If anyone still hasn’t seen the video of our 30th Reunion, see link at KP83.org. Encourage anyone you know on the “Need Current Contact” list to drop me a line. Things are fine with me here in Delaware, where we’re just as fed up with this nasty winter as everyone else. I interrupted Matt Bucherati‘s Valentines dinner with his wife, but he had time to tell me that they recently had their 4th grandchild! Can anyone top that?

Thomas Aufiero writes:
Sorry I missed the reunion. I am living in Charlotte, NC now and just could not make it up. I did get to see Bumper Kunkle and his family in Oct. They came down to the area to see their nephew play in a football for Davidson College and stayed with me at my house. It was great to see them.

Douglas Barlow writes:
Been living the good life here in the PNW since 1985. My girls are soon to be 13, 15 and 21! Dr. Mitra Ray, the love of my live is soon to publish her 3rd book called GROW. Life is good in the business of providing people with optimal health, free time and disposable income. I keep in touch with a handful of classmates via FB and the occasional phone call. I recently spoke with Mark Coynes who operations manager/pilot at Jacobsen Pilots out of the Port of Los Angeles, CA. Also recently connected with Richard Surratt who is a CFO partner at Tatum which is a Business/Manufacturing Forecasting Consultancy in the DC area. I cruise and race an F-28R trimaran here in the Salish Sea Basin and had Pete McGonagle ’84 (partner at Swiftsure Yachts in Seattle) on board last year for Round the County, as well as Jay Renehan ’85 (Boeing engineer) for Foulweather Bluff Race.

Brian Foy writes:
Greetings from Squaw Valley…er Hudson Valley. Hard to tell the difference these days. As I write this another 10-15” of the white stuff are coming down. Thank goodness I can work from home on days like this! Not too much to report since our 30th Reunion. That was a LOT of work but also a lot of fun. It was so good to see everyone – in a few cases it had been 30 years! Thanks for archiving all our events and pictures in our class web site, which looks terrific. I’m not a facebook guy but I do enjoy the postings on our class page. The Foys enjoyed Christmas in Florida and are ready to go back. Trying to remember why I left in the first place…oh yeah, the “job thing.” I am looking forward to the ’83 Myrtle Beach Golf Classic in early April – a crazy few bays of bad golf, many laughs and even more beverages. Looking forward to seeing Chris Cioni, Bob Ross, Mike Keane, Mickey C, Jm Quern, Guy Wilson, Del Lewis and John Rhatigan. Ross and I are calling for more “Deckie Reinforcements,” although we are used to being outnumbered and will prevail. Still twisting Scott O’Connor’s arm. Pics and stories (suitable for printing) forthcoming in future issues.

Thanks guys, for writing. Don’t make me grab photos & silly comments from Facebook to place in this column! Send news, especially visits with classmates! I hope to visit Chris Cioni this Spring when I hit CA for Avenue of the Giants Marathon, along with catching a SF Giants game, to make it a theme trip. Take care!
—– Ray Christensen

Lisa(Barcus) Fields, George Toma, Maureen McKeever at 30th reunion

Susan Pawlukiewicz & Lisa (Taylor) Cripps at 30th reunion

Brian Foy began his Homecoming recap with:
Between the Reception on Friday night, our Saturday Tailgate and our Class Dinner on Saturday night, we had over 60 classmates attend with spouses, family and friends. The weather was sensational and the Lerner House was a perfect place to gather, renew friendships and say hello to classmates some of us had not seen in 30 years!

Difficult to select just a couple photos here, but see www.KP83.org for many more. Some highlights of our enjoyable weekend…
Randy Johnson sponsored wings & burgers for our Friday reception, where “Santa Claus”
Steve Grose had to introduce himself to everyone. Congrats to our deserving Alumni Award winners Michael Donnelly, Jon Kjaerulff, George Toma, Brian Foy, Scott O’Connor & Special Award winner Craig Laurent.

Dave Heinbockel was team photographer as Young Heinbockel, Phil Mueller and Ray Christensen were 3rd place Alumni team at the Saturday morning 5K (do not ask us how many classes participated). The awesome class tailgating got off to a great start with Bloody Mary’s for all. Even with plenty of the beer that followed, we marched on the field in orderly fashion and took nice group photos on the grass and later at dinner. It was generally agreed that Scot Brueggeman has grown taller. Lisa Fields kept things in order with nametags and lots of coordination help.

