s costume caused a few ladies to remark favorably about his legs or gams as they put it. I asked Bill about that and he seemed to really appreciate the attention. If you didn’t see the series keep and eye out for it during reruns later this year.

Ralph Wetterhahn suggested watching a NOVA presentation on PBS in mid to late December entitled “Missing in MiG Alley”, a fascinating subject. Unfortunately I missed the show on TV but was able to look it up on the internet and watched all 6 segments on my computer—about 45 minutes total. The discussion on the design strengths and weaknesses of the MiG-15 and the F-86 was very enlightening and worth the watch. Ralph has several on-screen parts in the show. You can see the video at the NOVA website: NOVA | in MiG Alley | PBS. Just double click or use cntrl-click to get to the page.

That’s it for this time. Once again you have done a swell job of providing me with inputs. We are getting very excited about October and really look forward to seeing all of you once again.