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April 2005 Classmates ... I hope this finds you well. Here are a few updates from around the world. Pablo Breuer writes: Dear Friends and Family, I've been remiss in my updates so I thought I'd take the opportunity to update you on my adventures. I've been in Kabul for three night now via a world-wide whirlwind tour. My adventures started off at Fort Berming, "Home of the infantry." I'm not sure how the Marines might feel about that slogan but we got to learn combat essential skills there.We got to eat MR-Es (Meals Ready to Eat) at least once a day, disassemble and reassemble weapons systems for hours at a time (never got to fire them) and learn that handheld GPS receivers don't work indoors. After a quite interesting set of travel plans, we arrive! Now that we're in country it's time to get out of civilian clothes and don our DCU (desert combat uniforms), body armor, LBE's (Ioad bear ing equipment), weapon and Kevlar helmets. When combined, all of this equipment is lovingly known as the "full battle rattle". We used the few hours we had in the morning to grab a burger and check email before our convoy picked us up. About 1Oam a convoy of a mini-van, a flatbed truck and three SUVs arrived to take us to Kabul. Since I'd had convoy operations training at Fort Benning summer camp a question creeped into my head: "Hey, Sgt do we need ballistic plates for our body armor or ammunition for our weapons?" The good Sgt sheepishly explained that it would be "ok." Off we go with our convoy on the superhighways of Afghanistan. I can say with all certainty that despite the lack of traffic on Afghani roads is made up for in aggressiveness. The only thing that could possibly prepare one for driving in Afghanistan would be to drive in the wrong way on the Baltimore-Washington Parkway during rush hour. Thank goodness our driver (a hard-charging Marine LCpl) had nerves of steel and managed to make the drive without making any of the passengers wet ourselves. We arrived at Kabul compound without major incident. We awoke Friday to be told that Fridays are "reduced battle rhythm" days and that we were allowed to wear civilian clothes and visit the bazaar that occurs every Friday on post. It was a bit strange to see everyone wearingjeans and shoulder holsters. It looked like a bad western movie - or west Texas. While at the bazaar I managed to find out how Santa stays under budget. I was surprised, however, to see Santa shopping for a 9mm. holster. Kabul compound is small but has very good facilities. Housing is limited on the post so most people live in safehouses on town. I have an Army MSgt who works in my office and he did the senior NCO horse-trading (or is it cameltrading) thing to get me residence on post. The upside is that I'm 60 seconds from the office, which, coincidentally, is also the down side. The food is good, the people are friendly and there's plenty for me to do. I can state with absolute certainty that my time here will not be wasted. Kabul has been held together with duct tape and chewing gum. All-in-all I'm thrilled to be on the pointy-tip of the spear doing something important with some of the finest Sailors, Soldiers, Airmen and Marines in history. Rest assured that we're all working hard, playing hard and keeping a good sense of humor. For those of you that were asking my mailing address is as follows: Pablo Breuer, CFC-AJ6, APO AE 09356. Cheers, Pablo Jimmy Bailey sent this update about his family: Hello friends. So much has happened, I don't know where to start. Mary Kate (Sullivan) and I had our first child about 15 months ago. Her name is Aisling and she has red hair like her father, but good looks like her mother. MaryKate got to run one last Marine Corps Marathon as an active duty Marine this past year and won it in an amazing time of 2:48! I have started screening all further races for big prize money. She is now a government employee working the same job she did as a Marine in Quantico. I got out of the Marine Corps in August and got commissioned as an Ensign in the Navy. I guess they figured I needed a little more time to master all the skills you pick up as an O-1. Actually, somehow, I was able to trick the admissions cominittee of the Uniformed Services University of Health Sciences (USUHS) into letting me into Medical School. So, I have 4 fun years of being an O-1 ahead of me. The school is in Bethesda, MD so we split the difference and live in Arhngton, VA. Let us know if you are ever in town jamesbailey98@yahoo.com). We see Ashley McCrea too often for my liking, as she just got engaged to MaryKate's brother. She is doing great and left the Pentagon about the time I did and now has a killer sweet job working for some consulting firm in D.C. She recently tried out for American Idol, but they said her Goth style wasn't what they were looking for. We see Jen Seguin a lot as well. She's got a pretty cool job of flying D.C. big balers around. John Chau is in his first year of Law School up in Michigan. After coming back from two tours of combat in Iraq, he began a lucrative career in the "food delivering service" for Toni