Bill Rupy flew in from Italy, while Scott McCauley & family flew in from Australia. Listen to a clip of Erin Gantt singing the anthem at our site. Thank to George Toma for not just being a sponsor, but for supplying lots of great photos. Jim Quern took the podium for a memorable soliloquoy at Saturday dinner. Frank Liantonio compared Jim’s “Thor hair” with the hair of NFL coach Rob Ryan (see photo at site).

Bruce Garrott writes:
Finances are tight this fall, as I lost my USNR drill pay when they asked me to retire at 30 years. Because of my kids travel schedule this past summer, we had the retirement ceremony and reception on 7 September at NOSC Tampa, which was funded by yours truly. We had a very nice turnout and a pig roast reception afterwards on an exclusive beach MacDill Air Force Base. A couple of images are attached.
Jimmy Goulden and Stan Cutler attended.
—– Ray Christensen

Craig Laurent receives award

Brian Foy & Steve Grose

Rich Colonna, Skip McAloon, Kevin Fauvell, John Rhatigan

Jim Goulden & Jim Quern

Bruce Garrott retirement ceremony – Sept 2013

 
Bruce Garrott retirement ceremony – Sept 2013

 
Bruce Garrott retirement ceremony – Sept 2013

 
Bruce Garrott retirement ceremony – Sept 2013

www.KP83.org will display plenty of photos from our 30th Reunion weekend! Comments welcome on our Facebook Group for what you liked, didn’t like, or to tell each other how good we still look after all those years! Share your own photos there as well. In honor of our Homecoming these are our classmates who have children attending or graduated from KP:
Jacquie Nielsen, Young and Dave Heinbockle (’16), John Cataldi (’11), Scott O’Connor (son ’10 AND daughter ’13), Bob Lento (’15), Randy Johnson (’17), Dan Hicks (’17), and Rick Wood (’17). Congratulations! (let me know if I’ve missed someone). Look for Homecoming recap in next issue. Erin Gantt was scheduled to sing the Anthem at the football game, so maybe we’ll have some audio or video.

Here’s some reasons for several of us who were unlikely to attend our 30th:
Matt Bucherati was preparing a presentation to give at a Pepsi Board of Directors meeting.
Andy Dywan says “Cannot attend because I will be working offshore. You folks have a good time.”
Mark Faller expected to be out of the country. Lynn (Craddock) Melin says she’d “likely be in Kazakhstan” [now that’s pretty far out of the country!].
John Prien also had a perfectly acceptable excuse – “I wish we could attend, however with the 4 kids coordinating activities and travel to NY is difficult. Have a great time!”
Paul Zubaly gave the classic Academy reason – “Unfortunately I will be at sea during the reunion.”

Speaking of those we also missed… Visit the “In Memoriam” pages of our site for comments and photos honoring our deceased classmates. Thanks so much to those who’ve contributed. If you have something to add, or a good photo, or a note from a family member, please email it for inclusion. Thanks to Lisa (Barcus) Fields for coordinating installation of plaques at the Memorial Arbors for Michael Alston, Dennis Gault and Vivan Ragusa.

Mike Safina writes:
I have a business trip to Europe in September and am disappointed I will miss homecoming. I moved over to OPNAV in February and am Director of the Senior National Representative Office (N84-SNR). We oversee several bilateral and multilateral agreements between the USN and other countries. Our focus is on improving international interoperability. We also oversee and coordinate Navy’s participation in the NATO Naval Armaments Group. We’re a small office – 3 civilians and 2 contractors, so we’re pretty busy. But it’s a nice change from acquisition and opportunity to learn about another organization.

Thanks to Glenn Gardner for keeping us entertained with the dance videos he posts at our Facebook Page!

Mark Smith writes:
I was selected to umpire at the Southeast Region Little League Tournament this year. The tournament is 1-9 August in Warner-Robins, Ga. This is the next step to umpire in the Little League World Series in Williamsport, Pa. There will be 8 volunteer umpires from various states in the region that will be at the tournament. The semi-finals and finals will be televised on ESPN/ESPN2 and I hope to be umpiring in at least one of these games.
Little League website

I’ll reach back to my brief but memorable Navy career to send out a big “Bravo Zulu” to our Homecoming sponsors (Check’em out at our site!) and especially my Navy shipmate Brian Foy for coordinating the weekend events! Take care and send me some sea stories or photos for the next KP’er!
—– Ray Christensen

Rick Wood, Randy Johnson & Dan Hicks each had their sons at Indoc this summer.

 
Scott’s daughter Kate O’Connor ’13E (left), and Erika Lawson ’13E, both Shipyard Management majors