Look alive with Seventy-Five!
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Look alive with Seventy-Five!
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Dear ’mates:
The Dark Ages are over and spring returns to Annapolis and to Academy grads throughout the Northern Hemisphere. About the time you read this, some ‘mates will gather at Navy-Marine Corps Stadium for the Class of 75 Non-Reunion Reunion sequel. The original event took place at the SMU game last football season. The sequel will be at the Navy-Maryland lacrosse game on Friday, 3 April. Mark Milliken, Steve Curlee, Mark Bloomquist, and John McTighe made it happen. I look forward to the report of an event that is hopefully much drier than the original. Roy Hawkens is one of nine candidates to fill a vacancy on The Virginia Court of Appeals. Roy is the chief administrative judge for the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Many of you know the tragic news about Walt Joller’s death in January. Walt was an athlete and avid fitness buff throughout his life. He was killed when struck by a car while bicycle commuting home from SPAWAR in San Diego. Walt was wearing a helmet, a reflective vest, and had lights on his bike, but the tragedy still happened. Dave Frost reported that approximately forty of our classmates attended the Joller memorial service in San Diego. Johnny McTighe compiled this report which several classmates forwarded on to your Scribe. “I just returned from Walt's memorial service. It was amazing. Many folks wore Aloha Shirts because Walt would have liked that and the music was all songs Walt loved including a recording of Sue singing Amazing Grace which amazed me. The Miramar chapel was packed and folks were lined up outside the door. The tributes from Wally's son, shipmates and friends were extremely touching. Mike Wertz did a fantastic job along with all of the other speakers. Sue is hanging in there. God bless her and the kids. After the service everyone went to the O'Club. They had a missing man flyover with 2 E-2's and 2 C-2's. Right after the fly over a color guard gave a 21 gun salute and a bugler played taps. After the bugler finished in the silence Sue yelled out “Beat Army!” I cannot believe how fortunate we are to know Sue and Walt Joller. Walt's death is a tragedy on so many levels. We are supremely fortunate to have known him." <photo 75#1: “Classmates at Walt Joller’s Memorial Service 16 JAN 09”> Chris Cikanovich celebrated the Inauguration by taking a trip to Las Vegas. Chick reports, “We decided to spend all of our money before the current administration does the patriotic thing and takes it from us to spend where they see fit. I would rather see it go to the Vegas mob than the current administration. Started a new job with Rolls-Royce last week. They mistakenly made me the President of one of their companies. I am the new president of "Seaworthy Systems, Inc." Part of the Rolls-Royce Group. So after the Vegas trip, I am off on a two-week trip to Europe as part of the new job. Second week is in Norway. Norway - February, two words that don't seem to work well together." Darlene and Jon Greenert report a pretty good year all around. Their oldest (Jon, 25) got married in May to his college girlfriend (Susan). Jon is certain that Father of the Groom was easier than Father of the Bride will be. Susan and young Jon live in San Diego where he is an NCIS agent. Brian (23) serves as an Ensign on USS MUSTIN in Yokosuka. Got his "Surface Warfare" qualification this past summer so life if good. Sarah (20) is a junior at Penn State. It's been a good fall semester, particularly since the football team made it to the Rose Bowl. Darleen still tolerates Jon and the Navy life. As an Admiral's spouse she is called upon as "adviser" and "sponsor" for numerous events and organizations. Jon says that sooner or later he’ll have to get a real job and let go of the Navy. For now, he'll be serving as US Fleet Forces Command (formerly, US Atlantic Fleet) for another year or until told otherwise. Jon says, “Fascinating position; honored and humbled by it daily. Our Sailors are incredibly bright and dedicated. Our first full tour in NORVA in 33+ years. Nice place; friendly people.” The Greenerts have been fortunate to see some company/classmates locally and passing through. Mike Cecere worked with our class officers to procure a "Class of 1975" crest plaque to present to the USS HARRY S. TRUMAN (CVN 75). We are coordinating with the ship's schedule to have a proper ceremony, probably in Mar-Apr 2009 time frame. Jon and Darlene plan to have a reception at their quarters (Missouri House) in NORVA (close to carrier pier) just before or after the presentation. The main event of the year for Sally and John Ginn was a 30th anniversary trip to Alaska in July. They spent three days in the interior and then met up with family and friends for a week cruise from Whittier to Vancouver. They enjoyed beautiful weather and incredible sights (including Sarah Palin’s house, complete with toys and a trampoline in the yard)! Soaking in the ship’s hot tub, looking at glaciers, drinking an Alaskan Ale, while a bald Eegle flew overhead was a definite highlight. John enjoyed several other trips this year too. The first was in March to ski with his son, Brian, in Park City, UT. In September he and four other USNA’ers (’76 and ’79) backpacked to the summit of Mt. Whitney (14,497’), the highest peak in the lower 48 states. In November, John and Brian visited the USS EISENHOWER off the coast of Virginia. They flew out in a C2 cargo plane, toured the ship, watched flight ops, spent the night and experienced a cat shot on leaving the ship. It was a trip down memory lane for John and an experience of a lifetime for Brian. Brian bought his first house and continues to enjoy his job with Lockheed Martin as a reliability engineer on the C-130J. Daughter, Jennifer, took advantage of her summer off as a teacher (Atlanta Public Schools 6th grade Math) and spent the summer in Europe. She was a nanny in Paris for four weeks and then traveled around France, Ireland and Italy. Sally joined her for a week in France where they toured Paris and the WWII beaches of Normandy. <Photo 75#2: “The Ginns in Alaska”> <Photo 75#3: “John and son Brian visit IKE”> Cindy and Nyles Christensen accepted a new assignment with Chevron this past April as the Technical Manager for the Angola LNG (Liquefied Natural Gas) facility being built in Soyo, Angola. They moved to Houston in April and headed to Luanda, Angola (West Africa) in January 2009. They will be living in Luanda for about a year then will move to Soyo in early 2010. Soyo is the very northwest point of Angola—right where the Congo River flows into the Atlantic Ocean. They will live there until the plant is operational sometime in late 2011 or 2012. Nyles has been to Angola many times over the last several months. The work is good and the Christensens are looking forward to this new adventure. Nyles' only request is that he doesn’t see any snakes! One problem—there is only one 9-hole golf course in the country. It is a dirt layout with oiled sand greens. Nyles won’t be doing much golfing. The Christensen children are doing well. Angie, Brett and their two daughters (Emma and Addison) live in Salt Lake City. Angie works at home for the State of Utah as an Unemployment Adjudicator. Brett is a Sergeant with the Hazardous Waste Unit in the Utah Army National Guard. He completed one tour in Iraq. Eric and McKenna have moved to the Minneapolis/St Paul area where he is attending Law School. They are enjoying Minnesota except for the cold. Mike is a senior majoring in Recreation Management at Brigham Young. That pretty much fills this column. We’ll return to 14th company next month. Have a great spring! --- ’75 Sir! Larry |
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