1940
Mel
Rosen
3415 Arnold Lane
Falls Church, VA 22042-3505
703 560-5557 (H)
703 560-0327 (Fax)
classof40@aogusma.org
(Class e-mail)
www.aogusma.org/class/1940/
Subscribers:
Sam
Patten writes
of a fabulous trip that Jean and he took. “Our big event of the year was
our trip to Eastern and Central Europe in the last half of July. We flew to
Prague, Czech Republic, via Amsterdam and spent four days there along the
Vltava/Moldau, seeing the sights and making a trip north toTerezin
(Theresienstadt), the site of the holding area for CZ citizens of Jewish
descent during WWII. Those who survived there were shipped off to concentration
camps in Germany and Poland. It was a depressing lesson in history. We found
Prague to be an historic city that reminded us of Heidelberg, Germany, where we
lived from 1959–62. We also took in Mozart’s opera, Don Giovanni, in the
same opera house in which he first directed it back in the 1770s. We then took
a long day’s trip by railroad to Budapest, Hungary, where we spent three days
before getting on the River Aria, a floating barge-otel operated by
Grand Circle Tours of Boston, MA. Buda and Pest are divided by the Danube
(Donau). Buda, on the right (west) bank is hilly and the site of most
government buildings except the Parliament building, which is close to the
river on the Pest side. Pest is on the left (east) bank and is on the Danube
Plain and much flatter. We saw the town(s) and took a trip out to the historic
village of Holoku about 60 miles north of Budapest where we saw a
well-preserved rural village, dancing matrons, and had chicken paprika for
lunch. We found Budapest to be cosmopolitan and friendly. The River Aria,
for all its narrow width and shallow draft (five feet), is a fine floating
hotel. There were 153 of us on board in addition to the international crew. We
first went south some 60 miles to visit a Hungarian ranch where we saw a fine
display of horsemanship and saw fields of paprika growing. Then we chugged back
north through Budapest to Bratislava in the Slovak Republic. There, we visited
the palace used by Maria Theresa and other Austro-Hungarian monarchs. The Czech
and Slovak Republics and Hungary have only been out from under Communist rule
for about 13 years but, are looking more western and are getting spruced up a
little. We thought that Slovakia was the least westernized. All depend a lot on
western tourism. We beat this past summer’s floods by one week. From Bratislava
we cruised to Vienna, which I liked best. We had dinner in the ‘New Wine’
district, a short tour of the city, and attended an evening concert of Strauss
and Mozart music in Liechtensteiner Musikhalle on Loechtensteiner Strasse. From
Vienna, we continued upstream through several locks, stopping at Durenstein in
which Richard the Lionhearted was locked up in a castle by the Duke of Austria
for a couple of years while making his way back from the Middle East to England
after having taken part in the Third Crusade. We visited the Prinz-Bishops’
Abbey at Melk (like a royal palace), and continued to Passau. There we saw the
Old Medieval Town and heard a huge organ in concert before continuing on to
Regensburg. There the Danube turns west to its source in the Black Forest, and
the Danube-Main Canal follows the Regen River. It then goes northward past
Nurenberg to the Main River near Bamberg. One now can go by river and canal all
the way from the North Sea to the Black Sea via the Rhine, Main, Main-Danube
Canal, and Danube. Passau and Regensburg are historic towns going back to Roman
and Celtic times. After passing fields of hops, we flew home from nearby
Munich—a nine-hour flight made easier by our having been up-graded from tourist
to business class because of circumstances beyond our control (and at United’s
expense).” Wow! Does anyone else want to share his/her/their trips to exotic—or
even not so exotic places?
Kermit Dyke, our class president reports, “The Bulls of ’40 gathered
at the Army-Navy Country Club in November 2002 to help steer the world in the
right direction. Present were Mayo, White, McKenney, Munson, Rosen, Brewer (host),
and Dyke. We heard an excellent and informative review of the problem of
retention of USMA graduates in the Army by George Mayo. No conclusions about
the cause of the problem were reached except that it would appear that the
solution is beyond the control of USMA. We also reviewed the summary of the
opinion poll that we sent to all. We had four mail-in responses that are
included in the results as follows:
1. Will U.S. troops be deployed to invade Iraq? Yes (7),
No (3).
