Look alive with Seventy-Five!
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Look alive with Seventy-Five!
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Dear ’mates: Happy New Year! I hope spring is in the air for all of my fellow Flower Children. As I write this column, the annual Dark Age lull is pressing heavily upon my in box. The 2009 Navy football season—with its long list of accomplishments—is but a fond memory. The achievements of 2010 are mostly in our future. I think it is safe to postulate that we all have something to look forward to this year … be it the 35th Reunion in October, retirement, grandchildren (or children?), or even a new leg … [more on that later]. Scanning the Navy and Marine Corps Flag lists in the annual Seapower Almanac, you’ll find that our classmates who continue to serve on active duty have moved way toward the front page. Thanks for your continued service, guys. You make us all proud. Fortunately for your Scribe, our Alumni Association has a good department of alumni news. They search the web for stories about USNA grads and forward them on to the respective class secretaries. It’s kind of like the modern equivalent to the old Fleet Hometown News Releases. Here are some highlights since our last Shipmate. · After retiring as the Commander of the Naval Education and Training Command last August, Gary Jones joined Alion Science and Technology, an employee-owned technology solutions company. Gary is the VP and manager of Alion’s Advanced Modeling, Simulation and Training operation. The Pensacola area alumni will miss Gary and Tammy, but we know that they will do good things for Alion. To paraphrase Gary, “What a great country …when a product of the North Carolina public school system can become VP of a Science and Technology company.” · The Texas A&M Board of Regents gave their annual Regents Fellow Service Award to Hank Lawson for his leadership of the Texas All-Hazards Incident Exercise Program. Hank is the Program Director for Exercise and Simulations with TEEX’s National Emergency Response and Rescue Training Center. · Guy Mehula has joined Parsons as VP and Program Executive. Before going to work for Parsons, Guy was the Chief Facilities Executive for the Los Angeles Unified School District. · The Manitowoc (WI) public library presented a Brown Bag Seminar featuring Brian Wegner in January. Brian’s subject was his recent travel to New Zealand. Also fortunately for your Scribe, Ken Hart makes it his mission to put together 14th Company news each year. So let us now catch up with some of our classmates from 3rd Battalion. Cindy and Nyles Christensen report that Angie, Brett and their two daughters (Emma and Addison) live in Salt Lake City. Brett is a Sergeant in the Utah Army National Guard. He has done one tour in Iraq. Angie spends her time at home with the girls and getting them to their many activities. Emma started Kindergarten this year and loves school. Eric and McKenna live in the Minneapolis/St Paul area where Eric is in his second year of Law School and McKenna works for Masaba Airlines. They are enjoying Minnesota except for the cold. Mike graduated from BYU in April. He is a supervisor at a local Department Store in Salt Lake and is doing well. Cindy and Nyles moved to Africa in January of 2009, where Nyles accepted an assignment with Chevron as the Plant Technical and Engineering Manager for the Angola LNG (Liquefied Natural Gas) facility being built in Soyo, Angola. They lived in Luanda, the capital, until about February and then planned to move to Soyo, a small African community located at the very northwest point of Angola—right where the Congo River flows into the Atlantic Ocean. They will live there until the plant is operational sometime in late 2011 or 2012. The Christensens are having many great experiences and feel very lucky to have this opportunity. It has been quite an eye opener and makes you very grateful for what we have in the U.S. Life is not easy for most of the locals in Angola. Every day can be a challenge in just taking care of basic needs. A big challenge for Nyles and Cindy is trying to learn the Portuguese language. Cindy keeps busy with various volunteer activities and helps teach an English class to the older kids at Mama Muximo Orphanage a couple times a week, works one day a week doing craft activities with the younger kids at the same Orphanage, and plays bingo with the residents of a retirement center. She also takes part in other activities with the Ex-Pat wives. Both Christensens help teach an English class at their church one night a week. They have made many new friends—both Ex-Pats and Angolan—and have enjoyed learning about their families and culture. Karen and Randy Jencks had a reasonably quiet year with the exception of Randy’s mother's passing last spring. She lived with Randy and Karen prior to moving to the nursing home and after nine years of dialysis she decided it was enough. Randy says that now that he’s reached the top rung of the ladder the view has changed somewhat. He and Karen finally completed the sale of their coffee house (after significant headaches associated with the contract for deed, unauthorized alterations by the buyer, and their threat to foreclose on the property). Just chalk it up as one of those life experiences. The Jencks kids are doing well. The oldest, Whitney, is attending Georgetown as a freshman. Karen and Jacklyn drove out to visit Whitney over the Thanksgiving holiday and Whitney flew home for