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July-August 2000 Hello Great '98! I hope the summer is treating all of you well. I suppose congratulations are in order to all of us, LTjgs that we are. Did anyone not make it? I ran into Ed Stickle on the pier after I pinned on the silver and he was going to do his the next day. I asked him why the delay and he just said, "There is no way you are going to get a salute." I could only laugh. Now to the news from the fleet. From Gene Brown: I am marrying Andrea Schlott from Bischofsheim, Germany. I got my SWO pin on 3 March. John Ruzicka is out on Rushmore with me. We returned from WestPac on 21 December. Gene sent me an invitation to the wedding, and I had no idea what it was until I opened it. I don't have too many acquaintances in Bischofsheim. Best of luck Gene, I hope the Chapel is packed for you! From Ken Douglas: Not much info to report from Charleston. As far as I can tell I am the only '98er in the area, though some of our two-year grad school shippies should be showing up at power school soon. I have successfully passed my FWB and comp and am just waiting for my oral board. News for Shipmate is I got my ship assignment. I will be reporting to Michigan (SSBN-723, Blue) out of Bangor around the beginning of October after sub school and my wedding. Don't let SOBC wear you down (ha!) and all the best on the wedding. A quick note from Cole Bryan: Right now I am immersed in a sea of musculoskeletal pathology (still beats EE!). Good luck, and it's good to see that you still know you are in the Navy ( a "sea" of pathology). Subtle, but true. A nice letter from Clay Shane: From San Diego helo-land, Nate Bitz just finished SERE today, and after taking a look at him, you could tell. Nate said that Betsy Davis, and Laura Tuck were all in his SERE class with him. Now that Nate has finished with his beatings, he will be checking into HSL-41 at North Island to learn how to fly the SH-60B, and Betsy and Laura are checking into HC-3 to fly the CH-46. Nate got his wings, along with Jen Seguin, Matt Williams, Darrel Capo, Blake Wilburn, Eric Poss, and Clay Shane all on 17 December. Eric is flying CH-53s out of Italy. Jen, Darrel, and I are all in the same class in HSL-41. We also have Brian Pummill '94 joining the class, who is transitioning from the CH-46 to the new CH-60S. Jen will be staying here in San Diego, Darrel is headed to Hawaii, and I am off to Japan, as soon as we finish here at the RAG. Jason Bauman is a class ahead of us and is also getting married at the end of this month. He will also be going to Japan. I went through SERE with Jay Vellon, Rick Ullman, Dave Harris, Jen Seguin, and John Dinh. Jay is learning to fly the CH-46. Rick had his Budweiser, and we all looked to him for inspiration. Matt Williams and Susanne Weinrich are flying the SH-60F over at HS-10. Tobey Bartee is out in Virginia Beach, soaking up rays, and learning the fine arts of intelligence. He will be heading down to Puerto Rico to help them with their drug problems. Brad Storey is also out in Virginia Beach, doing the intel thing attached to the Pukin' Dogs, who has dubbed him Bedtime (go figure) and tries to get as many rides in the F-14 that he can. When Brad is done deploying with those guys, it looks like he is headed to Monterey for more school. I am sure I am leaving out tons of people from out here in California. Like Jim Brady, who Darrel and I sponsor on his weekends off from Twenty-Nine Palms. Jim just got back from Okinawa and says that he might just be going backŠsoon. So anyway, sorry this is so random, but there is some news from California. Good update Clay, thanks. Another good one from Patrick Mattes: Hey all. A bunch of us are living in Jacksonville, FL. I am living with Ed Hoak right now, but he will be leaving for Hawaii soon as will Ken "I now have red hair" Chong. Ryan Lilley is leaving soon for sunny Brunswick, ME, which is probably a good idea for his liver since the last time he tried to party with us, he ended up with a bunch of Navy nurses giving him an IV while he was convulsing on the floor. I ran into a bunch of those nuke types. Jake Scott, AD Bonakdar, Samit Varma, and Rob Carnell live pretty close by. Gaby Bolton visited from her stint at the beloved Airborne school and also made it to Meridian, MS, where she stayed with Becky Dowling. If you come to Jax, you can most likely find us at Hurricane Hatties, a local watering hole that brings back memories of spring break and WWF. We will be drinking a potent blue drink affectionately known as smurf piss. This drink has created more shady situations than the entire classes of '94 and '96 combined. AD (fueled by smurf piss) can be seen clearing the dance floor with his blinding "dancing" skills or his brute strength, while Ed "Skeletor" Hoak cannot seem to keep his shoes on or for that matter, any of his clothes. We also ran into Terry Fusner '96 and Brian "Weasel" Grahm '96. Another weekend, several of the crew and Keith Harnetiaux '97 graced the world famous Fernandina Beach Shrimp Festival which turned out to be a bust. Getting back to Navy things, Jake and Rob are driving the newest submarine in the fleet while the lot of us are flying the oldest plane in the fleet aka the papa trips. Both break, catch fire, and just plain don't work about the same. Jason Owens and Mike Borrelli are also here in Jacksonville. Jason's family is growing by the minute with two beautiful children and another on the way. I guess that is everything going on here. One of these days, I will know what it is like to be operational, but until then Ed "Bones" Hoak and I will continue to drive to South Beach Miami to meet Latrell Sprewell and Patrick Ewing. But that is another story. Miss you all especially Chris Kovack sweating in Guam. Thanks, Pat. One last note, Tony Licari apparently had a few (milli)seconds of fame on ABC news. When all the stations were reporting about the "love bug" virus and showing computer screens on TV, someone spotted Tony's email address. Hmmmmmm...I hear some of the funniest things. OK '98. That wraps up yet another month. Keep checking back at our Web page: www.usna98.org. Thanks to the hard work of Mike Gawlas, we are going to have a high-speed registry that will allow us to look up Classmates, and actually get a hold of them (it's kind of hard when you move around every six months like I do and not everybody has your email address). Take it easy, and lead on. Fair winds --DSF