CLASS OF '40 - NEWS PAGE!!

Col (Ret) Francis R Sullivan
2662 SE Gowin Dr
Port St Lucie, FL 34952-5576
800-GRAND40(Recorder)
My home phone: (561) 337-1626
e-mail: franksul@aol.com
Class e-mail address: classof40@aog.usma.edu
Class Home Page on the web: http://www.aogusma.org/class/1940/

Kermit Dyke, our prez and our memorial articles super, Mel Rosen, urge us all to comply with AOG’s plea for graduates to “get the most pertinent information about themselves on paper to assist those who will be tasked to write the Memorial Article after their demise.” The AOG has developed a form “Information to be use for Memorial Article (Self Written)” This form is available on pages 19 and 20 of the AOG Pamphlet “Graduate Guide for Members of the Long Gray Line”(distributed to attendees at the 60th.) For those on the class net the form is also available from AOG e-mail(yc5852@usma.edu) Others should contact Mel Rosen at the address or telephone listed in Class Roster. AOG comments that the completion of this form will provide essential assistance to the writer of the final tribute to you. At our age sooner is best; later may be never! George Mayo continues to skirmish with USPS to arrive at perfection in our class data base from which periodic updates of our class roster can be published. As significant information is learned like deaths and changes in address, telephone numbers are usually passed immediately to the classmates on the net and later published in my next Class Notes in Assembly. The latter takes longer than some of you may realize. For example, these Notes have to reach AOG by 1 Nov 00 for publication in the Jan-Feb 01 issue of Assembly under address changes or Taps. A number of such changes can be found later in these Notes. (Insert photo # 1 here.) Photographs in these Notes will include some more taken at the 60th as well as others. Classmates on the net may have seen some transmitted by that means like the one of JB Bonham and Fred White taken at their residence, The Virginian, in Arlington VA and supplied by JB’s daughter Sally Mohlen (Photo # 2 to be inserted here.)The next photo is one of Lee & Marion Fritter as they rest at an ancient ruin of fortress Dun Aerngus after a climb up the summit of Inishmore, an island of the coast of Ireland. The Fritters were enjoying an AOG sponsored tour of the Emerald Isle. (Insert AOG photo # 3 here or near by.) By now (Oct 20) all living classmates should have received the Newsletter and ballot on the proposed disposition of our Class Gift Fund and all have sent ballots to Fred White. Regretfully the mailing contains a couple of omissions in typing and reproduction which fortunately do not affect the principal subject of the letter so no remailing is contemplated. Nevertheless, for the record and so you know we noticed the gibberish in the final version, the first omission was in the fourth line of the first paragraph where after the word “members” it should have read “asked to cast a vote on the nature of the gift to be made by our fund. The results were”. The other omission was in the last two lines of the 2d paragraph on the Honor System which should have read: “The Statement of the Honor Code has not changed and still includes clause ‘nor tolerate those who do’” We all owe our thanks and a round of applause to our prez and his committee for getting the matter toward a final solution.