Messages of General Interest-PAGE 5

Ames Richard "Dick"

Gone, But Not Forgotten

1 Oct 2002

Cancer

Brunswick, ME

Richard C. Ames, 63, of Wilson's Cove Road, died Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2002, at a Brunswick hospital.

He was born in Melrose, Mass., Feb. 17, 1939, a son of Harold C. and Dorothy Wilson Ames. He attended schools in Massachusetts.

He graduated from the Air Force Academy in 1960, where he played on the football team. He was a captain in the Air Force, served as a pilot during the Vietnam Warand earned two Distinguished Flying Crosses. He graduated from the University of Colorado, Boulder Law School. He practiced law with Aldred, Aldred and Ames Law Office for thirty years.

He married Patty J. O'Brien Nov. 28, 1980, in Brunswick. He enjoyed traveling, lobstering, sailing, gardening, woodworking, cooking, sports and spending time with his family and friends. He was a member of the Elijah Kellogg Church, Brunswick Rotary Club, and past president of Bath Brunswick Mental Health Association. He was a soccer coach for Brunswick and Harpswell Youth Soccer and was a supporter of the Brunswick Figure Skating Club.

Survivors include his wife of Harpswell, three sons, Richard C. Ames Jr. and his wife, Dr. Tracey Laidley, of Portland, Ore., Nicholas W. Ames and his wife, Kerry, of Manassas, Va., and Christopher M. Ames of San Leandro, Calif.; four daughters, Patricia A. Ames and her husband, Claudio Loddo, of Kuching, Malaysia, Lisa K. Wentzell and her husband, Jay, of Scarborough, Carrie V. Vickers and her husband, Lt. Geoffrey K., USN, of Virginia Beach, Va., and Hannah Emily Ames of Harpswell; a sister, Dawna-Jeanne Banester and her husband, Arthur W., of Harpswell; one granddaughter; eight nephews and six nieces.

A celebration of his life will be held at 2 p.m. Saturday at Elijah Kellogg Church, 917 Harpswell Neck Road, Harpswell, with the Rev. James Henry officiating.

In lieu of flowers, memorial donations be made to the Richard C. Ames Scholarship Fund for Sons and Daughters of Local Area Fishermen, c/o Otey Smith, 4 Ash Point Road, Harpswell, ME 04079.

A memorial service was held at the Elijah Kellogg Church in Harpswell Maine on 5 Oct 2002. Condolences may be sent to his wife, Patty Ames, 84 Wilson Cove Rd, Harpswell ME 04079

Memorial donations may be made to: Richard C Ames Scholarship Fund (for the sons and daughters of local area fisherman)
c/o Otey Smith
4 Ash Point Rd
Harpswell ME 04079

For questions, contact:

Mrs Michele Cowan
Association of Graduates, USAFA
3116 Academy Dr
USAF Academy CO 80840-4475
(719) 472-0300 Fax (719) 333-4194
Michele.Cowan@usafa.af.mil

From: Aaron Thrush

Date: Wed, Sep 18, 2002

Subject: Falcon Football Update - no rest for the weary.

Hi All:

Just in case you haven't checked the official USAFA website, the Utah game is to be televised as an ESPN regional game similar to how the New Mexico game was televised. I talked to Lou at Angler's yesterday afternoon and we are on their schedule for Saturday, September 28, at 2:00 p.m.; of some interest is the fact that he called me rather than the reverse. To me, this is an obvious indication that we will continue to be treated well at Angler's. They need and want our business (Angler's is a half mile east of Brooks Bridge that connects Ft. Walton Beach with Okaloosa Island and is located between the Gulfarium and The Swamp nightclub.)

I watched a good bit of the California/Michigan State game and was impressed by Cal's capabilities. Some info I picked up includes that they were -17 in turnovers/takeaways last year when they went 1-10; so far this year they are a +10 on that stat and are 3-0. I'm not sure what the Falcon's ratio is currently, but it doesn't approach +10. Also their new coach in his first year at Cal comes from having been quarterback coach/offensive coordinator at Univ. of Oregon for the past 4 years. He's also coached at Fresno State and is an alum of that school. The point is that he knows how to defend the USAFA option attack and how to pass against the Falcons when you have better talented athletes. Also of note is that Cal is on probation and cannot go to a bowl this year; so, they have a real motivation to do as well during the season and have as good a record as possible. Thus, do not expect a Cal letdown or a tendency for the Cal coaching staff to take the Falcons lightly. Of course, their players may not respond as well to the coaches' concerns as well as Cal would like.

