A. Gone But Not Forgotten 
1)
Our classmate
Michael E. "Mike" Ruth passed away 7 May, 2018. His family has suggested that memorial donations be made in lieu of flowers to the Kearney Community Covenant Church; 1820 Jefferson St; Kearney, MO 64060; (816) 628-6974.
|
2) Our classmate
Larry T. "Tom" Bishop passed away 5 November, 2017. His obituary is Here (www.legacy.com) . Condolences may be left online Here . You will need to enter Tom's name and search on the site.
|
3) Our classmate
Bradley W. Mandeville passed away 9 October, 2017. His obituary is Here (www.rill.com) . Condolences may be left online Here (at http://www.rill.com) or they may be sent to his family in care of his wife, Armenda: Mrs. Armenda Mandeville; PO Box 2473, Belfair, WA 98528-2473 .
|
4) Our classmate
Richard A. "Mac" McIntosh passed away 13 August, 2017. Condolences may be left online Here (at http://www.coosbayareafunerals.com) or they may be sent to his family in care of his wife, Linnea: Mrs. Linnea, McIntosh; 2428 Tenmile Lake; Lakeside, OR 97449-8631 .
|
|
B. Max Della Pia is running for Congress! Information about his campaign is
Here at (https://maxhdellapia.com).
|
C.
The Class of 1975 45th Reunion Gift Committee has announced our Class gift to USAFA: 1) restoration of the iconic Air Gardens and 2) endowment of the traditional Contrails for perpetuity. More details are available
here. The Contrails dedication page can be viewed
here.
|
D.
The latest CAS meeting minutes are posted:
here.
A few highlights from the latest meeting from Bruce Mitchell:
1) Commandant's briefing - excellent; People, Accountability, Pride are her emphasis areas. She is one focused and engaged professional and extremely serious about her responsibilities for producing officers into a USAF at war. Her briefing slides will be posted with the CAS minutes. The Academy has come a long way in this regard, in my experience and opinion. She seems to like to let cadets learn by their own experiences and solve their own problems within the wing. Her first choice does not seem to be "top-down" direction from the Commandants office - - very refreshing and helpful for leadership training for cadets.
|
2) AOG CEO Marty Marcolongo emphasized the need for the graduate community to realize and share the realization, that we hear most about the one or two percent of the cadet wing that are outlier-cadet cases' in the media, while 98+% of the cadet wing are amazing young people who are doing remarkable things. Marty asked CAS help in getting out this reminder message to all alums.
|
3) Significant class reunion changes are coming. Sequestration impacts to USAFA resources over the past 4 years have led to a reduction of USAFA support (staff briefings, buses, etc) for reunions and limiting official USAFA staff/resource availability for reunion weekends to 3 per year starting this year. The reduction will have significant impacts (many not yet fully understood. The AOG reunion coordination staff asked the CAS to provide inputs from all classes regarding these reunion change implications; Mark and I have already done so and Jeff Hackett will also be weighing-in from his recent experience leading our reunion planning.
|
4) The CAS is working on a consolidated list of credible/official information sources (largely softcopy/url) that all graduates can use in the future. These sources will help us readily/directly answer our own questions about USAFA matters from an authoritative set of sources. Will send that out to you all ASAP. Let Bruce know what you think about it when you see it.
|
|
5) Please let Bruce know via E-mail ( brmitchell75@gmail.com ) if you have suggestions, questions, or comments for the AOG.
|
|
E.
|
1) Mark Wells has retired, making him our official Last Man Standing for the class. Congratulations Mark!! Mark also received the optionally mandatory promotion to BG upon retirement for USAFA Dept. Chairs, bringing our class GO total up to 29.
|
|
2) Jerry Wallace has revealed himself as the famous 1974 "Mitchell Hall Streaker"!!, ending 40 years of speculation. More here
|
|
3) An electronic copy of our yearbook is available online here.
|
|
4) A high-resolution, stunning video made of the Moon by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft since 2011 is here.
|
|
F. Have news for the class? Send news to Foster Bitton at 75ScribeAlive@gmail.com
|
Washington, DC
|