2. Will Saddam be deposed prior to our next Presidential
election? Yes (8), No (2).
3. Which of the following past Presidents would you rank
as #1? Reagan (7), Clinton (3), Nixon (1), Bush (0), Carter (0).
4. In what year will we again have another budget
surplus? Soon (RTP), 2004 (2), 2006 (1), 2008 (1), 2010 (1), 2020 (1), never
(1).
5. How many months will it take to prosecute the
snipers? Six (2), Nine (1), Twelve (2), Eighteen (1), Twenty-four (3),
Thirty-six (1).
6. What will the legal costs be? $10M (4), $20M (3),
more (4).
7. Should the Army football team be committed to
Conference USA? No (8), Yes (3).
8. Was there hanky-panky in Windsor Castle in the recent
past? Yes (6), No (2).
Not a scientific analysis, but fun. Beats old war
stories, anyway.”
Your scribe, son David from California, and son-in-law
Gregg from Alexandria, drove to the Meadowlands on 6 Dec 02, where we were
joined by a nephew from New York. On 7 December, we all went to the AOG
tailgate party that was fun and then the game—which was not fun! The only other
classmate there that I know of was Dixie Lederman. However, we were
seated next to the beautiful and gracious granddaughter of Phil & Grace
Cibotti, Jacqueline Carrasco and her husband, Lee. They were in front of us
last year in Philadelphia.
The DC contingent assembled for its annual fall luncheon
at the Belle Haven Country Club on 15 Dec 02 with outstanding arrangements
being made, as usual, by George Mayo. It was announced that there is no
mini-reunion being planned prior to the big one to be held in May of 2004 in
Washington in conjunction with the dedication of the WWII Memorial. Kerm says
to mark your long-range calendars for that one, and unless someone comes up
with a good idea for a mini-reunion somewhere else at an earlier date, we’ll
all join up with Bon Dole in 2004.
Bart Barton reports that Kay Smith is in a nursing home in
Minnesota and misses her Army friends terribly. She would dearly love to hear
from any classmates and or spouses. Her address and phone: Kay Smith; Trinity Care Center, Room 210; 213th Street West;
Farmington, MN 55024; 651 463-4027.
Taps. Jeanne Murphy Minahan, widow of John Minahan,
died of cardiac arrest on 2 Nov 02 at Greenspring Retirement Center in
Springfield, VA. Jeanne grew up in Washington, DC, attending high school and
junior college at Georgetown Visitation Convent. During WWII, she was a
secretary for newsreel journalists at Paramount Pictures in Washington. She
also did liaison work for Paramount with congressional panels and regulatory
agencies. There was a memorial service at the Post Chapel on 25 November,
followed by burial in Arlington National Cemetery. Jeanne’s next of kin is her
son: John R. Minahan ’81; 6021 Ridge Ford Road; Burke,
VA 22015-3650.
Dick Shagrin died on 18 Nov 02 in Seattle, WA. He suffered a heart
attack probably caused by pneumonia. His remains were cremated, and Terry
says that they will be inurned at West Point in April.
Sal Rizza died on 30 Nov 02 in Rancho Palos Verdes, CA. His
remains were cremated. Burial will be in Arlington National Cemetery at a later
date. Paul Phillips e-mails that Evelyn reported that Sal died
after five and a half years of being unable to walk as a result of a heart
attack and resultant brain damage while playing tennis. Evelyn said that the
doctors called Sal a marvel man because his brain healed enough for him to enjoy
TV, talk, etc. As every field artilleryman of our era knows, and as Paul,
himself an outstanding Field Artillery officer, states, “For any not in
Artillery, you should know he was an artilleryman's artilleryman. He served two
tours on the faculty in the gunnery department at Ft. Sill, the last as
Department Head. He invented the ‘Rizza Fan,’ a device used all over the world
by U.S. Artillery in the battalion Fire Direction Center before the advent of
computers to simplify plotting and speed up fire.” During Desert Storm, the
Field Artillery used another Rizza innovation, the Artillery Fire Direction
Calculator.
Since this is written on 29 December—even recognizing
that it won’t see the light of day until March—from Olive & me the
very best to thee for two zero zero three!
—Mel