The bottom line is that the current 9 1/2 point margin that Cal enjoys is probably well deserved. This will be a game that Fisher DeBerry and his staff will win if indeed the Falcons do win; they will have to convince and motivate the Falcon players to leave it all on the field this Saturday. If USAFA can grab an early lead and then control the game with long ground drives and no turnovers, they might win a very, very tough game. If Cal scores early (they also like trick plays) and gets more than 14 points ahead, it could become a bad day for Falcon fans.

Your Modest Prognosticator,

Aaron

From: Marilyn Love

Date: Monday, Sep 16, 2002

To anyone that flew with the Thunderbirds in the years of 1968, 1969. My husband David T. Love flew that rotation and would love to hear from anyone. please email him at TopCop513@yahoo.com

thankyou

Marilyn Love

From: Charlie Liggett

Date: Monday, Sep 16, 2002

Subject: Nulli Secundus

A few months ago I was reading an article in the Air and Space Magazine that mentioned the British had built an airship in the early 1900's and named it 'Nulli Secundus'. I thought that was an interesting bit of information and wondered about the origin of our class motto; who was involved in the naming and what events in the history of aviation were considered - if any. It was one of those things that makes you more curious as you consider the many possibilities. I was going to clip the article and forward it as a bit of trivia but didn't get around to it and then when I looked for the magazine I couldn't find it. So what to do? Simple - log onto the web and use Google to locate the article.

Well, I didn't find that particular article but I did find quite a bit of information (trivia if you will) about the first use of the words 'Nulli Secundus' that relate to aviation. If the facts are correct 'Nulli Secundus' was the name given to a semi-rigid airship constructed at the Farnborough balloon factory by Colonel Capper, R.E. and S. F. Cody (yes that's right Buffalo Bill himself). The motive power was a 50 hp Antoninette engine driving two metal bladed propellers. September 1907 was the first flight followed by a flight in October 1907 that set a world 's record by staying airborne for 3 hours and 25 minutes. It was flown over London and landed at the Crystal Palace. Unfortunately the airship was covered with 15 thicknesses of goldbeaters' skin (don't ask - I don't know) that is an absorbent material. It was caught in a rain shower that proved to be its undoing. A second airship 'Nulli Secundus II' which was 42 feet in diameter, versus the 25 foot diameter of 'Nulli Secundus' was constructed, this time with fabric covering the goldbeaters' skin. Unfortunately it logged only one flight before it broke from its mooring lines and was wrecked.

This is only the tip of the iceberg but it's all I have time for now. Perhaps it will spark an interest in one of you to venture back in time and explore the wonders of it all.

Below is a photo of 'Nulli Secundus' over London.

From: Fuller Atkinson

Date: Monday, Sep 16, 2002

Subject: email change

New email address: fuller@strato.net Fuller Atkinson

From: Aaron Thrush

Date: Thur Sep 5, 2002

Subject: Gulf Coast to watch USAFA/New Mexico

Hi All: As some of you may have already heard, we have a definite go on the New Mexico game being shown at Angler's Beachside Cafe at 1400 CDT this next Saturday, September 7.

Don Stevens and I caught up on 42 plus years of conversation while watching the Northwestern game last week occasionally. We did notice that Chance Harridge looked pretty good at QB and that the AF defense looked much better than expected as the Falcons won 52-3.

Meanwhile, New Mexico at home was beating up Weber State of the Big Sky Conference (picked by some to be dead last in the 8 team conference) by a score of 38-24. New Mexico lost their opener the week before at #21 in the nation North Carolina State 34-14.

