Class Notes from the July/August 2001
issue of Shipmate
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55
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Annual Membership: 34%
Life Membership: 35% |
Pres: LCDR Dennis Sullivan, USN (Ret.)
Sec’y: CAPT Thomas G. Kiefaber, USN (Ret.)
11814 Triple Crown Rd., Reston, VA 20191
h: 703-758-1077; e: KIEF55@aol.com
http://www.usna.com/classes/1955
From the desk of the Prez, Denny Sullivan:
| The Class Executive Committee met in May. Some of the items discussed
were: |
| The 50th Reunion will be held the weekend of 10 September 2005.
Wes Saunders has reserved the Waterfront Marriott where we were for the 45th.
It’s a long way off but not too early to provide input. If you have any thoughts
or ideas get them to a Class officer or someone in the D.C. area. We have
decided to have a 50th Reunion Remembrance Book—something lasting to recount
Class and personal recollections, for family and friends. Again, we need
input and ideas about format and content. We need also an editor and a business
manager, preferably from the Washington, D.C., area. |
| We decided to wait a while to initiate the "Link in the Chain"
Program. This is an Academy endorsed effort to form an enduring bond between
50-year Classes; in our case, it would be the Class of 2005, which entered
the Academy this July. The Committee thought it best to wait until the 2005
Class was organized (at least until after Plebe Summer) before beginning this
effort. A complete description of this program will be in Shipmate in the
near future. |
| The Class Gift for the 50th Reunion was discussed at length.
The Academy generally prefers several small projects rather than one large
gift. Fred Tolleson and a small committee are working with the Naval Academy
Foundation to define this project. Funds for the project will be raised as
part of the Foundation’s Capital Campaign which began in June. When the project
choices have been narrowed by Fred and his group, Classmates will be consulted
by email and letter. |
| For this football season, we will tailgate in the usual place—Area
3 in the Gold parking lot. There will be a dinner party after the Homecoming
game (Rice) on 13 October. Don Conner has arranged this with Paul’s Restaurant
on the South River. The Air Force game will be at FedEx Stadium (Redskins)
and we will have a designated tailgate area for that. |
| Ned Floyd has volunteered to organize a mini-reunion in San
Diego in May 2003. No real plans or details yet, but watch this column and
stay tuned to the Class Listserv. |
Dick Kiefer writes from Tucson, AZ:
| This spring the U.S. Air Force Heritage Flight (P-51 Mustangs,
F-15s, F-16s, A-10s, and F-86s) conducted their semi-annual air show formation
flight training at Davis Monthan AFB in Tucson, AZ. Bill Anders participated
in these events with his P-51 Mustang named The Val-Halla (named after guess
who?). Prior to Sunday’s flights, Bill asked me if I wanted to fly formation
on his return trip to San Diego as he has a stick, rudder, and throttle in
the back seat. Although I had acquired many hours of flying time in the Air
Force, I jumped at this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. After leading numerous
formation flights on Sunday, Bill picked me up after his last flight and
we took off for a memorable flight to San Diego. I had a great time and
we spent the evening reminiscing about our lives since our flight training
days at McAllen, TX. Thanks Bill. By the way, Bill received the year 2000
Heritage Flight Pilot of the Year Award at Davis Monthan AFB. Congratulations!
|
Hugh "Webby" Webster came in with a report on another
great football luncheon in San Diego with approximately 33 attendees. Of course,
"King Koz" Kozischek was the leader in cheerleading and was the official photographer.
The enclosed pictures represent Classes from ’37 to ’90. "I have made Jim
Stockdale ’47 an honorary football player, plus a couple of former commandants
(if they ever caught the ball, it is A-OK)."
Ed Ogden reminisces:
| I’ve been catching up on reading my issues of Shipmate since coming
home from our three- month, round-the-world excursion and I was particularly
interested in the March ’55 column regarding the honoring of Don Lange as
one of Navy’s all-time basketball greats. I liked the stories about Don
that were told on that occasion. But what I wondered is, does anyone know
how he got his nickname "Gooner"? Well, I think it started in 1950 after the
opening game of the NAPS basketball schedule. We played against the Rhode
Island State freshmen…we won by a score of 92–78…in a game in which Don scored
50 points. Afterwards, Don was heard to say in the locker room that he hoped
that the tall goons would not begin to ruin the game of basketball. Not sure
exactly when he was first called "Gooner"…it could have been on the bus back
to Newport or it could have been at our next practice session, but it became
his nickname from that time on. And, I’m not sure who first used the nickname
"Gooner." It could have been Jim DeGroff, Bill Martin, or John Johnson. If
I were to guess I would say it was Jim DeGroff because he did have a penchant
for coining nicknames. Just a bit of trivia to enhance the legend of "Gooner."