(Insert photo # 4 here) Skip Fowler sent me a nice note, a copy of Peg Fuller’s newspaper obituary and one of her last photographs. The Fowlers and Fullers were close friends during their service and post service careers. The Fowlers seem to be well settled in their place in Prescott, AZ after many retirement years in Colorado Springs and winters in Phoenix. (Insert photo # 5 here) Classies on the class net are aware that the son of our deceased classmate, John P Dwyer, is seeking information on his father’s war time service with the 8th Air Force. Geo England, Sam Patten and Steve Morrissey wrote letters or e-mails to son John giving a pretty complete recollection of their knowledge of his father’s cadet years together with names of other possible sources of information on the war years. So far no one else has responded with definitive information on Dwyer’s war years. We can appreciate the son’s desire to get such information on his father but sadly at this late date success is an unlikely prospect. One good thing about the effort is I heard from Geo England whom I had not seen since an 80s Mini at Inisbrook honchoed by Sandy & Don Baumer! George seems to be well and keeps active with summers in TN and winters in FL and all the while is the historian for the 14th AD’s war years. (Insert Photo # 6 here) Bill Porte sent the pic of the group attending the Denno’s mini-mini at Coronado CA in Aug 00. Pictured are the couples in column - Sherry & Bryce Denno, Kathy & Bill Porte, Joe & Jean-Marie Ruebel, Eleanor & Dick Abbey Alleen & John Burfening. , Kerm reports the scheduled A-N Classes of ‘40 luncheon at the A-N Country Club came off 11 Oct with 25 people from each academy in attendance. A very nice day, nice people but with no discussion of our mutual hopes for the outcome of the Army Navy Game. One of the responses to Cay Chamberlin’s plea for help on experiences with selecting a retirement residence came from Ann & Paul Reinecke, who shared their thoughts on the move they made several years ago-their only regret was in not making the move sooner. Another came from Jeanne Ann & Dean Vanderhoef gave some helpful suggestions and a wish of Good Luck to Cay in her efforts. Another source of data is TROA-the Retired Officers Assn which publishes The Retired Officer magazine. Its issues always include some ads for a number of retirement residences. In past years it published and extensive list of them. Now that listing is probably too long for that but I am sure contact with TROA’s web site would get a lot of info on them. Their web site is www.troa.org. For subscribers TROA is offering free Internet service. (Insert Photo # 7 here) ADDRESS CHANGES TO 2000 CLASS ROSTER: JBBonham, add tp# 703-352-2455,2d NOK Sally Bonham Mohle (dau),4817 Braeburn Dr, Fairfax VA 22032-1830, 703-425-6190 (H) 703-993-2937 (W) smohle@gmu.edu; Roberta (Bobbie) Downs (widow of Orloff Bowen) temp mail and tp#) PO Box 2636. Duxbury MA 02331-2636, 603-448-1919; Francis E Kramer new tp# area code, 210; Mike Kuziv, 1245 Munster St, Orlando FL 32803-1134, 407-896-7262; Jean Lane (widow of Bert Lane), 11101 Oakmont Court, Shell Point Village, Ft Myers FL33908, 941-415-2726; Mrs Hobart B Pillsbury (widow of Hobie), 308 Lucas Dr, Blacksburg VA 24060, 540-961-1247, e-mail: hpills@aol.com (Molly), 2d NOK Col Hobart B Pillsbury, Jr, 418 Nighthawk Dr, Sugarlands TX 77478-4722, 281-494-0117, e-mail hpillsbury@aol.com; Patricia Lawson (widow of Franklin Shawn,) delete remark that widow does not want info of Cl’40 activities, 2d NOK: Franklin Shawn (Key) Lawson, 728 24th St , Hermosa Beach CA 90254, 310-376-2610, e-mail: keylawson@mail.loop.com. TAPS: Hunting Davis, ex-1940, DOD unk but in 99 or 00 at Annapolis; MD no further details available; Doris Flanders (widow of Edw A Flanders) DOD 5 Jun 99, NOK Mrs Judith A Vollmer (dau), PO Box 434, Gwynedd Valley PA 19437-0434; Vi Haseman(widow of Len), DOD 14 Nov 99 at Grand Junction, CO, buried beside Len at WP late May 00; Harry Bert Lane, DOD 15 Sep 00 at hosp Pavillion, Shell Point Village, Ft Myers FL 33908, Bert is to inurned at WP at a future date; James E Tyler, DOD 13 Oct 00 at Sarasota Fl, burial at Arlington 26 Oct 00 with son David and granddaughter Darcy representing the family; Paul S Weber, ex-1940, DOD 12 Apr 99, Burlington NJ, no further details are available. Best, your Scribe, Frank.

