From your reunion committee:
Fellow ’83 Classmates and Shipmates…by the time you read this, we are hoping that nearly 100 of you are fondly remembering the activities at our 35th Reunion and and have renewed friendships bonded nearly 40 years ago. THAT’s what it’s all about! It is always amazing to us that more than 35 years later, we can pick up exactly where we left off. And it all started on July 17, 1979…
A special THANK YOU again to our sponsors! Your generous donations made this Reunion special for so many classmates and guests! Here are the 35th Reunion Sponsors:
Sean Connaughton, Jim Goulden, Craig Matteson, Joe Walsh, John Carbone, James Quern, Richard Boudiette, Art Burns, Scott Brueggeman, John Carbone, Chris Cioni, Mickey Cunningham, Bill Dunbar, Brian Foy, Tom Heberle, Mike Keane, Del Lewis, Scott O’Connor, Al Reeves, John Rhatigan, Doug Waldman, Lisa Fields plus corporate sponsors Adams and Reese LLP (Frank Liantonio), Lukoil Oil Company (Randy Johnson), Attraction Web Design (Ray Christensen).
Our committee navigated a number of challenges, including hotels who bumped us for better gigs, high prices to weed through, and just trying to make it as enjoyable as possible. Full recap in next edition. For those of you not able to make it this year…we MISSED you and hope you will plan on being at our 40th. PLEASE make sure that Ray has your current email address so we can keep you up to speed. You can reach him at . See reunion photos at our amazing class website at http://www.kp83.org. Ray does a magnificent job with this and welcomes your input. Please help us reach ALL our classmates!
On behalf of the 35th Reunion Team, we thank you for making the 5-year pilgrimage back to “the Point” and look forward to seeing you in 2023 if not sooner!
Chris Cioni, Chair
Lisa (Barcus) Fields
Ray Christensen
Brian Foy
Al Reeves
James Quern
Mickey Cunnigham
We’ve gotten many emails of regrets for those who weren’t able to attend. And here now the news…
Greetings from Ed Fairbairn. Mary and I still living in Prince William County, VA for the last 15 years. Hard to believe I retired from USN 12-1/2 years ago and been steadily employed at CACI, Inc since then. Been supporting MSC for the last 5 years. See some familiar faces at MSC such as Erin Gantt, Mike Palmer there from our class.
I just wanted to report that 2 years ago, Mark Faller and 6 partners, including Rex Gundle opened a brewery called: 6 Bears and a Goat in Fredericksburg, VA. We have wanted to make it down there and finally had a great experience and was able to connect with Mark this past weekend. If you are ever in Northern VA, it is a few miles off I-95, exit 133 and the website is 6bgbrewingco.com. I would recommend it. Maybe a great place for a KP Alumni event.
A little unfortunate, I won’t make the 5 year reunion for the first time in a while. We were invited with some family for dive vacation in Grand Cayman. I love you all, but hope you understand.
Another note is that Mary and I had dinner in Arlington with Brian Krenzien back in February. He has been doing weekly stints in DC, coming down from Atlantic City, each week. He has not aged a bit. Sorry, I don’t have a picture to prove it.
Cathy Giguere Coseno “had a great time with my dear friend Ailan Chubb on a recent business trip. I haven’t seen her since I got married 20 years ago. She looks great and is doing good work making this world a better place.”
Mark Smith shares his experience umpiring at the Little League World Series:
I umpired in 12 of the 32 games. I was behind the plate for the International semi-final between Japan vs. Puerto Rico. I was one of the 6 umpires chosen from 16 volunteer umpires from around the world to umpire the Championship game. I had 3rd base for the World Championship game in which Hawaii beat South Korea. The picture is my grandson rooting me on during the Championship game.
Rex Gundle weighs in:
Looking forward to the reunion and seeing many people I haven’t seen for the last 20 or more years. With only a small 2 year break living in the USA, I continue the global nomad life, living in country #8 since 1997, now in the old Soviet Union satellite country of Georgia. Working in Poti Sea Port, rarely do I cross paths with our fellow citizens, but was lucky this past week with the visit of USNS Carson City. Not only did I get to get a good fill of accents from all over the US, I was able to meet with a number of Kings Pointers that were on the ship in a logistics capacity or ship’s crew. Here is a picture from last week, which includes 4 Midshipmen (3 Engine / 1 Deck all class of 2020) Garrick Colorado, Jackson Misner, Justin McGaffigan and Brandon Gyron; 1st Engineer Chris Johnson ’06, and VP of NETLOG Logistics Jason Cook ’00, and yours truly. In addition to those pictured, Kings Pointers were also employed as Chief Mate, 2nd Mate and 3rd Mate. All serving our country proudly and professionally.
Don Towne writes:
Unfortunately I will not be able to attend our reunion. I built, own, and operate a high speed indoor kart track and family entertainment center in Mooresville, NC outside of Charlotte and my weekends lately have been take up managing it. We’ve been in business almost 11 years. I’ve had a few classmates stop in and you’re welcome to spread the word to anyone going this way that if they let me know when they’ll be here I’ll make sure they get a free race!
I look forward to reading about the reunion (with envy).
From Tom Collipi:
Unfortunately I will not be attending. The reunion is less than a week from my retirement from Northrop Grumman, where I have been working for the past 30 years.
Jeff Hoffman originally noted that “This is the first time in many years that I have been home from sea to attend. Looking forward to it!” But 3 weeks before homecoming, his update was “Unfortunately, I received a call from Crowley they are transferring me to a new ship and will be unable to attend.”
Doug Ullman laments:
I was hoping to figure a way to make it for Homecoming, but that is not in the cards.
I am on an extended contract to Raytheon Missile Systems in Tucson, AZ. I am there 3-4 weeks at a time before spending a week working remotely from home in Wisconsin. On top of that, I need to visit my 88-year-old Mom in NC the weekend before Homecoming, and my wife’s 40-year High School reunion in New Jersey in October. I hope you all have a great time. Sorry I won’t be there.
Even if we missed you at our party weekend, it’s been great hearing from so many!