Before you are tempted to take New Mexico lightly, be advised that they have an experienced QB returning, along with their best WR and three 300+ offensive linemen that are touted as all-conference picks. This is a team that whupped the Falcons last year 53-33 at Albuquerque while running up a total offense against the Falcons of 620 yards to make it 3 straight victories for New Mexico. The point being that this is a very important game for the Falcons and will not be a cakewalk. Of course, the Northwestern game was expected to be close as the line was "even" before the game. AF is currently favored by 6 points over New Mexico.

Angler's is a half mile east of Brooks Bridge that connects Ft. Walton Beach with Okaloosa Island and is located between the Gulfarium and The Swamp nightclub.

Join us if you care to and can. Let me know if you would rather not be included on future game previews.

C'ya Saturday,

Aaron

From: Walter Futch

Date: Thur Sep 5,2002

Subject: Change email address

Ace,

Please change my e-mail address to:

walter.futch@verizon.net.

No other changes have taken place. However, I believe I'm getting more mellow as I age.

Hang in there,

Walt

From: Neil Delisanti

Date: Mon 9/3/2002 12:41 PM

Subject: Purge Fax Number

Ace,

Keep up the good work. Wish more guys used this thing, maybe we could set up a chat room to talk about our ailments and where to get good deals on medicine and health aids.

You can remove the work fax number in the class roster. NO longer there. Probably grate a butt or two if I got a fax there.

Thanks

From: Tony Burschnick

Subject: New e-mail address

Ace,

Can you please change my e-mail address to: abursh@aol.com

Thanks,

TONY***

From: Charles Denham Class of 1967

To: Jock Schwank

Subject: Death Notification

The AOG regrets to announce:

Mr. George Hamilton Hines Class of 1960 died June 23, 2002 in Auckland New Zealand of Cancer. He was cremated.

Memorial Donations may be made to:
Massey University
Dept of Business
Private Bag 11222
Palmerston Loft, New Zealand
For questions, contact:

Mrs Michele Cowan
Association of Graduates, USAFA
3116 Academy Dr USAF Academy CO 80840-4475
(719) 472-0300 Fax (719) 333-4194
(DSN) 333-2073 DSN Fax 333-4194
Michele.Cowan@usafa.af.mil

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: "William Carnegie"

Sent: Monday, August 26, 2002 5:32 PM

Subject: George Hines

> The Academy site is showing that George Hines passed away,
> and the class web site has him as a lost soul.
>
> -- Bill Carnegie
> -- wacalc@yahoo.com (preferred)
> -- wmcarnegie@yahoo.com
>

From: Ben Furuta

Subject: E-mail address

Date: Fri 6/14/2002 12:41 AM

Change my e-mail address to bfuruta396@earthlink.net

Thanks for the great job of keeping the site up to date. Been reading the info on the latest disturbing events at the academy and wish there was a better way of keeping all of us better informed about the events themselves and the actions, etc., taken. I have read the articles in Checkpoints and am still left wondering about what has happened and if any next steps are actually being taken to deal with what appear to me to be serious integrity issues. I hate to think of anyone thinking that the cadets at the academy are a reflection of society which "excuses" what appear to serious breaches of character. I would hope that cadets are thought of, every one of them, to be future leaders who hold to higher standards of ethics and honesty than that expected or exhibited in our society at large.

I appreciate your efforts to keep the information flowing and I hope we can somehow get more detailed facts, either through our knowledgeable classmates or the AOG itself. I especially appreciate Aaron T's information and the summaries provided by Bill Carnegie. I do regularly check our class web page for any information, etc., so your work is especially appreciated.

Thanks

Ben Furuta

From: Aaron Thrush

Subject: Meeting With Dean of Faculty on June 6

Date: Fri 5/31/2002 8:49 AM

Hi Ace:

In case you and Louise are interested in driving over to FWB, I wanted to let you know that the current USAFA Dean of Faculty, B/G Wagie (Class of ' 72), will be providing a USAFA update and answering questions on Thursday, June 6, from 5:30 P.M. TO 7:00 P.M. at the Eglin O'Club in the Sandbar (right side of bldg. as you face it). Spouses are welcome, dress is casual; and "free" finger food and beer plus soft drinks will be provided. A bowl at the entrance will also be provided to allow all to throw in a few buck to pay for the $175 "free" refreshments. Sorry for the late notice, but USAFA only recently told us. The Dean and 5 (four grads, 1 nongrad) Professors and Heads of Depts are visiting Eglin and Hurlburt to reacquaint themselves with the "real" Air Force in order to turn out graduates better able to meet Air Force needs. They asked us via e-mail if local grads (400 plus?) would like to have an update complete with a Q and A session. We accepted and are now trying to avoid embarrassment by having more than 5 to 10 grads turn out to grill the Dean.