      Having suffered a fall and resultant broken shoulder en route home in FL from the Cape Cod Mini my ability to produce this edition of Notes has been severely compromised! Fortunately, I have been able to copy directly to my Notes a number items sent to me by e-mail. They will be noted as they appear. I also have a half dozen photos which I'll submit though that number is more than usual for a set of Notes.

     Lanny Witt sent a photo of the Witts with their grandson Chris '97 and his bride Loren taken at the Baltimore site of the latters wedding Sept 99. Chris is now a lst Lt Arty stationed at Ft Hood, TX (Insert Photo #l here.)

     Bryce Denno sent photos of classmates at a Mini-Mini luncheon held at Hotel del Coronado, CA, in Aug. The photo inserted here includes (l/r) Sherry Denno, Lee & Gloria Bell, Bryce Denno, John Burfening, Bill Porte, Alleene Burfening and Kathy Porte. (Insert photo #2 here.)

     The following is a transcript of Kerm Dyke's e-mail report of the Cape Cod Mini to mates on the class Net: "Dear Class dot.commer: To augment other reports, the Cape Cod Mini was most enjoyable. It served well the Mini purposes of getting together with the family of '40 and seeing something new at the same time. It was especially nice for us who have wanted to see what Cape Cod, Nantucket, and Martha's Vineyard is all about. Only one deficiency. We didn't get to cross the bridge of Chapiquidic. The two boat trips were great, just long enough to awaken dormant sea legs, and never out of sight of land. The whole area is distinctly different from these parts. One has to be impressed with the adherence to zoning standards in the area. Everything looked Cape Codish. No Wal-Marts, no large signs, no Mediterranean glitter.

     "Accommodations were nice and efficient in a hotel that caters to meetings of travel groups and seminars. The Clam Bake dinner under a large tent in the back yard of the Cases' daughter really made you feel at home on the Cape. Our appreciation goes out to those who didn't want all their steamed clams. Such delectable extras were available without having to match tableware. I was eating so many of those things I thought I would never get to that beautiful lobster in the netted bag of steamed goodies, like corn.

     "And many, many thanks to Scott & Priscilla Case and also their children, for laying on this one. (Insert photo #3 here.)We all enjoyed it muchly. It was good to spend a few days with our classies, and it was especially nice to have Betty Parker. Ann Shanahan, Ruth Crocker, Fran Nuelle, Cay Chamberlain, Anne Colacicco, Christine Sleeper, and Peppy Millican in attendance. They added the warm feeling of a family reunion. Hope we see more of you(widows) at future class events. So now we can add New England to our list of highly enjoyable Minis that have included FL, Tex, SC, Calif., Ariz., Colo., and DC Anyone for Hawaii? For you in the D.C area, George Mayo says we are all set to have our annual Xmas-time brunch on the 5th of Dec.

     " This seems to be a good place to insert some of the photos taken at the Mini of a few of the more than 50 classmate participants: (Insert photos #s 4, 5 and 6 here if feasible) *******************************************************************************
By the time these Notes reach you (Jan 00)available spaces at the Thayer for 21-23 May 00 will have been taken. Hopefully no one who wants to attend our 60th Reunion will be left out!

TAPS This list for these Notes is sadly long. Our deepest condolences go to their survivors.

John Edward Aber DOD 25 Oct 99 Place: Los Angeles,CA Burial: ?
Charles E Balthis DOD 24 Sep 99 At Boulder, CO Burial: Atlanta, GA
Gerhard E Brown DOD 03 Jun 99 ````` At Brooksville, FL Burial: WP 12 Oct 99
George T Larkin DOD 03 Sep 99 At Lansing, MI Burial: Arlington Nat Cemetery, 15 Sep 99 Julius B Summers DOD 011 Sep 99 At Fallbrook, CA Inurnment: Fort Rosecrans Nat Cemetery, San Diego, CA
Natalie Yates, widow of Jules Yates Burial: WP 29 Oct 99

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