Class of ’73, thank you for your great inputs. Now looking for reunion stories and pictures for the Winter edition. We have limited space in Checkpoints, but all inputs will be included on our web version of the Checkpoints article at http://usafa73.org. Respectfully, Joe Kahoe, CS-07.
Congrats to our newest four-star and commander of AETC, General Steve Lorenz!!!!
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| From L-R: Mike and Sandra Mosier, Skip (seated) and Joanne Sanders, Paul and Jane Freund, Steve and Leslie Lorenz, Mike Nishimuta, Bruce and Janet Meyer, Bob and Pam Munson. |
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| Pin on Ceremony: Jack Hudson, Bruce Meyer, Steve Lorenz, Skip Sanders, Paul Freund, Bob Munson, Mike Mosier. |
Congrats to General Norty Schwartz for being confirmed by the Senate on Aug 1st as our next USAF Chief of Staff!!!!
Mike Smith is in his last quarter of classes for his PhD … comps this fall and will start his dissertation research in Jan 09. Mike is also working with the Academy's Center for Character and Leadership Development, doing a study on character development as a result of the Academy experience. Mike was President of bd Systems until bought by SAIC, where he is now a VP in Colorado Springs.
Tom and Jane Kroessig live Peachtree City, GA. “I am coping with chronic health problems and am on long term disability from Delta Air Lines. I am an Ambassador Field Director for Promise Keepers. One of my passions is to work for unity among churches in this area. Jane works part time for a company called Vetrimark, selling products to veterinarian offices and is a costumer for theater companies in Atlanta. Our older daughter, Katie, lives in Boca Raton and works for Boston Proper. Out younger daughter, Amy, is about to start her freshman year at Spartanburg Methodist College, SC, where she will be a goalie on the women's soccer team.” kroessig4@aol.com
Rev. Msgr. Steve Rossetti, PhD DMin (CS-37): Steve has been a Monsignor for over a year and he is still ministering at St Luke Institute in Silver Spring MD as a Catholic priest and its CEO … 16 years at same location. Steve is also a licensed psychologist and works with priests and religious in the residential psychological treatment program, called St Luke Institute (www.sli.org). He had a July 4th BBQ at his home and Dave Ochmanek and Lt. Gen Frank Klotz came, with spouses, both from CS-37. Dave is still working at RAND, a think tank, doing defense analysis.
Craig E. Lady (CS-16) and his fiancée, Ann Martin, were married in the Protestant Cadet Chapel during our reunion by our former cadet chaplain, now-retired Chaplain (Col) Bob Browning, ’59.
New email for Ernest Butler is ernest.butler@disa.mil. - Ernie DSN 227-9971.
Steve Harmon is the Program Executive Officer for Preparation and Training at SOCOM, where he works with folks like LGen Don Wurster at AFSOC. He is planning a family reunion with his folks in Seattle for Thanksgiving (Dad 92 and Mom 88). “Dinner is on me when folks come through Tampa.”
Skip Sanders recently hosted Orville Wright’s daughter, F-15E pilot, at Tyndall. Went to Steve Lorenz's promotion and CoC at Randolph. It was a very good time.
Brian Beard … “I was in the Cadet Chorale and after graduation obtained a copy of the reel-to-reel recording of the June Week Chorale Concert from Mr. Boyd, our director. I recently rediscovered the tapes, and digitized to CDs. I also had some other recordings of Choral and Chapel Choirs that I added to the two CD set. If anyone is interested in obtaining copies, please contact me at info@lucidtechnologies.info.”
Vance Watt (CS-01): “I decided to skip the merger with Delta (been through 3 already!). I gave up my spot as the most senior NWA 73 grad to Rick West, who stood in line behind me on day 1 in June 23rd, 1969, was in same UPT class, and we flew in the same C-130 squadron for a year at Pope AFB. Tom Schuessler is now one seniority number at NW, behind Rick, and both plan to stick around a few more years as they have offspring who are college bound.
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| Vance Watt and Rick West at Vance’s retirement after 28.5 years at NW. |
Mike Hay … In the FWIW department, I just discovered and joined this site, as a way to re-connect with some quality people. http://www.usafa.org/ZoomieNation_Redirect.aspx
Rick Karvosky … “After 4 months of dust storms and artillery shells rocking my bed at night, I finally gave up and took an assignment at Al Dhafra, Abu Dhabi, UAE as the Civil Engineer again. I was supposed to be gone last Friday, but we had 4 days of dust storms and the Blackhawks were on weather hold! I'll be doing the same work I did at Dhafta from 2003-06. It'll be good to get back to a more civilized and normal life! Wish I could make it to the 35th - it'll be the first I'll miss. I was at the 10th, 20th, 25th and 30th! I'll be at the 40th. I plan to stay here only a year and then call it quits and go back to Nantucket and buy a small boat rental business and work only Memorial Day to Labor Day from then on! Nantucket is where my significant other lives. Denise was my senior prom date and "dropped" me when I entered the Academy that summer and I had not seen her until she sent me an email through Classmates.Com in Sept 2006 - 37 years later! We've been together ever since!”