Romas, but decided it was too much responsibility and when they tried to give him a copy of the store key so he could come in early and start up the deep fryer, he quit and decided to opt for the more laid back lifestyle as a Lawyer. Congrats Johnie. I talked to Greg Summa on the phone the other day and he, Caroline, and their son, Sammy, are doing great. He's still got his hair on fire in Beaufort, SC flying jets for the Marine Corps. That's about all I got now. Sorry if I left anyone out. It's not my fault, I'm just an ENSIGN!!! YESSSSS!!! Jimmy Bailey And as a side note, though many of you may already know this, Mary Kate is the first active duty female Marine to win since 1979 and USA Track and Field named her athlete of the week the week that she ran. Jim Day also has an update on his life and times around the DC area: Right now I'm working as an Intelligence Analyst in Washington, D.C. by day and a law student by night. I am attached to SABER, the division of ONI consisting of SWO's brought into the intel community for a 2-year intel shore tour-you might be familiar with our submarine counterparts, known as SWORD. Henry Roenke and Scott Major are both a part of it, along with John Hale. Jim Grieg works in there with me along with all sorts of other USNA grads; Jason Dalley left not long ago. Because the sea-shore rotation would require me to drop out of school before finishing my degree, I'm getting out of the Navy in May to go to work for a law firm in town-Shearman & Sterling-as a summer associate, then starting business school in the fall (also at Georgetown). So if all goes as planned I'll graduate in 2007 with JD/MBA. Free time has been hard to come by because of the work / school routine, but the other students in the night program @ Georgetown have been amazing and make it all worth while. Other '98ers at Georgetown Law include Simon Latcovich and Delia Farquerson (last name now different after marriage). Tim French graduated last year and is now a Navy JAG. This holiday season gave me the opportunity to watch Navy , win the Emerald Bowl, which was a fantastic experience in its own right. Exploring San Francisco with classmates Darren Salapka and Sean Cowan made the trip even better. The other exciting thing that happened for our family this year this past year was the election of my Aunt Thelma Drake to the U.S. House of Representatives. Aunt Thelma will be representing Virginia's 2nd District encompassing Norfolk Naval Base and will serve on the House Armed Services Committee (HASC). I had the pleasure of being in the Chamber to watch her get sworn in on Tuesday, January 4th. Ironically, that day I learned that classmate John (JJ) Maguire just signed on to work as her military advisor. Please look me up if you are ever inside the beltway, and have a wonderful 2005. If any classmates need a place to stay when in D.C., I can be reached via email at JIM.DAY@1998.USNA.COM. ATB, Jim Mike Acosta sent in this update fiom Iraq: Me, Cory Shackelton, Bret Allison, Sam Clark are all in HMM-264 (Marine CH-46 squadron) and we just got here to Al Asad Airbase in Iraq. We'll probably be here for 7 months. It's been like a class reuninon. Carrie Howe, Jen Marino, Dan Lindblom and Ty Westinghouse '97, are getting out of town soon with the Sea Elks of HMM-166. Saw Doug Seich yesterday, he is leaving soon too. If it wasn't for him starring on the cover of the last Shipmate, I wouldn't have recognized him with that superb 'stache he is growing. Were replacing HMM-365 and have worked with Aaron Rose '97, Jeff Cabana '96, and Duston Obermeyer '01, all good guys who have given us some great gouge. This place is weird. Sandstorm one day, freezing cold the next day, then rain the next day. Snow is in the forecast for tomorrow. Then the summer is around the corner and were all aware of that wonderful heat. Kenji Gjovig sends a happy update about the birth of his son: Kenji Gjovig and his family We are extremely proud to announce the birth of our son! Ehjah Kenji Diego Gjovig was born at 1515 CET on 27 January 2005 at the US Naval Hospital, Naples Italy (apologies that this is so late!). He weighed 7 lbs 8 oz and was 21.5 inches long. Eli is beautiful! He's the cutest baby you'll ever see! He has a full head of hair and beautiful blue eyes (like Grandpa!). We think he is just perfect, and we're really not biased! He learned to breastfeed right away and is a tiny little poop factory! Bonnie's job is the fun part and Kenji gets the dirty work. While Bonnie can feed him and calm him down, Kenji has diaper duty at least until Mommy recovers completely. Here's a photo from Bethany Schmidts (Schults) and her family: Bethany and Family On a personal note, Carissa, Caleb and I are doing well and enjoying life here in Wilmington. My real estate sales company is doing well (we're up to a team of five people now) and expect to double our sales in 2005. On that note, we can help you (or anyone you know) with the purchase and sale of real estate anywhere in the country. If you get the chance, visit our website at www.finecoastalliving.com. Of course you can always email me at cbjohnson@1998.usna.com. Semper Fi, CB