|
Travelogues as received from Ed Ogden, Otto Zipf, and
Tom Emery, in that order:
From Ed Ogden:
| This letter was supposed to have been a joint effort by Ed Grant
and me to accompany the enclosed photo of our 1 April visit to the Pyramid
of Chephren at Giza…but, we somehow never got around to composing a letter
while we were enjoying our latest cruising experience…so many things to do
and so few days to enjoy them! Rosemary and Ed Grant, and Joan and I were
on the MS ROTTERDAM 2001 World Cruise that ended in New York City on 23 April.
Rosemary and Ed began their 100-day world cruise in Los Angeles on 18 January;
while Joan and I joined the ship in Singapore on 17 March for the 41 day
segment back to New York after having flown to Auckland, NZ, to board the
QE2 on 4 February for passage to Hong Kong by way of southern and western
Australia before wending our way to Singapore via Bangkok. |
| Ed Grant and I had sailed for about two weeks of the cruise
before discovering that we were USNA Classmates; actually Rosemary and Joan
did the "discovering" which was rather unusual. We were on an overland tour
of Egypt that included visits to Luxor, Abu Simbel, Aswan, Cairo, and Giza.
On the first day of the tour, when we were visiting the Temple of Queen Hatshepsut,
Rosemary and Joan chose to stay on the tour bus rather than walk to the temple
as we had a quite long day of touring. It had begun with an early morning
flight from Sharm-el-Sheik to Luxor, followed by visits to the Temple of Karnak
and then the Valley of the Kings after lunch. While they were chatting, Rosemary
noticed Joan’s miniature and, like some say, the rest is history. But what
was so unusual was that the four of us had been sitting next to each other
all day on the tour bus and had chatted about the temples and tombs, our
lunch and other things that people chat about while touring, without realizing
that Ed and I were both ’55ers. When Ed and I got back on the tour bus, we
began chatting about our USNA experiences that ended with a mutual realization
that we had never met each other during the four years at Annapolis…Ed being
in the 11th while I was in the 23rd Company at almost opposite ends of Bancroft.
During the next two days of our tour, we spent quite a bit of time together
and continued to see each other during the remaining four weeks of our cruise.
We would occasionally meet each other about the ship, we dined together and
we often met Ed for morning coffee while cruising through the Mediterranean
and across the Atlantic as it was great to be with, and get to know, Rosemary
and Ed. |
| We also talked about our other travels and I learned that Rosemary
and Ed had cruised with Holland American Lines and ROTTERDAM many times as
well as other travels. Ed may wish to document this as I don’t know the details
except to know that they have traveled to many places since Ed has become
almost fully retired. I will, however, provide the following brief digest
of the "Joan and Ed Ogden Travel Log" of the past 20 years. Our travels,
which usually have been biennially, have included cruises and land tours
as well as two trips around the world. We have visited 72 countries and 258
cities. London and Venice are our most visited cities with six visits to
each; and, Bangkok is our favorite city to visit. Our travels do not constitute
something for inclusion in the Guiness Book of Records, but our albums of
photos and post cards are nice collections of memories for Joan and I. |
From Otto Zipf:
| Peggy and I took the opportunity in February to cruise south
from Usuaia, Argentina, toward the bottom of the world (Usuaia advertises
itself as the most southern city in the world. When we landed there by plane
enroute to our cruise ship, I would have added also the windiest city). Our
cruise ship MARCO POLO was ready to take us on another adventure of our lifetime.
We were heading south to the White Continent, the Antarctic Peninsula. The
cruise itinerary included four trips to local Antarctica areas by zodiacs.
|
| We did make four trips, but only three landings. The fourth
landing at Port Lockroy was cancelled, although we cruised the local waters.
The population of penguins and chicks was such that our presence in the rookery
was not deemed a good idea. Port Lockroy is an active British scientific station
that is manned by two scientists during the summer months of November to
February. Our three landings took place at Deception Island, Paradise Harbor,
and Half Moon Island. The waters close to the shoreline at Deception Island
are warm enough, at times, for some adventurous people to strip down to bathing
suits to go wading or dunking! Peggy and I saw this, but did not participate.
Chile has a rather large permanent scientific station at our landing site
at Paradise Harbor, which also is manned only during summer months. All of
our landings brought us right into the midst of flourishing penguin rookeries.
