February already?  Valentine’s Day just around the corner, but it’s not too late to order something for your much better half using the Alumni Association On-line Mall shopping link at <http://www.careclicks.com/group.php?groupID=579> ... but first check the link to Amazon.com at our home page!  But don’t to it right now...the Court will come to order.

Did your get a chance to watch the History Channel’s broadcast “The History of the Coast Guard” on Veteran’s Day?  Our own DOUG KROLL was one of the principle on screen narrators and did an outstanding job “speaking from the cuff” on the early history of the Coast Guard.  His rendition of the production story: “I think the Historian and USCG Hqtrs gave them my name.  We were all flown to Washington, DC last spring.   I arrived on Friday evening, and sat in front of a camera for about 2 hours on Saturday afternoon and then flew home on Sunday.”  You’d think a Professor from the College of the Desert would offer just a few more details.  Thankfully, LANA provided more details: “Doug is a wealth of knowledge - can't find his way around town, but ask him any history and he will talk for hours.  His students love his class but that he talks so fast with so much information that they struggle to keep up.  His expertise was early history so they got people from each area they needed info on.  They sat each of the participants down for 2 hours and asked them to talk about their subject and they chose what they wanted.  I thought he got good air time!  Our youngest is on the USCG TAHOMA and the TV show was in the POD  They were anchored off of Cape Cod avoiding a storm. So he got to watch it with his buds. They kept teasing him whenever the phone rang in the lounge that it was the captain and she wanted him to come up and watch it with her.  Fireman Kroll is now on Mess duty. Originally in the Engine Room ( I hope I am getting all of this lingo correctly).   He graduated from Sonoma State a couple of years ago in Communications. He is a very social animal and was trying to get into Radio as a DJ and any audio visual kind of thing. After living in San Diego for a couple of years with his buds from High School - he decided he needed to get on with his life.  Applied for OCS and decided to go in as an enlisted to just get going.  So in boot camp - graduated last June- he applied for Aviation Electronics Technician School and has been accepted for this spring.  He is also awaiting the decision for OCS.  He graduated with the top 3 awards ( Leadership, top recruit, and overall best cadet)  in his company in boot camp so we are hoping for the OCS decision.  Currently though he is having a great time as enlisted, but notices the difference in enlisted and officers outlooks.  I think having enlisted in his background will help him as an officer.  He will be transferred to the Air Station at Cape Cod early Dec to fulfill the Aviation duty requirement prior to attending AET.  One of the mess guys had a family emergency and since Matt is "short" they put him on mess duty until he returns because he is leaving anyway. He likes the 9-5 duty - no midnight shifts.  Our other son is actually who got Matt interested in the CG.  Timm applied and got accepted to OCS but does not have the build to pass the 10 minute run requirement and chickened out.  He is our "student" with a fairly reserve personality and overcompensates with a phoney delivery.  He is very bright - knows many languages (Russian, German, Spanish, French, Italian and is now studying Sandskrit)  but wanted to get into law enforcement but the interview would always eliminate him.  Now he is in Master's program in linguistics and is pursuing a teaching credential for high school or community college in social science.”  GREAT program DOUG, but next time ensure Class of ‘71 gets equal air time with College of the Desert! 

Got a short note from PUBA: “We've had a super year and the 3 grand kids are keeping us busy and bankrupting us all at once. I have embarrased my 12 year old grandson Chris more than once at his hockey games, where I think it is the NHL with no beer. This year it actually is... with no hockey in town!”  BOB’s still the cellar dweller of the GONOR household ...that’s where is office is when working from home.  He’s on the road 2-4 days every couple of weeks for Flextronics, selling the company’s ability to manufacture products ranging from face scan devices to the camera’s that get youspeeding through a red light.  Route any tickets via his Atlanta address!  CHERI was down-sized from her part-time teaching job, but within 2 weeks had another full time physical education job only 10 minutes from home.  She reported that they got together at THADMIRAL and PAM’s house with STEVE and MARY CORNELL, RON FRAZIER, DAVE EDWARDS, KELLY and  STACEY CALLISON, RICH HARDING, and NICK BURAKOW.  Great party, but where’s the photo?

