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

A.J. Murphy writes:

At the beginning of SEP, I took another Greek Island sailing adventure. Last year’s crew was my wife, Gretchen, but now that she is back at work, took my brother-in-law and a buddy of his and we chartered a 36’ sailboat out of Athens/Piraeus to cruise the islands for a week. The trip was great, with lots of wind and noteworthy port of call. We did spend a couple of evenings on the hook at remote uninhabited islands, but also hit some big name islands as well, including Siros (Finekas west side & Ermoupolis on the east) and Mykonos. Mykonos is very large, has a big airport as well as many cruise ship arrivals, but it also has a small city feel along with ancient ruins, multiple resorts and many beaches and coves.

Everyone enjoyed the fun, food, sun and perfect temperatures. Even had to repair a torn sail, a first for me. Did it underway so we did not have to stop. Each day was good for 6-10 hours of underway time, with schedule being flexible as we depended on mother nature for moving us from one island to another. Wind could be quite blustery, where at one point we were just over 7 knots on only a genoa. One approach into port brought a head on wind with 10-12 foot seas. That slowed the transit time for sure. Would recommend this to anyone looking at sailing adventures. Always have the USMMA hat on for the nautical adventures!

John Burns sent an awesome photo of the late Vivan Ragusa and himself atop the highest mountain in the continental USA – Mt Whitney.

Bruce Garrott writes:
Hello from Djibouti. I have now been at Camp Lemonnier for 6 weeks and time is starting to move quickly. Thanksgiving was a feast here. There was way too much food to eat and the chow hall was full as everyone wanted to stay, enjoy the company of their friends and socialize longer than a normal meal. The weekend after Thanksgiving, Natalie Stovall performed for two nights on the camp. She is quite talented as a country musician, who can sing, and play the violin and guitar.

I spent the first full week of December in Stuttgart, meeting our higher headquarters (US Africa Command) and those to whom I report to for many matters. Very interesting meetings. It was nice to put a face to a name on an email. There was quite a difference in weather (about 50 degree temperature change) and it snowed one night. It was nice to see green again. The German’s decorate for Christmas and it was nice to see decorations and lights for the holiday season. Stuttgart’s Christmas Market was worth seeing too.

This week, the Secretary of Defense, Leon Panetta, visited the camp on Tuesday. He gave a very good speech and then shook the hand of the 500 soldiers and sailors who assembled to meet him. Here is the link or http://www.hoa.africom.mil/getArticleFresh.asp?art=7497 The weather here is now pleasant. Highs in the low 80’s and lows in the 70’s. I even saw someone wearing a sweatshirt tonight, outside.

Dan Rohde writes:
I have a case of Bud’s (I enjoy drinking not gambling) on Tebow (I mean Denver) over New England. I’m not a Gator fan or overly religious, but this guy’s work ethic is unbelievable and he knows how to win. I’m also a good New Yorker who will pull for anybody playing a team from the Boston area.

On a serious note, Carrie and I spent the week in-between Christmas and New Years in Miami working with the Race Committee that ran the Laser course (one of 3 courses) at the Orange Bowl International Youth Regatta. Tom Lihan (82) was the Principal Race Officer (PRO) and George Winslow (82) and David Sloane (82) were also part of the Race Committee. The five of us spent a lot of time together during our 3 years we were all on the Kings Point Sailing Team, and it was great to be back on the water participating in the sport we all enjoy so much.

Our youngest daughter was on the water competing and both of Tom’s daughters ware on the water coaching. Tom’s oldest daughter Sarah (2010 Yale grad.) had recently earned a position on the US Olympic Sailing Team and will represent the US in the Woman’s double handed dinghy (the “470”) in England later this year. As you can imagine, all the young competitors (and parents) were very interested in talking with her, and Tom (and his wife Dana) are extremely proud of her accomplishments.

The Orange Bowl International Youth Regatta is an annual event that attracts 500-600 youth sailors (560 this year) from the Americas and Europe.

Ray’s update: Last 2 times that I saw my old navy shipmate Brian Foy were to visit his family at their Pawling, NY home – this year to watch NFC Championship Game and last year to watch AFC Championship Game. He’s Executive Director of the Westchester County Medical Society as well as a similar position with a national medical organization. He also got me a gig putting together a website for his KP Alumni Chapter: www.KPMidHudson.org

At our site are past columns, photos, & a link to our Facebook Group. We’re all 50+ now. Stay healthy…and email me with exciting or boring news.

—– Ray Christensen

John Burns & Vivan Ragusa

AJ Murphy sails Greek Islands

AJ Murphy sails Greek Islands

Bruce Garrott w/ Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta

Dan & Carrie Rohde w/KP’82 friends