I failed to put this in previous issue [sorry]…
A.J. Murphy writes:
Had a good time this past weekend [May], connecting up with my old roomie, Chris D’Angelo and his family in Stonington, CT. It had been a bit since we last visited, so with hectic schedules, we made time ot hang out a bit and have some fun as well. I had the pleasure of seeing Chris’ wife Lynn as well as their oldest daughter Samantha. We got to compare notes as Samantha had just graduated from UCONN the week before, and my daughter Cecilia had just graduated the same time from Texas A & M. Time is just flying by!

I included some photos of us hanging out on his boat, where we had a beautiful Spring day out on the water just off the Mystic coast. On the way out of the harbor, just after bunkering, we got boarded by our Coast Guard brethren. We got to chill for a bit, while they did a TRAINEX for a couple of their newbies, which meant complete paperwork and detailed review. Chris impressed them with his working knowledge of the vessel and it’s mechanical details
and from what I could hear from the flying bridge, they pretty much bought his schtick! Once we left the Coast Guard behind, we got back to tossing a few lines out and then cruising around.

It was great to catch up with Chris as well as the rest of the family. Sure enough, there were a few stories as well, even some we shared with his daughter. My how times are a changin’…

All is well here in Houston, just spent time with Gretchen in Lisbon, Portugal as well as a few towns surrounding Lisbon. Lots of history, castles and museums. Food was pretty good too. Nice to be able to get these in now that kids are older. My oldest, Sean just got promoted to LT, prior to his recent Navy trek to the mid-east. If we are very lucky, we may see him at Christmas time. Keep all the military folks “out & about” in your prayers, as there are
still lots of them out there.

A.J.’s October update: In Bahrain end October as I had a chance to visit my son for a week who is currently billeted here with the U.S. Navy. Interesting place, and the boat construction/repair yard drew me in to look around. The dhow is a very robust vessel. What they lack in technology, they make up for in heavy duty construction materials! Not as hot as I would have expected, and the people here have been incredibly hospitable.

Erin Gantt writes:
I sang at the 15th Annual American Veterans Conference Awards Gala here in DC in Oct. The gala was recorded and is to be broadcast on The Pentagon Channel on November 11 & 12. This will be a special program airing around the world for Veterans Day.

I am certain that my best moments will end up on the cutting room floor but I sang so much, that they couldn’t edit me out completely. I sang the National Anthem and all of the service songs (including Heave Ho!.) as well as two other numbers.

Bill Rupy writes:
Ciao from Italy! LeAnn and I moved here from Goshen, NY in the summer of 2010. We both work in Vicenza for the Army and in our spare time raise Havana cats. This past spring I made my acting debut in the USAG Vicenza community theater, playing ‘Greg’ in A.R. Gurney’s “Sylvia”. I’m looking forward to another season developing my snowboarding skills and speaking better Italian! We’re quite close to Venice, so come on out and we’ll wander around the canals,
drink great coffee and spritz’s, and incorporate overly dramatic hand gestures into our conversation!

Bruce Garrott says that he returned from his mobilization to Djibouti on the 5th of October.

Thanks to Scott O’Connor for continuing his involvement with the Alumni Assoc. and in particular, for keeping our class updated on the recent power struggle (especially via our Facebook page).

From an Alumni Assoc email:
The USMMA Alumni Association & Foundation (AAF) sponsored the Alumni/Midshipmen 5K Run on Saturday, July 28, 2012. A record 600 runners finished the race, including plebe candidates, upper class midshipmen, alumni, family, and friends, Academy faculty and staff also participated free of charge thanks to the generosity of AAF donors and the Mid-Hudson Alumni Chapter (Brian Foy, VP!). The top alumni finishers were Pete Lafontaine ’83 and Young Heinbockel ’83.

