HELLO ’68!!
The grandkids are out of school for their summer vacations, so it's time
for us senior citizens to deploy across the country to get in our special
bonding time with Generation Y.
"Vance AFB Salutes
Roger Wiles on the Day of his Retirement." |
VANCE AFB SALUTE TO '68ER: I received an e-mail from Roger Wiles'
son, Andrew (USAFA '96), telling me of Roger's retirement on March 29,
2019 as a T-38C simulator instructor at Vance AFB after 21+ years. Andrew
writes, "Dad started to work on Vance on the day I drove out of town
to go to my F-16 formal training unit (FTU) in January 1998 and has been
slogging it out with thousands of undergraduate pilot training (UPT) students
ever since. He retired with a very casual "non" ceremony, because
he didn't want to draw attention with these things. His immediate plans
are to get to work clearing out all those bass from the lake he lives
on." Vance AFB put the sign, shown below, at its front gate on the
day that Roger retired. Congrats to Roger for his many years of service
to our Air Force.
“East
Coast Reunion on June 1, 2019. L-R: Mick Edlund, Dennis McLain,
Tom McDaniel, John Gonda, Jim Bjork, Brooke Bailey, Bob Durham,
Bob Johnston, Bill Drennan, Roger Sorensen, Ed Eberhart, Jim Reese,
Scott Bohner, Dan Bucchioni, Bob Mirabello, David Prevost, Lew
Read, and Scribe.” |
HALF-CENTURY + 1 EAST COAST REUNION ANNOUNCED: As forecast in my spring
column, Ed and Karen Eberhart hosted the Half-Century + 1 East Coast Reunion
at their home in Arlington, Virginia on June 1, 2019. The annual gathering
of the faithful had classmates attending from the usual proximate states
of Virginia and Maryland, but also included more adventurous souls from
Delaware, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, and Texas. We have been spoiled
by the Eberhart's gracious hospitality and venue-of-choice for more than
a decade and will be sorry to see them leave our area for their new home
near the Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs. Best wishes to Ed and
Karen for a smooth transition from the greater D.C. area to vistas of
"purple mountains majesty."
"Anne
and Henry Hungerbeeler at Home in Leavenworth." |
'68ER SPENDS TIME IN KANSAS' FIRST CITY: While
visiting (not sentenced to) Fort Leavenworth in late June 2019 to attend
the retirement ceremony of my son, Scott, from the U.S. Army, I had
the good fortune to break bread with one of my 3rd Squadron classmates,
Henry Hungerbeeler, and his bride, Anne at their beautiful home in Leavenworth,
Kansas (established as Kansas' first city in the early 1800s). Anne
and Henry met at the Baptist Church in Colorado Springs during his 3rd
Class year and were married on the day we graduated in 1968.
After graduation from USAFA and pilot training at Moody AFB, Henry flew
C-141s out of Norton AFB, California and became the youngest C-141 Instructor
Pilot and Flight Examiner in the Air Force. He then went to Fort Rucker,
Alabama for helicopter training and then served a tour in Combat Rescue
in Southeast Asia. His follow-on assignment was to Scott AFB in the
Military Airlift Command (MAC) Secretariat and then to Charleston AFB,
South Carolina as a C-141 Examiner. He then attended the Army's Command
and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth and after graduation remained
at Leavenworth to serve as the MAC Liaison to the Combined Arms Center.
Then, it was back to Charleston as Chief of C-141 special operations,
Air Component Commander for the Joint Special Operation Command (JSOC),
and a flying Squadron Commander. After attending Air War College, in
residence, he served as the chief airlifter on the Air Staff during
Desert Shield/Desert Storm. Due to health issues, he was medically grounded
and then selected as the Air Base Wing Commander, followed by service
as the first Support Group Commander for the 89th Airlift Wing at Andrews
AFB. His next assignment was as the Support Group Commander at Charleston
AFB, where he oversaw the completion of 40+ construction projects to
support the arrival of the C-17 on base. His final assignment was as
Chief of Staff of Joint Task Force - 6, DoD's counterdrug task force
at Fort Bliss, Texas.
After retirement, Henry was selected as Director of Missouri's Department
of Transportation. In the aftermath of the terrorist attack on 9/11,
he was appointed to lead a national task force on transportation security
to study infrastructure vulnerabilities in the United States. As part
of this effort, President Bush appointed him to lead a Blue Ribbon Commission
on Bridge and Tunnel Security to address shortfalls and remedies.
In 2009, Henry and Anne moved back to Leavenworth to assist their single-parent,
son, with childcare duties while their son attended the Command and
General Staff College and was later deployed overseas. Today, Henry
still gets in some teaching time as a subject matter expert on "near-peer"
opposing force aviation for Army students attending classes on post.
Anne and he send greetings to one and all.
THOUGHTS AND PRAYERS: Our class has suffered the loss of another
of our classmates in 2019, Doug Barnard.
Douglas Michael Barnard, Major, USAF (Retired), passed away on 14 May
2019 at the Veterans Administration Medical Center in Bath, New York.
After enlisting in the Air Force, he attended the Air Force Academy
Prep School and then joined the Class of 1968 at USAFA.
Doug was a Navigation and Electronics Warfare Officer and trained for
1 1/2 years on T/ET-29s before flying C-47s in Vietnam and Thailand.
Upon returning to the States he was an instructor for ET-29s at the
Electronic Warfare School and finished off the flying portion of his
career in F4-Cs and -G s in Okinawa. Doug was stationed at Victorville,
California as a Wild Weasel, where he "ferreted out" SAM and
AAA radars. His last four years in the Air Force were at Ramstein Air
Base in Germany at USAFE Headquarters, where in 1984, he met and married
his wife, Jo, in Basel, Switzerland. In July 1986, he retired from the
Air Force and returned to school, where he received a Master's degree
in Computer Science from Boston University.
Upon his return from Germany in 1991, Doug adopted Hornell, New York
as his home and became very active in the "Maple City" Community.
He had a passion for trains and was definitely a, "geek",
about train lore, the Erie Railroad and N/T TRAC model trains. He also
served as a docent for the Hornell Depot Museum and was a Board Member.
Doug is survived by his wife, Jo; nephew, Nash Bennett; sister, Leslie
Young; aunt, Win Barnard; brother-in-law, Ross Bennett; godchildren
Mitchell Jackson, Tony Carrington, Sierra Carrington and Adrianna Harmonson.
Committal services, with full military honors, took place at 2 p.m.
Monday, May 20, 2019 at Bath National Cemetery. Please include Doug's
family and friends in your thoughts and prayers.
THAT'S A WRAP: Mind the flak; keep 'em flying, and keep those
cards, letters, e-mails, and photos coming in to Pat Russell
and me. Ciao for now. Tim
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