HAL BOHAN sent in an update.  “Rosemary and I are getting close to empty nest as my baby (youngest of 7 children) is a senior in HS and is heading off to college in the fall.  We are in the process of selling our city house in Battle Creek and moving to a small lake about 20 miles north.  I like to call it a retirement home but my wife reminds me that  won't be happening for a while with two still in college.  In '81 I left CG and went to work in the private sector for about 5 years or so and then returned to the U.S. Gov't working for the last 18 years or so for the general Services Administration as a Property Manager.  Two years ago I was ordained as a Permanent Deacon in the Catholic Church and each summer I attend Catholic University of America in DC to get my Degree in Canon Law (Church Lawyer)  My wife Rosemary (from Connecticut College) works as the Director of Formation for St. Philip Parish and will probably retire when I do in about 8 years.  We are looking forward to buying a small sailboat and spending some time on the lakes.”

DAN and MIDGE SHOTWELL got back from Costa Rica on the 21st of November.  “We found in the two weeks it was shut down our Gateway computer had suffered some unknown illness.  It went to the hospital, but there was no cure.  The doctor was nice and he had another patient who had been abandoned by his family.  With organ donations from our Gateway, he was able to cure the other patient and placed him in our care.  Now we have a brand new Gateway/Packard.  I remember years ago one of our neighbors drove a Packard.  His name was Cooper, and my dad was Dan (D.B.) Shotwell and his three brothers were; Jim, Supervisor of Flight Engineers, TWA at Kennedy Airport, Ed, Engineering Rep to Boeing for Continental Airlines in Seattle and Bob, Senior 727 Pilot, Northwest Airlines, Minneapolis, who often flew to Spokane and Seattle.  Dad was spending time at one of Caterpillar's proving grounds at Reno, Nevada in the fall of 1971, before Thanksgiving and had received parachute training WWII. Let's look at some key words from the above sentences..Cooper, Dan, D.B., Boeing 727, Northwest, Spokane, Seattle, Reno, 1971, Thanksgiving, parachute... but that's another story.”  And here I thought we’d get a report on Costa Rica?

Responding to an E-mail I sent regarding Alumni membership, BOB TRAINOR reported around.  “I let my membership lapse when I left the CG in 1982 – I didn’t have a job and I was trying to pinch pennies. After the reunion three years ago, I thought I should reconnect with my Coast Guard roots. As the years have passed, I have come to appreciate my Academy experience and my abbreviated Coast Guard career more and more.  I’ve been with the National Transportation Safety Board 17 years now, and will likely finish my career here in another 7 years or so. It’s been a challenging and rewarding career. Until a couple of weeks ago, there were 4 CGA alumni working here at the Safety Board: Leon Katcharian ’61; Rob Henry and Ted White from ’69 and yours truly. Leon retired for the second time the end of October and Ted is working for the Coast Guard again as a civilian. So I’ve kept somewhat current on Coast Guard happenings over the years.  My wife SUSAN and I have been married for nearly 22 years and we have an 11 year-old daughter, Sarah. We’ve lived in the Northern Virginia suburbs of Washington, DC since 1987, which comes pretty close to making us natives.”

Speaking of our Academy experiences, there’s a excellent book of photographs documenting cadet life and other aspects of the Coast Guard available through the Academy Exchange.  Entitled “U.S. Coast Guard Academy: The Missions of the Coast Guard,” photographer Roger Miller shot the photos in the book in 2002 and 2003 in New London as well as off the coasts of Maryland and Virginia.  Miller prefers to the think of life at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy as a "different reality.  Very few people understand what happens at the service academies.  They don't understand what it takes to get them to deal with stress and with leadership."  The book includes many shots of Coast Guard vessels, including The Eagle, with Groton and New London backgrounds.  His book includes photographs of nervous-looking cadets as they check in for "swab summer," a basic training before their first semester. Among the photos is one of an upperclassman commanding a determined freshman to do more push-ups. Miller said he felt like saying to them, "Man, you could get free beer at M.I.T.!"  Ranging outside of New London, Miller took photographs of the cutter MACKINAW as it broke ice across Lake Michigan.  Being totally unbiased, having a couple full pages of MACKINAW photos make it a hellova buy!  And did you know they had free beer at MIT?

