Messages of General Interest--2018

As folks send email to change or add addresses and phone numbers, they often add a tidbit of information that may be of interest to everyone. Accordingly, these messages have been placed in Shared Messages. You are encouraged to post any anecdote or input that will let your classmates know what's going on or how and what you're doing. All gossip and news of general interest will be accepted. All jokes and puns will be measured against a higher standard.

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October 4 2018

What to Know About Hospice

Hospice is a philosophy of care for individuals having a terminal disease. While hospice care has a long history of charitable work by religious institutions, it is a relatively new phenomenon in the United States. Modern hospices began in England in the 50's and were not started in the US until the 70's. These early hospices were run and managed by volunteers including medical professionals.

While hospice services do have volunteers available, today the actual care is provided by medical professionals, chaplains, and licensed social workers.

In the US, the growth of hospices is the result of having hospice services funded by Medicare, Medicaid and insurance programs. The only requirement for entry is a doctor's statement that an individual is diagnosed with a terminal disease with a prognosis that life will end within six months.

Basically, hospice care provides palliative care to patients with fatal diseases. Palliative care treats symptoms and not the disease. The disease is fatal and no cure or treatment can prevent the patient's eventual death. Palliative care provides comfort care by eliminating pain caused by the disease. If a patient has an additional disease besides the terminal disease, that disease will be treated either by the hospice doctor or the patient's own family doctor or specialist if he desires. While the focus is on symptom control, hospice care is also concerned with the whole well-being of the patient. This includes spiritual, emotional and physical care.

The goal is to achieve a quality of life and dignity regardless of the disease. Hospices will also provide help to families of the patient with emotional, spiritual, and practical support such as social work and spiritual support. Many hospices also provide bereavement counseling.

Hospices may or may not be a facility. Some hospices only treat patients at home or in long-term care facilities such as nursing homes. Others may have in-patient or acute care facilities that bring patients in for treatment for a short term. These are patients that need adjustments to medications or acute care for special needs.

Hospice work in the US has experienced a slow process being accepted. Death was a subject to be avoided and never talked about. Doctors were hesitant to bring up the subject, many believing that it was better to never tell a patient that he is dying. Often times, doctors believed that they should never ever give up on a patient and to keep trying every means to combat the disease no matter how futile or the effect on the patient or family. Some families would also push for continual treatment regardless of the likelihood of success or the effect on the loved one.

Even today there are many misconceptions about hospice. Some of the more prevalent are:

  • Hospices are where you go when you give up and there is no hope.
    • While there is no hope for a cure, hospices provide a way to change to a different hope. That is a hope for a quality of life that is a comfortable, pain-free and meaningful existence until the end.
  • Hospices give patients morphine and then they die.
    • The goal of hospice care is to provide medications that relieve pain without the undesirable side effect of making the patient comatose or incoherent. Morphine is only one of many pain relieving medicines. There is a constant evaluation about the kind and amount of medication that will result in an acceptable balance of pain relief and cognizance. When morphine is used, it is used to prevent pain and alleviate shortness of breath, and never to hasten death.
  • Hospices are only for cancer patients.
    • While many of hospice patients do have terminal cancer, there are many other progressive diseases requiring hospice care. Some examples to name a few are:
      • Dementia
      • Alzheimer's disease
      • Stroke
      • Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease
      • Heart failure
  • Hospice care lasts only six months.
    • A patient is referred to hospice care when a doctor’s prognosis to live is six months or less. However, if the patient lives longer, hospice care can absolutely continue. Current requirements have the patient re-diagnosed every 60 days. As long as the diagnosis continues to show fatality within six months, hospice care will continue as long as necessary.
  • Only a doctor can to make a referral for hospice care.
    • Anyone, including a family member, a caregiver, or the patients themselves, can make a referral for access to hospice care. Admission into hospice would still require a doctor's certification.   

There are many patient and family considerations to be taken into account when there is a possibility of needing hospice care:

