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December 2000 Hello 98 and Happy Holidays. While Dave Forman and Justin Anderson are driving L. MENDEL RIVERS over to Washington, I shall convey the news from around the world. Here's the first selection, compliments of Samantha Stahl. LTJG Samantha Stahl, Kendra Deppe, and Joel Rodriquez all returned from their six month WestPac deployment on PORT ROYAL, 23 June 2000. They had a great trip and went to Borneo, Phuket, Thailand, Singapore, Hong Kong, Bahrain, Dubais, and Guam. Bought lots of great things and spent lots of money. Sam and Kendra will leave Joel behind in Hawaii in November as they will be starting Nuke School in Charleston, SC, on 20 November. Kendra and Sam have had a great tour in Honolulu with visits from family and friends and both have taken up surfing and are proud owners of their own surf boards. Hopefully there will be surf in South Carolina -- won't be like Hawaii though, I am sure. CB Davis is now in the Supply Corps and stationed in Gulf Port, MS, and is enjoying life there. He is supposed to go to Guam sometime after the first of the year for his next duty assignment. (That news actually comes from Samantha's mom, Mrs. Joyce Stahl. Thank you, Ma'am.) When I was in Charleston, the only surf we got was accompanied by a hurricane. Nuke school is fun, though. The next piece is from Mike Llenza who is currently serving on RAINIER (AOE-7): Hi to everyone from myself and Todd Tavolazzi who's with me onboard. Well, to all of you guys who scoffed at our "My other car is a Fast Combat Support Ship" sign at school, let us tell you that life has been tough onboard! After all, it's not every JG who has to go through the burden of living in a two man stateroom with a Œfridge, coffee maker, TV, VCR and worst of all, share our shower and head with one other person! Everything's peachy up here in the pacific northwest, lots of sunshine. Todd will be headed to his next ship in the middle of next year. I on the other hand, seem to have a case of the deployment-itis and will be heading out to DEYO as their prospective training officer come next March (a week shy of deployment, such a shame). As for the other jokers, Pete "Lazy Eye" Shoemaker's doing well with the jet thing, as is DJ Lopes. Scott "Do you sail?" Pichette will be heading down to my island to fly H-3s early next year. Derek Solon's also up here with us as is Jeff Sowa, who's currently on deployment under the sea. Take care everyone. Give that man a bonus. Thank you, Mike. Now, to the Atlantic Fleet and from Jim Day, onboard THE SULLIVANS (DDG-68): How's life under the sea? Everything is great here in Mayport. I was actually in Norfolk for a one month TAD school in info systems where I happened to bump into Kevin Cantee, Ashley McCray, and, wouldn't you know it, none other than Senior Chief (now Master Chief) Albonetti all in the same bar. Hope the optempo isn't too bad and your qualls are coming along swiftly. I should be done with mine early next year. The only bad thing about the whole nuke school thing is that I am almost a year behind my peers, but I'm not sweating it. The golf courses down here are amazing! Thank you, Jim. Hope your annual Christmas bash is a blast! Here's an item that is sent by Nate "James Bond" Bailey from a classified location: After getting NPQ'd from flight school last summer, I redesignated to Naval Intelligence and attended intel school with some other '98ers including J.J. Maguire, Scott Barscheski, Jason Hurley, and Chris Savage; along with Sam Zager '97 and Anthony Toreillo '99. After graduating last February, J.J. became the intel officer for a Hornet squadron in Lemoore and attached to CONNIE; Scott went to a Hornet squadron in Oceana and attached to TRUMAN; Jason to a Hornet squadron based in Atsugi, Japan, and attached to KITTY HAWK; and Chris to JFK homeported in Mayport, FL. I reported to the Blacklions of VF-213, a Tomcat squadron based at Oceana and attached to CARL VINSON. Some other Classmates I have run into who are also stationed here at Oceana NAS include Tony Toma, Darren Sweeney and Sara Stires who are attached to VF-101 -- the Tomcat FRS; Brad Storey who just returned from a Med cruise on IKE; and Erik "Larz" Erikson who is the intel officer for VFA-106, the Hornet FRS. Looking forward to seeing more '98ers as they report here from flight school. Thank you, Nate. This final line is dropped by Bill Bradley, from way up in New England: Hi from the Civvie side. Life is decent here in New England. My Regiment (the 182 Infantry) is gearing up for three weeks in the Nevada Desert. Other than that, if any of you are heading up to Newport or Boston, drop me a line. I have an extra bedroom in my house and would be happy to show you the area (not to mention save you some money). I'm working for M/A Com as a principle engineer in their aerospace and defense unit. In addition, I'm getting married on Veterans' Day 2000, so things have been quite busy. Thank you, Bill. Best wishes on your wedding. Congratulations to Vinse Evans, who married his beautiful bride, Anji, in October. Vinse is now stationed in San Diego. Dave Manka, Brandon Dye, CB Johnson, Tom McGowan, Pedro Espinoza, and Todd Zentner all made the event in Maryville, TN. Also, Congratulations to Dave Manka, who is getting married this month in The Woodlands, TX. Best wishes to you and Autumn. Here's a "Health to our Classmates" who are deployed and on watch this Holiday Season. May your adventures be a success and may your voyages home be swift. Fair Winds, IJS