Have a COSTCO nearby?  Check out “The Coast Guard” by the Foundation for Coast Guard History <http://www.fcgh.org/>.  Written by Barret T. Beard and an outstanding team of historians and officers, the definitive story of the U.S. Coast Guard is recorded for the first time in this magnificently illustrated, large-format book. Stories of the "Coastie" experience as well as essays on history, lighthouses, search and rescue, aviation, the drug war, and the war on terrorism all share one common focus: the highly trained and motivated people who make it all work.  No COSTCO membership?  I’ve got the answer...you can get your copy from Amazon.com via our Class web page.

PAT WIESE told me it was OK to paraphrase his Christmas greetings.  “We celebrated our 2nd full year in Fairfax Station this summer.  While we enjoy the many things that DC has to offer, coming home to the peace, solitude and wooded setting is very welcome at the end of our busy days.  PAT continues to serve as Deputy Chief Counsel of the Maritime Administration.  Long hours, but he enjoys the challenges.  He does find time for golf and is sometime up on Saturdays before the crack of dawn regardless of the weather.  MARIE has settled back in to her position as an Inclusion Facilitator with the Fairfax County Public Schools.  She provides instruction and support to teachers working with students with disabilities.  She also serves as a docent at the Fairfax Station Museum.  Daughter Anne practices law in Kansas City, this year opening her own practice with an office sharing arrangement with two other sole practitioners.  Her husband Vinny has become a partner in a commercial flooring company.  Daughter Ellen finished her MBA at UNC Chapel Hill in May, finishing her last semester of graduate school at the International School of Business in Sydney, Australia.  She is now in Madison, WI [GO PACKERS!] where she is an Assistant Brand Manager for Kraft Foods with accounts including Louis Rich Chicken Strips and Oscar Meyer Variety Packs...check ‘em out next time you’re shopping!”

We’ve got another Classmate talking about Australia.  DAVE HENRICKSON sent in an update: “I've been exiled here in Australia for 1 to 3 years ... in Canberra as home base, but with quite a bit of travel throughout the region ... NZ, Dubai, New Caledonia ... I'm still working for DynCorp and was sent here to develop the Asia Pacific market in base operations support, civilian police programs, and other areas that DynCorp is famous for. It's a wonderful country, full of wonderful people and a load of opportunities. As you know, everything here bites, kicks or stings .... don't wander in the bush alone.  CINDY and I happened to be in Noumea for Christmas during the tsunami, but fortunately were not in danger.  Incidentally, we left Curacao in March 2003 - travelled the Bahamas for 2 months in the Forever Young (now the only home we own) and came down here in April this year.”  DAVE, exiled in Australia...we should all be so lucky!

Antarctica’s calling again.  I’ve been hired this season by Crystal Cruise Lines, the #1 rated cruise line last 8 years, as Ice Master on the CRYSTAL SYMPHONY for a trip from Valpo to Buenos Aires, 21 Jan – 8 Feb.  Although always excited about another opportunity to experience the White Continent, I’m very excited about this trip as my daughter, Kristin, has been able to arrange her vacation schedule and will accompany me on the cruise.  Look for a photo or two in the next edition.  

Before we adjourn, we’ve still got 18 Classmates unaccounted for... DON BUMPS, BOB BUSH, RICH ENGDAHL, BOB GAU, BOB GULICK, BOB KASPER, BRUCE LEE, BOB LETOURNEAU, JIM McGUINESS, BILL MILLER, PAIGE MOORE, BRYANT NODINE, BILL PHILLIPS, CHARLIE PIKE, DON PLAKE, DAVE RAMSEY, JOHN SMITH, and STEVE WALLACE.  They are out there somewhere.  Some of you must have contact with with them and can write a letter or make a call to get them to report around.  Check out those address books...and we’re adjourned!   

Belay that adjournment!  JIM and PEG SYLVESTER, now better known as PAPA and NANI, just met the deadline in reporting that Erin and Mike earned that 2004 deduction when Julia Elizabeth Lane was born at 2:30 pm on Wednesday December 29th.  Julia Elizabeth, weighing in at a healthy 8 lbs. 12 oz., and Mom Erin are doing GREAT ... and PAPA and NANI are just beaming.  Trust me...photos in the next edition will prove it!  Now we’re adjourned!