In case you haven't heard any (or all) of the recent controversies surrounding our esteemed alma mater, I'm including a e-mail from our classmate, Bill Carnegie, who let me know some of the background. Please pass the word to anyone else within driving distance that you know and have them e-mail me by Tuesday, June 4, at midnight if they are reasonably sure that they will attend. If we have over 50 who plan to attend we'll need to order more calamari and clams (j/k about the menu). Both Frank Gorham and Don Stevens plan to attend. Tony Jones will not be coming and I haven't heard from Karl Jones. By the way, do check out our local AOG Chapter website at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NWF_AOG The promised e-mail follows:

Aaron:

These are my own comments of course. At earlier luncheons Tony had discussed the honor code and Carns report then in progress. This last meeting was fueled by the Colorado Springs non grad Colonel sending George Fries several articles from the Colorado Springs Gazette.

As is typical with the media, an event happens and they pile on all the current or old crap to make the story bigger and more salable hence we end up discussing: drugs, embezzlement, entry standards, the honor code, and rapes. Now, except for sending cadets to jail this has all happened periodically.

Embezzlement: A cadet took several thousand dollars from a squadron fund. I was a little surprised to hear that this is not new. Anyway, it is a specific thing that can be taken care of with proper controls which should have been done before as a preventive measure.

Rapes: This particular thing happened when a woman cadet told a friend in C. Springs something and the friend went to a local doctor and asked questions. The local doctor was an academy doctor moonlighting and the information got back to the administration. I really don't know the particulars, but this seems to be one of these things that will be happening every now and then no matter what you do, although it would be nice to know that it is being addressed.

Drugs: Their was a ring selling ecstasy and this was taken care of with cadets going to jail. However, of course this carried over into the honor code due to the toleration clause.

Entry standards: This unfortunately is a separate issue, not new, that is taking place at the same time as these others. A training command study was done and the results were leaked to the press before the study was presented to the academy. This fact in itself has outraged Mike Loh and the rest of us since it shows internal dirty tricks in the AF. To me this seems like something that needs to be addressed, and we should get some communication about it. I, myself, knew athletes got privileges but thought they worked harder than the rest of us (if that was possible) and it did not bother me at all. However this study seems to show a trend of volume in the wrong direction which should be addressed as well as the fact that evidently the current feeling among cadets is that there is a two tier social class, athletes and others and that athletes are being favored too much. This is a bad situation. This also brought up that the academy in trying to get squadron loyalty has had it backfire and lower academy loyalty by replacing it with the squadron loyalty. This would be bad and would need addressing as well.

Honor Code: It was interesting for me to sit and watch Tony who is passionate about cadets and the honor code, and Mike Loh who sits slouched in his chair until coming out with a curt specific recommendation which of course was not the accepted solution. Tony and Mike feel that the honor code should go back completely to the cadets in order to get the lawyers out of the loop (Mikes term: Kill the lawyers, a literal phrase of course). Tony would rather see them go back to the UCMJ for four years and then go back to the honor code so as to clear the current cadets and their thinking out of the system.

What I learned from Al Rogers is that there seems to be some snickering from West Point and that other place at USAFA and our current problems. He mentioned that they both had had to have a four star come in and clean up. There was some talk about 'reflection of society' meaning the current administration is too soft. As to me reflection of society must be taken into account. I have followed history in sort of 10 year gaps since my grandfather came to Detroit in 1889 and left a diary. There has been great gradual change and to not discuss changes in attitude over the years would be missing a major point, and being inflexible would now work either.

Specifically our meeting really was a request for more communications so that we could be informed in a balanced manner, and a real statement by The generals and a couple of others as to why have a Carns report if the advice is not going to be taken. Al said of course there were differences of opinion and that the problems were being addressed. We will have to see.