  • Denial is not just a river in Egypt. Denial was identified in Dr. Elizabeth Kubler-Ross' book, Death and Dying, [1] as the first stage of grief.
    • When a patient or family member first learns of the prognosis of death, quite often the first reaction is denial. Denial can result in avoiding or delaying a decision to consider hospice care. While there is no proven way to hasten the acceptance of the prognosis, delaying an admission to hospice is not desirable for either the patient or family.
    • As mentioned earlier, some doctors will use all their skills and ideas in hope for a cure until the case is completely and absolutely hopeless. Likewise, some families will insist that every measure possible or conceived should be used until there is no hope. In both instances, many times this results in a frantic effort at the last minute to get the dying patient into a hospice as soon as possible. The unfortunate result many times is that the patient either dies on the way to hospice or very shortly after admittance. The result is that the patient has probably suffered needlessly and the family is thrown immediately into facing the death with no preparation or emotional support.
  • Other considerations are:
    • Some families have the problem of disagreements between members on whether hospice services should be used. A family member may object to the hospice idea because of denial or other reason. Many hospices have a separate entity as a palliative care facility. That is, the hospice can provide palliative care for patients that desire palliative care but are not qualified for hospice because of the six-month requirement or they do not have a fatal illness. Palliative care is also covered by Medicare, Medicaid and insurance programs. Enrolling a hospice-qualified patient into the palliative program is one way to get the patient the help he needs and can be a way to eventually transition him into hospice.
    • Hospices are not long-term facilities. Critically ill patients require 24/7 care. They are treated at home or in a nursing home. When they are at home, there can be a heavy burden on the family. While there is a visiting nurse and nurses on call 24/7, the daily routine of care falls on the family. On the other hand, hospice workers work with family members to determine the best solution for caring for the loved one. Many hospices have volunteers that will visit with the patient and family or sit with the patient while a family member has to go out. Some hospices offer respite help to care for the patient in the hospice in-patient unit for a period so a family that has been worn out from caring can take a short break.
    • There is no single model for a hospice. Ever since hospice care became qualified for government programs, there has been a growth in the industry. There are for-profit hospices and not-for profit hospices. Many not-for-profit hospices will accept patients regardless of their ability to pay for services. In some areas there are many hospices in competition with one another. In other areas, choices are much more limited.

Things to consider when the decision is made to seek hospice help include asking questions regarding what services are available such as:

  • Does your staff include doctors, nurses, nursing assistants, social workers, chaplains, and volunteers and what assistance do they provide?
  • What is their availability?
  • What is your staff-to-patient ratio?
  • Are you a not-for-profit or for-profit organization?
  • Do you have an in-patient or acute care facility?
  • Do you provide separate palliative care service?
  • Do you provide bereavement assistance?

Once the decision is made to have the patient in hospice care, there are some things that families should know when the patient is at home.

  • Sharing a meal can be a comforting experience. An appetite can be taken as a sign of a comfortable feeling. However, as a patient becomes more ill, eating can often put more strain on the body and become uncomfortable. Do not insist that the patient eat everything and never force feed a patient.
  • The same is true of liquids. Many families insist on constant hydration without the realization of the resulting discomfort to the patient.
  • As a patient weakens, the patient's ability to control many aspects of his life diminishes. It becomes important to the patient to have the freedom of control over one's life as much as possible. One example is what food and drink one can have.
  • Facing one's own death or the death of a loved one is a terrible and heart-rendering experience. Using hospice and its philosophy of care has proven to be a helpful choice in alleviating pain, suffering, anxiety and other dreadful feelings and emotions during a very trying period.

[1] Kübler-Ross, E. (1969) On Death and Dying, Routledge, ISBN0-415-04015-9

August 10 2018

Former ATO Bob Hess sends us this link that includes some reflections of surviving Thud drivers who flew during operation Rolling Thunder.

It includes mention of classmates Dale Thompson and Dean Vikan as well as '59ers.

Check it out at: http://cademartin.com/overwar/.

July 20 2018

Here's a sequel to Charlie Folkart's July 13 posting.

_____________________

The RANSOM


HOW MUCH ARE YOU WORTH?
July 20, 2018
To Nulli Secundus,
with Love
GOD

How much are you worth, Nulli Secundus? Duh, Charlie, the fact that we call ourselves Nulli Secundus indicates we think very highly of ourselves. And well we should, for we are indeed worth a lot. God Himself says so. Holding such an estimation of our natural self-lives is not lacking in humility.  

What lacks humility is the way men choose to attain the experiential realization of that evaluation. There is a Right Way to attain it and a false way, a counterfeit way that leads to the utter defeat of self-destruction. The choice of how we seek to attain that Glory is entirely up to each of us individually. Victory or defeat is ours to choose.

The accurate estimate of our worth, individually and collectively, is two-fold: 1, How much ransom would somebody pay to redeem us from destruction? and 2, Who would pay such a Price?

To answer the second question first, God not only would but already has Paid The Price in Full for our Redemption from all evil. To answer the first question, there is no greater Price that could be paid than what God has already paid to Redeem each of us:

1 Timothy 2:3-6 (KJV): 3 For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour; 4 Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth. 5 For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; 6 Who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time.