After the visit to the White Continent, we headed north to make our transit,
from east to west, of dreaded Cape Horn. The weather and seas were so calm
that we cruised the Horn area making three transits before heading north
into the inner passage fjords of Chile. |
| The enclosed photo shows Peggy and me in our Antarctic parkas,
with Peter Hillary. He was one of our guest lecturers on board ship, and the
son of Sir Edmund Hillary of Mt. Everest fame. Peter lectured to us, informing
us that he and his father are the only father-son adventurers who have both
climbed Mt. Everest, both been to the North Pole and the South Pole. He was
on the verge of conquering the peak of K-2 with a party of climbers when,
about 1,200 feet short of the summit; he sensed a change in the weather pattern.
His climbing team proceeded up. He turned back alone. None of his team members
were ever heard from again, nor were any bodies ever found. K-2 is about
800 feet shorter than Everest. Peter has not yet revisited K-2 for another
climb attempt. If I ever have a chance in the future to hear this humble
man lecture, I would snatch up the opportunity. |
From Tom Emery:
| For the past four years, Gale and I have spent the month of February
in Coronado, CA, to be near family in La Mesa, who incidentally, bought Sis
and Bill Martin’s home! Roz and Mal MacKinnon visited us overnight. We gave
them a dinner party inviting the Websters, Wilsons, and Nyquists. Shown in
the picture in front, left to right: Peggy Webster, Connie Wilson, Roz MacKinnon,
Peggy Nyquist and Gale Emery. In the back, Hugh Webster, Smoke Wilson, Mal
MacKinnon, John Nyquist, and Tom Emery. |
| After our month in Coronado, we set out on an "Around the World"
trip for another two months. Two couples joined us in part. We visited New
Zealand, Australia, Zimbabwe (Victoria Falls), Switzerland, and Cotswolds/London.
It provided stark contrasts in terms of climate, scenery, governing, quality
of life, and outlooks. The one place we hope to return to is the South Island
of New Zealand. It is remarkable in its scenery from Alps to sheep farms
and lakes to ocean. The people were exceptionally friendly and pleased that
we were in their country. They exude happiness! |
| One of the highlights of the trip was our staying in B&Bs
that turned out to be wonderful. We made most reservations via the Internet.
If anyone is interested, we would be happy to share our itinerary. A couple
of asides, I played golf in Melbourne and Victoria Falls with the latter being
a little more interesting sharing the course with a variety of animals, and
finally, we are now having fun sorting about a 1,000 pictures. |
Many thanks to Bob Price who forwarded on the following
from The San Diego-Tribune, 21 May 2001:
| Where are they now? Catching Up With People Who Made News. This
Week: Jerry Kowalsky…Local Executive Blew the Whistle on Saddam. |
| Two years before the Kuwait invasion, Jerry Kowalsky exposed
Saddam Hussein’s plan to build a nuclear arsenal. But the San Marcos businessman’s
heroism wound up costing him his job. On 6 September 1988, Kowalsky, then
president of CSI Technologies Inc., was looking through faxed order forms.
Suddenly, a chill shot up his back. Kowalsky, an electronics engineer, informed
the CIA and the U.S. Customs Service of his deduction: An Iraqi company was
shopping for devices to trigger nuclear bombs. "From that day on, my life
was never the same," Kowalsky would write. Instead of being ordered to deny
the Iraqi request, Kowalsky was told to become a lead player in a joint U.S.-British
sting. In a plot worthy of a spy novel, he strung the Iraqis along for 18
tense months. Finally the trap—baited with sabotaged triggers—was sprung
on 28 March 1990. Six Iraqi agents were arrested. Soon after, Kowalsky was
tracked down in San Francisco by an ABC News crew. When he returned to his
office in San Marcos, more than a hundred media requests for interviews awaited.
Always wary of Iraqi retaliation, the former Navy officer’s apprehension
spiked. He carried a shotgun in the trunk of his car. "Whenever I got in,
I looked underneath to see if there was a bomb," Kowalsky said. In September
1990, the Customs Service gave Kowalsky the Yorktown Award, its highest honor.
The former submariner and his wife enjoy reunions of the Naval Academy’s
Class of 1955. |
George W. Martin has provided a very interesting account
of the recent Naval Forces Under the Sea Symposium. It’s fascinating!
| The loss of the Russian submarine KURSK in the year 2000, the
recent Peter Maas best seller, The Terrible Hours and the movie Men of Courage
were made a part of the "Naval Forces Under the Sea" Symposium. The Terrible
Hours tells the story of Swede Momsen, and his tireless work to develop the
Momsen lung and the McCann diving chamber. The movie is loosely based on the
life of Navy diver Carl Brashear. This symposium was jointly sponsored by
the Office of Naval Research and held at the Naval Academy, 24-23 March 2001.