The stated goal of the meeting was that Al was going to communicate with us about the goings on. That did not happen much; it was more of a brainstorming session. So, we will be waiting for more communications; hopefully more meat in Checkpoints, etc.

Here are Al's comments to the AOG.

Mark & Jim,

I spent two hours yesterday at a class '60 lunch at the invitation of Tony Burshnick. About twenty grads present, including Mike Loh, Tony, Leon Goodson, Bill Goodyear, and others. I presented a brief overview of Jim's AOG brief but their real interest was in the true health of USAFA and the cadet wing. Tony had passed out five or six articles from the Colorado Springs Gazette about cadets and drugs; embezzlement; entry standards; honor code; rapes etc. Thus a very thoughtful discussion ensued about what is really going on at USAFA. They were an extremely interested, passionate and knowledgeable group as they meet like this four or five times a year.

Below are some of there comments and observations about USAFA and the AOG:

The past 6-9 months there has been so much bad press about USAFA, what is really going on there? Is USAFA at a cross roads like USMA and USNA were when they had to bring in a retired four star to right the ship?

What happened to the Carns Report? Mike Loh served on a senior review group that reviewed the Carns Report and strongly endorsed the recommendations including the full return of the honor system to the cadets. He said that there were wholesale changes recommended, thoughtful good changes, and the impression that he and others are getting is that USAFA leadership is maintaining status quo, "Ho hum". He read from "Checkpoints" at the table that all that was being done was that the report was briefed to the wing, briefed to etc., briefed to etc.

The use of the reference to USAFA being a "reflection of society" caused great concern. Many felt that USAFA cadets are a better selection than society and that USAFA should lead society and not reflect it.

Many said that they do not have the real facts and story as to what is going on and what are the real changes that are being implemented to respond to and fix the problems around drugs, honor, rape, etc. They do not know how to respond to their friends, family, students etc. They do not have any feel for the benchmark data relative to USMA and USNA, is USAFA better, worse or the same?

Given their understanding of the problems, why did not any cadet expose the problem? Why did it take so long to discover these problems? Some think that there is an informal code at USAFA running in parallel with the published honor code.

USAFA is not responding to the problems correctly internally and is getting beat in the local and sometimes national press. What is the crisis media response game plan?

The AOG should be the most interested in group in what is really going on? The AOG should be a "Power" to be reckoned with and the AOG should push and demand explanations? AOG should be viewed as "advocating for the grads" and this would greatly help AOG credibility with the grads.

In sum, they felt that the fundamental problem was how USAFA leadership is dealing or not dealing with the problems.

On reflection, my recommendations are as follows:

Make these cadet issues above (drugs, rape, honor, embezzlement, media etc.) a major topic at the May BOD meeting.

Invite the Superintendent to address the topics to the BOD. What are the real facts?; what are the real specific actions being taken?; how does USAFA compare to the other academies on these issues?; what is the plan for the Carns Report recommendations?; what is the media game plan?

Discuss the best way for the AOG and BOD to be involved in major policy issues such as these for the future and how the AOG should keep the membership informed of the major issues and USAFA actions........on going policy and communication strategy

These thoughts are offered in the spirit of making both USAFA and AOG stronger.

best regards, al

From: Charlie Holman

Subject: email address

Date: Mon, 20 Apr 2002 16:28

My email has changed to

cholman@atn.org.

Regards, Ace

From: George Collier

Subject: email address

Date: Mon, 11 Mar 2002 14:28

Please add my email address CollGraphics@worldnet.att.net to your list.

From: Gary Karschnick

Subject: Trip Reviews

Date: Wed, 13 Mar 2002 23:15

I thought some of you might be interested in a couple of reviews that I wrote after 2 of our latest trips. The first was to Russia last summer and was without a doubt one of the best trips that we have taken. The latest was of a cruise we took from Manaus, Brazil to San Juan last month. That was probably the worst cruise ship we have been on. You can access these reports at http://www.cruisediva.com/mariner_rev6.htm and at http://www.cruisediva.com/viking_river_1.htm

From: Ken Alnwick

Subject: Mini-mini reunion in NYC

Date: Wed, 20 Feb 2002 20:56

Ace,

I had occasion to have lunch with Hardy Franklin Lebel in New York last week. Daughter "This is Melanie Alnwick, FOX 5 News" and I drove up to NY to see a display of architects' concepts for the WTC site. My Portland-based son had helped put together the Allied Works contribution. The show is expected to go on tour and is well worth checking out if it comes to your town.