The Lord Jesus Christ, the Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer of all Creation gave Himself to Father God as The Price for our Redemption and Salvation (Hebrew 1:1-3). To understand The Price He paid and why He paid it, we must understand what He redeemed us from and what He redeemed us to.  

He redeemed us from the death-nature of the devil. Death is the absence of life. The death-nature of the devil is the Absence of the Divine Super Life and Super Nature of God. We became the death nature of the devil when Adam sinned. Jesus redeemed us to our Creational Purpose of being Partakers of His Divine Nature, manifestations of His Goodness, Greatness, Glory, and All that He Is (2 Peter 1:4; 1 Corinthians 15:28).

God created all of Creation to be a manifestation of All that God Is (ibid.). And it was such until sin/iniquity/lawlessness was found in Lucifer the covering Cherub who chose to exalt himself above God in rebellion against God. When Lucifer and one-third of the angels did that, the Divine Super Life and Super Nature departed from them and they were cast out of heaven (Isaiah 14:12-15; Ezekiel 28:11-19; Revelation 12:3-4).

In His Prescience God had known that intelligent created beings, both men and angels, would use their free will to exalt their natural self-lives above Him in rebellion against Him. God is Love, so Creation could not be a Manifestation of God if intelligent beings did not have a free will to choose to love or hate God, to obey or rebel against God.  

Before the Foundation of the World was laid, God had planned the Redemption of all Creation that would be necessitated by the rebellion of angels and men. Once the sin of rebellion entered, the Crucifixion of the Lord Jesus Christ is the only Price that could Redeem and Restore men and Creation to their Creational Purpose (Revelation 13:8).

God is Good, Great, Glorious, Holy, Pure, Perfect, Sovereign, and Just. Creation, any part of which is in rebellion against Him, cannot be a manifestation of All that God Is. All of mankind were fallen, therefore the rest of Creation, which God purposed to reign over through us in Union with Him, fell too (Genesis 1:26-28; Psalm 8; Romans 8:19-22).

But we fallen men, like the devil, had exalted our natural self-lives to be little gods in rebellion against God. What Price could possibly redeem us from this death-nature of the devil? Without the Goodness, Purity, Holiness of God in us we had zero ability to redeem our selves. God would have to do that for us men or we would be forever destroyed with the devil and fallen angels in Hell in the Lake of fire.

Before the Foundation of the World was laid, the Godhead determined that Jesus, the Second Person of the Holy Trinity, would become a man. Not just any man, but a God Man, Pure, Holy, Perfect, without sin, so that He could be the Perfect Sin Substitute, Identified with us, Representing us in bearing all the Wrath of God that must be poured out in satisfaction of the Just demands of His Holiness to redeem us from our sin of self-exaltation above Him in rebellion against Him (Revelation 13:8).

The Eternal Intimate Union between Father God and Jesus was rent asunder on the Cross when Jesus Christ, Who knew no sin, was made to be sin with our sin so that we might be made the Righteousness of Father God in Christ Jesus (2 Corinthians 5:21). The Lord Jesus Christ died with our death-nature of the devil so that we, Nulli Secundus, would be Justified before God. Then Father God raised Him from the dead.

Will you, dear Classmate, receive the Resurrection Life of Christ Jesus so that in Him you too may be restored to Intimate Union with Father God? Confess to Father God your rebellious sin-nature and sins of self-exaltation above Him. Turn from that wicked evil. Ask Jesus to live in you as your Way to True Greatness, the Greatness of God.


In Him,
Charlie Folkart
July 20, 2018

July 13 2018

Nulli Secundus
How Great Can You Be?
July 13, 2018

Hello, Classmates.

Nulli Secundus, Second to None, the USAFA 1960 cohort, is getting rather long in tooth and short of breath, unable any longer to do the exploits of our youth. A number of us have already shed this mortal coil. The end of our days in these earth suits is not very far away for the remnant of us.

When we leave these earthen vessels that enable our spirits to abide on planet earth, we shall give an account of our stewardship of the Gift of being a man made in God’s Image. That account, whether good or evil, determines our spiritual destination. It is the real reckoning of Nulli Secundus, the reckoning of how great we really are.

What is the race we have run? What is our track record? What have we attained in this world? And, in the eternal scheme of all things, how will God evaluate what we have done? For God is the Just Judge of all heaven and earth. That is Absolute Reality, though some vainly try to deny it. How will God Judge me individually is a pressingly vital question our cohort faces. Another is what Standard does He use to Judge?

Will God rank me by my standing in comparison with the earthly attainments of other men? Does my acute perception and vociferous proclamation of the short-comings of others make me greater than they? If my focus has been upon gaining more material wealth and riches than others, and if I have indeed excelled in that regard, will His Judgment of me be favorable?