Ray Christensen update:
Speaking of Brian and Pete, I got to see each of them recently. Stayed at the Lafontaine’s house the night before running the Hartford Marathon on a cool, but sunny day in October. Pete continues to race 5K’s, while his wife coaches girls cross country. The room I slept in was lined with medals and trophies won by their 2 sons (see photo), one of whom is running XC in his first year at West Point. After my race, I stopped by to visit the Foy’s and enjoy pizza & beer. Their youngest son had just placed in a XC race that afternoon. See www.RunMarathonMan.com for recap. If you have not been receiving emails from me quarterly, please call or write. Stay safe everybody, and plan on our 30th reunion!
—– Ray Christensen

AJ Murphy in CT – May 2012

Chris D’Angelo on his boat in CT – May 2012

Chris D’Angelo & AJ Murphy – May 2012

Uh-oh….Boarded by Coast Guard

AJ Murphy – May 2012

Chris & AJ boarded by Coast Guard

Ray Christensen & Pete LaFontaine – Oct 2012

Brian Foy ’83, Philip Echevarrio ’84; Kevin Rogers ’80 & wife Francis Yates-Rogers ’78 (Oct.12)

Here are portions of a press release that the Alumni Association forwarded:
”Adams and Reese Partner Frank Liantonio Re-Elected President of Susan G. Komen New Orleans Chapter; Named to Juvenile Diabetes Board. Recently, Liantonio was also named to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, Louisiana Chapter” – New Orleans Branch Board of Directors, which along with Baton Rouge and Shreveport, works to raise funds in support of the state chapter’s mission while providing outreach and support to families in Louisiana affected by diabetes. At Adams and Reese, Liantonio is a Partner in the Litigation Group, in all aspects of the energy, marine and environmental litigation practices of the firm.

Wendy Greenbaum writes:
After 29 years in shipbuilding I finally got to work on the manufacturing end. I am working on at the work site for DDG 1000, the Navy’s new Destroyer and I am very excited about getting this lead ship built, tested and delivered. It is a technology leap from DDG 51 Class. It a pretty special thing to get to work on a lead ship and not something that happens all the often in a lifetime.

Lee Forsgren writes:
Have only seen Sean Connaughton, George Toma, and Chris Thayer lately. All are enjoying great career success. Sean is doing great as the Secretary of Transportation for Virginia but with it comes a huge amount of public scrutiny. As he said at a recent lunch speech I saw him at he has been called “big & ugly” at which point he reminded everyone there that if they really wanted to see big and ugly that they should look at me. I should have been mad but truth is an absolute defense. His son is now a plebe at West Point and his daughter is entering her junior year at Texas Tech.

George is a client and I have seen him numerous times in the last few months. As President of Transas USA he is turning the company into a marine electronics powerhouse while still finding time to work in Washington State and live in Arizona. He is also doing the Lord’s work with the AZ Kings Point club. He now has two kids in College at NAU and one still in High School.

Chris is growing his empire at MSC and seems to be doing great. Admniral Busby (KP-77) is saying very nice things about him which made me wonder how he has him so fooled. Chris did tell me that his son just enlisted in the Navy and is currently at Great Lakes for training so he has to mow his own lawn again.

George, Chris and I are planning are next trip to Nationals park when George next comes to Washington. (Sean is always invited but his schedule doens’t permit it often.)

As for me I am still lobbying, mostly doing environment, energy, and Transportation work. Doing some work for the Romney campaign on Environment and Transportation policy and enjoying my son’s time at the University of Virginia.

Ray’s update: Nobody sent photos, so you have to suffer with one of me taken after I ran a low key marathon in York, PA in May. Send pics for next time or I’ll make you suffer some more. In other news, I recently added number 1,000 to my beer
bottle collection. (How “single” can you get?!) Drop in when passing through Delaware to have a peek. Take care!

—– Ray Christensen

Ray Christensen, after finishing Bob Potts Trail Marathon 5/20/12

Bob Ross sent a brief Myrtle Beach recap:
Just to provide you a quick update on this year’s Myrtle Beach golf trip. We had a new record of 3 deckies this year with Brian Foy and James Carbone joining us. James is John’s brother and earlier than us…1978??