Anyway, I had run across Hardy's name in the Air Commando newsletter and we agreed to meet at the show and "do lunch." Hardy looks great, owns a couple of seaplanes and is chief pilot for a small outfit in the Northeast corridor. Does charters, spends three days a week "up North" and spends the rest of his time as a NY raconteur and bon vivant-- not in Ritchie Kingman's class, but close, I think. As folks with more than a passing interest in Spec Ops and PSYOPS, we agreed that we were mutually chagrined at some of the current ham-fisted moves in this arena by some senior officials in this administration. Mel and I RTB later that night.

NY is still an exciting place and still brings back fond memories of George Luck running across the field at Yankee Stadium when we played Army there. I remember that I borrowed a Ford Falcon hard-top convertible to bring the bird into the stadium. Somehow we managed to jam the mechanism and had a very unhappy dealer when we finally brought the car back to him.

From: Frank Gorham

Subject: e-Mail address change

Date: Sun 3/3/02 9:40 AM

Hi:

Courtesy of the corporate wanderings of our cable company we now have a new e-mail address: frankgorham@comcast.net

Best that I can tell, they are not forwarding any mail from their former frankgorham@home address. Our old standby/cheap e-mail boxes at frankg8@prodigy.net and frankg38@juno.com remain active, valid, and VERY SLOW telephone modem backups. Feel free to use them, but please - go easy on the file attachments!

Cheers, Frank

From: Gerard de la Cruz

Subject: Oh no. Another address change

Date: Mon, 25 Feb 2002 15:44

I guess my switching over to @home.com put them out of business. They've been taken over by Comcast so our new address effective 27 February is gdelacruz10@comcast.net

Jerry and Betty de la Cruz

From: Jon McClure

Ace,

It is time to play. Golf that is! At your place or mine. Let me know when you and Weesa can come over. Maybe we should start a mini golf reunion---only for those who do not take the game seriously.

Erp!

Jon

From: "Andi Biancur"

Subject: Important Veterans Legislation

Date: Monday, February 18, 2002 3:24 PM

I'm sure many of you saw the TV News piece recently on military retired pay vice disability pay. With the exception of the military, every other federal employee is entitled to receive both types of pay, in the event they sustain any disabilities while serving their country. For the military though, our retired pay is reduced by whatever amount of disability pay we're awarded. In essence, we rob Peter to pay Paul (only difference in this case is we're robbing ourself to pay ourself).

Some legislation is being discussed that, if passed, would repeal this situation. The result would be to treat military retirees the same as all other federal retirees -- award both retired pay AND disability pay, without having them offset each other.

The attached link is to an electronic petition, which will be presented to the House of Representatives next week. If you feel repealing the current practice is the right thing to do, please point your browser to http://www.petitiononline.com/HR303aid/petition.html and electronically "sign" the petition.

The companion bill, S-170, will > also be coming to the Senate floor for a vote. Urge your senators to pass this bill as well. Military members are the only ones required to pay for their own disability compensation. If one retires from another agency (FBI, Congress, FAA, Civil Service, etc) and receives VA disability compensation, nothing is deducted from their retired pay. Yet they & military people are all retired from service to the same government.

From: "Phil Meinhardt"

Subject: Change of address

Date: Tue, 19 Feb 2002 10:09

Have sold my home in Las Vegas. Please change my address to 13065 Via Esperia, Del Mar, CA 92014. Phone, fax, and email remains the same as now listed.

Thanks,

Phil Meinhardt

From: "Les Hobgood"

Subject: 56 Picture

Date: Wed, 6 Feb 2002 11:44

Ace ..

You gonna make the Miniski this year?

I have finally identified myself in the 1956 picture. I'm on the top row, number 20 from the right. At the number 14 position from the right on the top row is Lawrence J. Chiappino, Jr. He is flanked by Bob Sapp and Bob Davis. I think the guy at 21 from the right on the top row is Ed Nogar. My copy of the picture does not have us with hats on.