If I have shown myself to be intellectually or physically superior to others, surpassing them in some area of knowledge and skill in human endeavor, what gain will that be to me in the realm of eternity, the realm where time is not a dimension, the realm which for good or evil my spirit and soul shall abide in, the realm where God dwells?

Is there some earthly pursuit in which attaining excellence will open the Gates of the Kingdom of God to me? Does the rank I rose to in the military or in civilian or in political or in economic or academic or physical or social life mean anything in the eyes of the Just Judge of all heaven and earth?

If not, what is His Standard of Greatness? Have I attained it? Do I even know what His Standard of Judgment is? Have I even cared enough to find out what His Standard of Judgment is? If not, it is certain my lack of desire for Him has precluded me so far from running the race He created me to run on earth. If not, it is certain my on-going lack of desire for Him will preclude me from winning that race and entering into His Kingdom.

What is your desire, Nulli Secundus? Whose goodness, greatness, and glory have you sought, and do you still seek, to manifest? Yours or God’s? If you seek to exalt the kingdom of self you have the death-nature of the devil and your eternal destiny is hell in company with the devil and all his other minions in the kingdom of self.

If you seek to exalt God Alone, His Goodness, Greatness, and Glory, not your own, then you are running the Race He created you to run. If you seek first, above all other things, even to the exclusion of all other things, the Kingdom of God and His Righteousness, then an abundant entrance into His Kingdom will be granted unto you.

None of us have the ability in our natural self-lives apart from God to do this. But God in His Great Love for us and in His Great Mercy has made a Way for us to attain this. The Name of The Way is Jesus (John 14:6). You can do all things through the Lord Jesus Christ who strengthens you. Apart from Him you can do nothing of eternal value.

Jesus is The Way men are Justified from their sin, Redeemed from the death-nature of the devil, Saved and Restored to Intimate Union with Father God in Christ Jesus. Apart from Jesus, no man can manifest the Goodness, Greatness, and Glory of God. That manifestation is the Purpose for which God created us (1 Corinthians 15:28).

Jesus is The Standard by Whom God Judges all men. We cannot measure up to Him in our natural self-lives, nor do we have to. We either receive or reject Him as our Lord and Savior, that He may live in us and we may live in Him, manifesting His Goodness, Greatness, and Glory, the Very Goodness, Greatness, and Glory of Father God.

In Christ Jesus we will be truly Nulli Secundus, attaining the True Greatness, True Goodness, and True Glory of God. We do this by receiving continually Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, the Way of Eternal Life, God’s Gift of Righteousness to us. Apart from Him hell and the death-nature of the devil is our eternal portion by default.

There is no substitute for Victory. Victory in Jesus or defeat, the choice is inescapably ours to make continually. Choose wisely and Live Eternally with the Life of God in you, or choose vainly and die.

Father God, I am a sinner. I have sought to exalt my natural self-life above you, seeking to be in control of this world instead of delighting in Your Sovereign Majesty reigning Supreme over me and all Your Creation. I confess my sin-nature and sins of self-exaltation above You.

I thank You that in the Lord Jesus Christ You have already Justified me and made The Way for me to be restored to Intimate Union with You. Thank You for Grace to receive all Your Good and Perfect Gifts that I may fulfill Your Purpose, Plan, Design, and Objective for my life.

By Your Grace I want from now on to manifest Your Goodness, Greatness, and Glory, not my own. In Jesus Name I believe I receive the Abundance of Grace and of the Gift of Righteousness, the Gift of Right Relationship with You. Thank You. Amen.


Nulli Secundus,
Charlie Folkart

May 28 2018

One of our website viewers has found a Class of 1960 ladies compact
that may have been the property of a classmate's spouse or girlfriend.

He writes: "My wife collects compacts and we came across this one that I thought you would be interested in.
After doing research I think this was given to either a girl friend or wife of one of your graduates of 1960.
Although I was never in the service, my dad was a prisoner of war for 18 months during
World War II and I know how he appreciated any memorabilia from his era."

If any classmate, next-of-kin or friend of a classmate recognizes this compact as former property and wishes to claim it, please contact the webmaster HERE.

April 13 2018

Col. Jennifer Block has been named the interim Director of Athletics for the Air Force Academy. Block, who currently serves as the reserve advisor to the Superintendent, is a 1992 graduate of the Academy. She was a four-year letterman in volleyball and more recently served as the athletic department's climate and diversity officer from 2015 to 2017.

Academy officials have begun the search for a permanent replacement for Jim Knowlton, who will take over as the Director of Athletics at the University of California, Berkeley. Read more by visiting

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