From Doug and Ruth Richter (CS-35): “Our daughter Kari married Jeff in Dec 2007, and our son Nick married Kharissa in June this year. Ruth was promoted to a new job at the local hospital.” Doug passed the professional engineers exam and is moving to Fredericksburg, VA.
Caption: Roger Smith and AJ Ranft taken in May at a bar in Rome celebrating the 35th anniversary of their European road trip the summer after graduation. AJ's wife, Andree and Roger’s wife Jackye tagged along to help them relive their youth.
After nine years with United Airlines, Joe Mitchell (CS36) is now with the FAA in Louisville, Ky, as Acting Manager for General Aviation in the FSDO. They went to Louisville to be nearby daughter Stephanie’s family. Their son, Joey, left the AF as a captain after ten years
, and is now at Balad AB in Iraq as an IT contractor.
Buddy Gammon won his Primary election July 15th so will be on the Nov. 4 General Election Ballot as a candidate for U.S Congress from Georgia, the 11th District. Budgammon.com.
Fred Beckmann does risk management for Northrop Grumman at BWI. Loves to travel and stay proficient in languages … Happily married … Two boys - one at Univ of MD and one at Georgia Tech earning his Master’s.
Flashback: On Dec. 9, 1971, Don Rightmyer was the designated wing representative to speak at the dedication of the Minuteman III missile in front of the field house … awesome photo on our web site.
Our heartfelt condolences and prayers go out to Mike Harmon, whose wife Renee was buried in the Academy cemetery on Aug 2nd next to her brother, Greg Renko, who was laid to rest two years ago. Mike and Greg had been roommates in CS-28 and a number of their classmates attended including John Thompson, Mike Tillman, Harry Walker, Jack Hower, Chuck Stewart, Bob Munson, and Bill Gillin.
Academy Missile launches officer’s career
By Master Sgt. Dean J. Miller
Public Affairs
In the course of any Airman’s career, opportunities to step-up to a leadership challenge present themselves. Experts on leadership believe these early events, and how they are handled, are key to developing character that often defines an individual. Class of 1973 Graduate, Maj. (retired) Donald Rightmyer, is a classic example.
As a cadet, Rightmyer stepped up to many challenges. Often these would merge his two greatest passions: history, and Air and Space power. As a cadet, he was honored to bring the silver goblets of the Doolittle Raiders to their Annual Reunion in 1972 where he met General Jimmy Doolittle and other surviving Raiders; it was an event that left a profound impression on the 21-year-old Rightmyer. Rightmyer also chaired the Cadet Heritage Committee, a place where air power and history often merged. It was in this capacity he found himself on Dec. 9, 1971, center stage outside Clune Arena, side-by-side with Brig Gen. Salvatore E. Felices, then Strategic Air Command’s deputy chief of staff for materiel. Rightmyer was named to represent the Cadet Wing at the dedication of the Academy’s new Minuteman III ICBM display, a gift from SAC.
“I remember that day so clearly,” said Mr. Rightmyer, retired since 1993. “That dedication just brought one more really important element of Air Force mission and heritage to the aircraft, the weapons, and statues already displayed at the Academy.
“These displays both preserved and demonstrated our heritage,” said Mr. Rightmyer. “I thought it was so important when SAC gave us that missile, and I was privileged and honored to represent the Cadet Wing at the ceremony. It was one of many really, remarkable things I got to do as a cadet.” Rightmyer, today a retired cold-warrior in his own right, is reflective as he contemplates the retirement of a Cold-War icon he help dedicate, “There’s a note of sadness as we see the aircraft and weapon systems we trained and served in being retired. But, there’s also a huge feeling of accomplishment for the service these aircraft and missiles allowed us to provide to our nation’s defense through our years of service in the U.S. Air Force. As we walked by the Minuteman III missile and various aircraft at the Academy on a daily basis, they reminded us of the rich heritage of air and space power which the Air Force has forged. I am very encouraged by the young men and women who have passed through the Academy since I graduated and continue in that same tradition of service to our country today.”
From the Academy in 1973, Lieutenant Rightmyer, with a degree in military history, went on to serve as an F-4 aviator, flying in Korea, England and Germany. He served as a historian in the Headquarters Air Force History Office and later served as an intelligence officer on the Soviet Awareness Briefing Team in Washington D.C. In 1983, he returned to flying, this time in F-111s at Mountain Home Air Force Base, Idaho. Later, Rightmyer served as editor, TAC Attack Magazine, Tactical Air Command’s Safety Publication, a war plans officer at 16th Air Force in Madrid, Spain, and as editor, Air Scoop, U.S. Air Forces in Europe’s Safety publication, before his retirement in 1993.
Today, Mr. Rightmyer is a State Government employee in the city of Frankfort, Kentucky, serving as editor, Kentucky Ancestors, a quarterly publication of the Kentucky Historical Society. He resides in Danville, Kentucky.