See 'ya and Weezer at Salt Lake.

Les Hobgood

From: Jerry Mason Class of 1960

Subject: Hello from Jerry Mason, '60

Date: Mon, 04 Feb 2002 20:48

Hello Classmates and 59ers,

I subscribe to inspirational daily e-mails from "Chicken Soup for the Soul" and "America in Uniform". The poem attached below is from today's edition of "America in Uniform". The poem sort of tugged at my heart and it caused me to reminisce back to the great days we "old-timers" shared together in the early years at USAFA. I think the poem is something we can all relate to. I'm taking the liberty of using the AOG-mail website to send this to all you in the classes of 1959 and 1960 who have your e-mail addresses listed there. If any of you "old retirees" are interested in subscribing to the daily e-mails from "Chicken Soup for the Soul" and "America in Uniform", or at least checking them out, you can find links to their websites at http://www.dailyinbox.com/dibpresents.html.

A final thought--whether you enjoy reading this poem or not, I'm really just using the poem as an excuse to send out an e-mail and touch base with a bunch of you with whom I have had no contact in the past 41+ years. Our ranks are growing thinner. We need to stay in touch with one another once in a while. E-mail sure is an easy way to do it.

Cheers,

Jerry Mason, '60

HEART

Subscriber Nicole Read sent us this poem believed to be by Rick Bereit, a graduate of the Air Force Academy, Class of 1970. Thanks to Nicole and Rick!

"We were something..."
by Rick Bereit '70

We were something, then nothing
Then something again.
Saying farewell to youth,
We aimed to be men.

We'd been something in high school
The "cream of the crop";
In our classes and sports
We rose to the top.

Boyish leaders, mini-heroes
Big fish in small bowls.
We had dreams of great futures,
And success was our goal.

We'd been nothing, then something
Now nothing again,
Reduced to mere "Doolies"
A new cycle began.

As we marched up the portal
That read, "Bring Me Men",
We wondered if we'd ever
Be something again?

Past achievements and accolades
No longer counted.
As they cut off our hair,
The fear in us mounted.

Pressure and heat
Turn coal into jewels
We too would be altered
By the system and rules.

Studies, athletics, flying
And SERE;
We were shaped in the forge of experience,
Not theory.

Not all those who started
Would finish four years.
Losses of all kinds
Depleted our peers.

Though the changes came slowly,
We were something again!
We cherished our return
To the place where we'd been.

We were "Firsties" with rings
And seniors with cars;
We were leaders whose chevrons
Had turned into bars.

We were something, made nothing
Now something again.
We were no longer boys,
But were we yet men?

As we flung up our hats
And pinned on brown bars,
We realized once more...
We were no longer "Stars."

We'd been nothing, then something
Now nothing again;
As brand new Lieutenants
A new cycle began.

First came weddings, then children,
Careers had begun.
We aimed to be something
Before we were done.

Next came Grad schools and Tech schools
And some learned to fly.
Many went to war,
And some of us died.

Years have passed since we entered
USAFA that day.
Those with some hair left
Have seen it turn gray.

But we're Generals and Doctors
Head of business...proud men,
And we're glad that we're back
In our glory again!

We'd been something, then nothing
Finally something again.
But this down-and-up pathway
Moves toward an end.

As we walk near the place
Where our comrades are laid,
We wonder if they're "something"
Or "nothing" today?

If we've gained the whole world
At the cost of our souls,
Then striving to be something
Has been a poor goal.

When we enter God's presence
Our choices will be measured,
Will our something be nothing,
This success that we treasured?

Now for us who remain
One more cycle awaits;
All our something turns to nothing
At Eternity's gates.

But, by faith in a Savior
The last cycle is when
He makes all of our nothing
Into Something, without end!

From: Norman Alexander

Subject: Change of e-mail, phone and fax

Date: Wed, 30 Jan 2002 11:08

Please change my e-mail address to nalexander@sbcglobal.net

I have retired from Parker and will only be there part time. Please delete all "work" phone and fax numbers from my files. The only phone is the home phone 817-596-4144.
Thanks.