The purpose was to highlight the Navy’s significant developments in science
and technology related to diving, special warfare, and submarine search and
rescue. An additional purpose was to capture and preserve some of the historical
knowledge that, in many cases, resides only in the minds of the primary contributors.
(Considering that our Class is working on our 50th Reunion, it is safe to
say that we are part of history.) |
| After opening remarks by the Superintendent, VADM John Ryan
’67, the historical presentations began with Don Walsh ’54, reviewing the
dive to the deepest known location in the oceans, 35,800 feet, the Challenger
Deep in the Marianas Trench. I came next with the story of TRIESTE’s role
in searching for THRESHER and photographing portions of the wreckage at a
depth of 8,400 feet. I then reviewed the role of submersibles in the search
for and recovery of the H-bomb in the Mediterranean at 2,850 feet. I was
fortunate to have been in ALVIN when we found the bomb. Brad Mooney ’53 followed
with TRIESTE actually finding the hull and photographing THRESHER in the
summer of 1964. Ross Saxon completed the story reviewing the role of TRIESTE
in photographing the pieces of SCORPION at 10,000 feet in the Atlantic. Mal
MacKinnon had been invited, but was unable to accept because of prior commitments.
|
| The unclassified stories of special warfare and saturation diving
and salvage work were fascinating to anyone interested in the Navy or the
oceans. John Craven, former chief scientist of the Navy Special Projects Office
and of the Deep Submergence Systems Project was there. I enclose a photo
of John giving a copy of his new book, The Silent War, to me as a former colleague.
|
| The real VIPs of the meeting were the four survivors of the
submarine SQUALUS and the survivor of the submarine TANG. SQUALUS sank in
240 feet of water off Portsmouth, NH, in 1939. I remember my father taking
me to the seashore near there and pointing out to sea, saying, "There is
a submarine sunk out there." The SQUALUS men were lifted to the surface by
the Momsen designed McCann chamber in the first operational use of that chamber.
Fortunately Swede Momsen was on the scene to direct the use of the bell
in the first rescue of trapped submariners. |
| Clay Decker’s story is even more harrowing. While on a war patrol
in Japanese waters, TANG was making a surface attack on Japanese shipping
and fired several torpedoes. The last torpedo circled back and exploded against
TANG’s after compartments. The sub sank immediately in 138 feet of water.
About 12 men were in the control room and conning tower. About five men made
it to the surface using the Momsen lung. They were picked up by the Japanese
and put into a brutal prison. Clay survived all that and thanks God for letting
Swede Momsen develop the lung and for rescuing him from prison. Clay emphasized
how important it was to have actually trained with the lung at the diving
tower and from a submarine before he had to use it in wartime. |
It is sad to report that Gene A. Crosby (16) passed
away on 28 April 2001. His widow Jerry Crosby can be reached at: 19171 62nd
Place, Live Oak, FL 32060; 904-362-4113. She posted the following message
on the ’55Listserv:
| My husband, and your ’55 Classmate, Gene Crosby, died on 28 April
after a long battle with cancer. He delighted in keeping in touch with Classmates
through the email site and in Shipmate. He showed great pride in knowing
that he was a graduate of the United States Naval Academy and has always
loved his country. His friend and Classmate, Jim Carr, delivered a beautiful
farewell from all of you at the funeral. We shall all miss him terribly,
but know that he is in a much better place now. On behalf of Gene and myself,
I wish all the ’55 Classmates the very best! |
Congratulations to Bill Turcotte who was saluted by
The Naval War College Foundation as its "Faculty in the Spotlight" for his
dedicated leadership (Chairman) of the National Security Decision Making Department
and holder of the James V. Forrestal Chair of Management at the Naval War
College. Bill has been on the faculty at NWC for more than 23 years.
To The Class of ’55
MG Buchanan wishes to extend heartfelt thanks, to the
Class, for the letters, calls and cards received on the passing of her father,
RADM Charles A. Buchanan ’26.
| Additionally, my family and I sincerely appreciated the presence
of those Classmates that attended Dad’s services at Arlington on 30 April.
We were honored to have Jack Renard and Ted Parker as two of the pallbearers.
Bless you all for your kindness and moral support during this time of loss.
As I said in my remarks at Dad’s service, I learned much about and from this
modest man, spending a great deal of time with him these last years. I would
like you all to know that his time as Commandant meant the most to Dad of
all the tours in his career. Gratefully and with love, MG Buchanan.
|
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You'll find SHIPMATE has vastly improved.
Tom K.
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