Christmas break. Randy travels to Washington DC every year for business and got to see her in February. Jacklyn’s team competed in the State Volleyball tournament and played for the Championship, placing second. They can't wait until next year. Sandra and Scott Bauer’s daughter Katie got married in March and they are expecting a grandchild in July. Sandra went through chemo and radiation treatments for cancer (which appears to be gone now) and Palo Verde got out of Column 4 (no thanks to Ken Hart, but some of his teammates were mighty helpful). The big news for the Bauers is that Scott was selected to be the next Washington DC representative for the alliance in which his plant participates. So they will be heading to Washington DC for 2.5 years. Scott started working at the Nuclear Energy Institute in January. Sandra is going to finish the school year in CA as a sixth grade teacher and then will join Scott in May. The Bauers will have an apartment in downtown DC so it will be a short commute to work for once. Karen and Paul Reardon. The news in the Reardon family since the last update is that their youngest, Bridget, received her Masters in Mechanical Engineering from Boston University in May, and has taken a job in Memphis, Tenn. with Medtronic Corp in their spinal biologics group. Their oldest, Megan, is still in Gainesville, Fla. with her significant other (who just earned his PhD). Megan is in the midst of switching careers from physical therapy to law. Back up north of the Mason-Dixon line (Paul can't say frozen north these days with global warming...), Karen is still working at the University of Vermont, and Paul is in his 30th year at IBM. Monica and Al Eaton report that all is well in Upstate New York. Al is finding himself one of the senior members at Lockheed Martin these days, but he still enjoys what he does! He refers to all the young engineers running around the plant as "kids.” The Eaton’s own "kids" are doing very well, and their two and half year old granddaughter brings them great joy. The simple things in life are not lost on Al and Monica, and they are appreciative of good health and the gift of family and friends. Sandy and Ken Hart have a growing family. In 2009, Chip and Alissa had a son (Charlie) on February 23. Ken spent a week at Habitat for Humanity in Western Maryland in July and another week in Appalachia in October replacing a roof. As always, thanks for all the great gouge, Ken! Our sincerest condolences to two ’75 families. Harry Lee’s wife Christine lost her cancer battle on December 1st. Doug Martin passed away just after Christmas—also a cancer warrior. Cancer sucks. Personally, I am going on nine years in the cancer wars. The SOB has probably affected every one of us either directly or indirectly. If you feel inclined to help, there are a number of cancer research fundraising groups who are willing to accept your donation. My personal favorites are Relay for Life, the LIVESTRONG Foundation, and the Jimmy V Foundation. Well, it looks like I have some room in this issue for a Warrenfeltz update. I am (not so) patiently waiting until I can be fitted for a prosthesis for my right leg. As a result of the huge amount of radiation I received to combat cancer in 2004-2005, I had a below-the-knee amputation in February 2009. Stubbornly ignoring the “Lovely Nurse Nancy’s” pleas that I not be so stupid, I decided that I could use crutches to go up and down our brick front steps to hold evening colors. You probably can guess the rest—I fell directly onto “El Stub” and destroyed the surgeon’s good work. Four more surgeries, seven months of three-times-per week visits to the Pensacola Naval Hospital, plus four more months of waiting to heal got us to the point of finally getting released to start working with a prosthetist. Now if we can just get the paperwork pushed through the VA system, I may be upright on two pins again soon. Nancy and I are greatly enjoying life in the Florida Panhandle. (She will enjoy it even more when I can resume my regular chores.) Our son Jim and his wife Liz live in PA with granddaughter Madeline (who will turn two in June). Skype is a wonderful invention. Madeline “calls” Papa Dub and Nana a couple times each week. Daughter Lindsay and her husband Nate bought a home in Bellevue WA in September. Three days after closing Lindsay left for a two-and-a-half-month clinical rotation on Maui (yes, it’s a tough life). She spent Thanksgiving as a “rent-a-daughter” with Charlie and Ty Aldinger ’74 at their beautiful home in Manoa on Oahu. The Aldinger girls were studying on the mainland, so Lindsay reaped the “adopted daughter” benefits. Ty and Charlie even took her to watch Navy play Hawaii in Aloha stadium. (Lindsay’s analysis—“too much running into big Samoans.”) Lindsay will receive her Doctor of Physical Therapy degree from the University of Washington in June. I expect to have to walk a long way to the graduation ceremony. Please visit our class web page (www.usna.com/Classes/1975) and take a look at the Homecoming and Reunion section. The weekend may be expensive, but I encourage all of you to try to join us in late October. It will be time to reconnect with the greatest friends of our youth! While you’re on the web page, check out the company representatives’ link. Some companies are still uncovered, and other reps may have incorrect contact information. Contact Andy Howard and me with additions and corrections. --- ’75 Sir! Larry |
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