Also In attendance was: John Rhatigan, Jim Quern, Mickey C, Guy Wilson, Del Lewis, Kent Morton, Mike Keane, and a special appearance by CEO Jim Goulden. I apologize if I left someone out. It’s amazing that we all are not on the tour. Birdies, Eagles, the occasional PAR. If you don’t believe us just listen to our stories and review our score cards. I should have prefaced this with the familiar “This is no sh-t.”.

We continued the tradition we started last year when most turned the big 50 by going to Greg Norman’s restaurant which Mr. Lewis was kind enough to coordinate. Mr. Quern and Eliot Bloom, Esq. (Mr. Keane’s neighbor) provided some impromptu entertainment that kept us all in stitches.

Here is the picture of John, Kent, Brian and me on the first tee on opening day. We also had the usual contingent from New Orleans and Cumberland. Bottom line, a good time was had by all.

On another note, I had the opportunity to visit with Rex (SWR) Gundle when he was passing through Washington, D.C. Last month. We walked around the various memorials and caught up on the past 20 something years and then grabbed dinner and some local brew at a local tavern. Always nice to catch up with an old shipmate!

Pete Lafontaine writes:

The picture shows wife Judi and me with our oldest son Trevor at the West Point Plebe Parents weekend that we attended in March. Trevor has almost completed his plebe year at West Point (3.85 GPA) and is looking forward to his ‘Yearling’ year when he can enjoy a little more sleep (we all remember that feeling!). He’s pretty certain that he is going to pursue a civil engineering degree.

Trevor had been recruited to run track and cross country for Army. Unfortunately, he got injured and missed the second half of his plebe cross country season. He’s now back running indoor track, and in his first meet he ran 9:03 for the 3000, but he still has a way to get back into top racing form.

Our younger son Connor, who is currently a sophomore in high school, caught the eye of the KP Track coach last summer when he finished 6th place (18:11) out of 530 finishers in the KP Alumni-Midshipmen 5K race. Connor had just come off a great freshman track season running a personal best 4:42 mile. He also helped his cross country team win its fourth straight Connecticut state championship this past fall. For colleges, he’s thinking about applying to Kings Point, West Point and the Coast Guard Academy.

As for myself, I finished 10th (18:39) in the Alumni Midshipmen race in July’11 and was the first alumnus. I was actually looking forward to turning 50 years old so I could dominate my age division, but I quickly learned that there are a lot of fast 50+ runners out there. I think that I’ve won my age division only once or twice in a number of races that I’ve run since I turned the big 5-0.

Finally, just to show that running is a way of life in our family, my wife Judi has been the girls varsity cross country coach at our local high school for the past four years. Last fall, her girls won their first ever state championship. She has a strong team returning next year and will be shooting for a second straight state title.

Jackson Chandler sent a travel tip:
Hi to all. Hope everyone is well. Just a quick bit of info for you and for you to pass along to those you know that may be planning travel this summer. Hopefully United Airlines’ management will get off the dime and do what they told Congress and stockholders they said they would do last year. If not, could be an interesting summer for travel. Bookmark it if you are planning travel on UAL this summer. Information/knowledge is power. http://theunfriendlyskies.org/?page_id=69 Make it a great day!!

Rick Boudiette dropped a quick line that he was “Heading to New Orleans this week for JazzFest”.

Ray’s update: I exchanged some emails with Brian Foy & Chris Cioni during the Rangers-Ottawa NHL playoff series. I don’t travel much, but got down to Memphis in April for Road Runners Club of America convention, since I’m the Delaware State Rep. If you don’t get my “send news” emails, please get me your email address. I won’t ask you for money.
—– Ray Christensen

2012 Myrtle Beach crew

John Rhatigan, Kent Morton, Brian Foy, Bob Ross

 
Pete & Judi LaFontaine with son Trevor at West Point

Pete LaFontaine with son Connor after KP Alumni-Midshipman 5K July 2011