Class lunch on January 11 at Champps
Restaurant.
Our guest speaker was Major Elaine Bryant and she was great. Eleven members showed up. Wayne Kendall, our leader and social referee had to leave early, so I kept notes.
Glaza led off with the mandatory war story which involved an RF 4C mission he was on wherein their wingman got hosed over in Laos, came back with no hydraulics, stalled out over the runway, ejected (successfully) but the aircraft continued on and wiped out the middle of the base at Udorn, killing 27 people. Jim had a ringside seat since they had landed first and pulled off to watch.
This meeting was our first experiment with inviting a guest. Major Elaine Bryant is the AOC of 24 Squadron, and Fred Porter who had known her from her days in the Aero Department, persuaded her to come and give us a better understanding of how the "system" operates. She did a remarkable job and captivated the audience, who mostly felt the need to tell her how much tougher it was in the old days. One of the more emotional topics was why the hell USAFA felt the need to wear fatigues all the time. You will notice Maj. Bryant was wearing fatigues. Of interest to me: the AOC tour is three years, but includes a year to get a masters in counseling at Maxwell. She is the rare exception, and has not done that. She has had a remarkable, varied career. She is USAFA 2000, and married to a USAFA 1998. Has two sons, 4 and 8. She has had assignments as a maintenance officer (F-16 at Hill), Assignments at the wind tunnel at Wright Patt, then exec to the Commander of AFMC(too bad Yates, its first commander, wasn't there), grad school MS in Aero, instructor at USAFA, AOC. Very impressive. I would hope all the AOC were as sharp as she is but I seriously doubt it. Just to give you a feel for the new vs old, she had to face a RIF board recently!
Everyone who showed up was in fine spirits and had a good holiday.
Denis Walsh
