24 March 2009

News from the Far Side

Just checking in.
My wife and I have moved to Seoul South Korea in January to take a promotion with my Company to work with our subsidiary here.

Everyone who has ever been here, said, "wow! Korea is such an INTERESTING place"
not a great place or nice place or fun place - but an interesting place.

NOW we know what they were talking about.
The lack of English is amazing. They use lots of english words in signs and phrases and things - such as "Human Bar" - but they don't understand english at all.

Every little chore is an adventure. Every cab ride is a crazy game of charades.

All things being considered. we are in fact enjoying life here. We have a nice apartment in the French section of town with lots of interesting little bars and bistros. Work keeps me very busy and Barrett is working hard to start and learn the language.

RE: Old F3 stories. I remember the time Joe Rossetti and I were at Army Navy at the Ben Franklin. I believe it was Yuck year and we all rented a room somewhere.
With one or two many drinks, neither of us could find the room or remember the room.
Some helpful, prankster as it turned out, gave us a room number where we were to go.

We knocked on the door and there were three or four cadets and their girls in there watching TV. Joe, being Joe, got into an eloquent discussion with one of the cadets about "what were they doing in our room". I, seizing the initiative, simply took my pants and dress gray top off and climbed into one of the beds.

After a bit of loud discussion, we were convinced we shouldn't be there and headed off into the hallways of the Ben Franklin.

Not sure what floor I ended up on that night.

26 January 2008

Greg is working on it...

From a Greg Gorzelnick email:

I may be able to track (Racz and Mike Klein) down. They married sisters I knew growing up in Troy/North Greenbush, NY...

As far as Doug Waldrep - it is funny - he was technically "assigned" to my wife when she was a battalion commander at Ft Gordon. I do know (like you stated) he came up here to DC, but I haven't heard from him since about 1998 or so...


*****

Hey, next guy to check in here and read some of this, how about posting a story of F-3 or cadet life in our day, or put it in the comments if you haven't signed on to be an co-author yet.

My own stories/memories are either soft and bland or hazy on details. For instance: Me and Scott and Hut use a (coveted) weekend pass -- not for a wild and crazy time -- but to go off post one Saturday afternoon to buy a Christmas tree for our room.; or, that Vic Schoof sure did some amazingly goofy stuff...uh, say, what was it he did exactly?

Got a story of F-3 you used to tell often but it got old and the circumstances for using it fell into the past? Knock the dust off that old gem (or "hoary chestnut" if you prefer) and tell it here.

I promise I do have some stories to share but the inbox has 136 emails in it and I'm getting to zero first. Y'all are busy, too, I know, so enough already!

-- Steve

21 January 2008

Update on attempts to contact all 77 F Troopers

Guys:

I sent out an email and Christmas cards in December 2007 to get the word of this contact/update blog out to all. I appreciate the Troopers who sent back Xmas cards or emails or who have signed on to be fellow authors of this blog. Here is a run-down of where these efforts (relative to the F Troop list on the left margin) stand:

* I have not yet sent anything to Joe Raczkowski. I'll get on that! I also have not tried to find Dave Carter and I expect I won't. Neither have I sent anything to Randy Gehler's family, heirs, or assigns.

* I used 2007 Register addresses for the Xmas cards, and only one came back returned to sender. Steve Torres apparently no longer lives out of a Post Office box in Hot Springs National Park, Arkansas.

* I did not send a card overseas to Jesus Lugo, but he got an email. I also missed the Register address for Marty Mayes at Fort Leavenworth. He probably isn't living on post as of today, but I'll get a hard copy note off to him at that address tomorrow. He did get an email.

* I sent emails to every email address in the 2007 Register and a couple others I knew already. Only one bounced back -- to George Fink (gfink@falconconstruction.com didn't work). He isn't out of touch and if anyone can send his current email address I would appreciate it.

* So, if we can trust that the USPS and the internet returned all undelivered missives (of course we can't know how many of my emails ended up in trash folders!), the only F Troopers (save Raz, Carter, Gehler's family) who I am sure I have not reached are:

Steve Torres -- no email, Xmas card came back

and

Doug Waldrep -- no email, no address

They are our two lost company-mates. Anybody have any clues or reports from the last decade on these guys? AOG sez Torres separated in 1987 and lists that Hot Springs address. AOG has Waldrep as a LTC in Dept of Psychiatry at Walter Reed in 1999. I haven't done Google searches on these old buddies. Little help?!

* And a last contact note, the Register did not have email addresses for Mike Klein or Andy Pehonsky, but I did send them both cards. Anybody have email addresses for Mike or Andy?

I'll be doing some other posts with info received in Xmas cards. I'll also try to get some pictures up here, from the 30th reunion and more. Thanks to you guys for the contributions here and the encouragement. I hope everybody will sign on to post their own stuff -- I may have been the company clerk but (through the magic of a group blog) we can all be company scribes.

All the best in 2008,
Bugs

01 January 2008

Anders Update

Wife: Barrett, 30th anniversary upcoming June 29th 2008
Army: Retired in 2005 as a LTC with 28 years of combined active / reserve service
Kids:
1) Mary is a junior at UCONN. Is heading to the University of Paris in a few weeks for her Spring semester and will be there through June 13th. (Sent a note to Pete and Nancy Selleck - he is a senior officer with Michelin and they live a few hours south of Paris) Mary is majoring in French and Business with a minor in Philosophy. She is probably headed for Law School on graduation.
2) Rob returned in Oct. from a 15 month tour as an infantry officer with 2/27 Wolfhounds in Hawijah, Iraq. He got married on Veterans Day at West Point to Emily Wnuk, a classmate he met in the cast at 100th night. Who would have thought!
She is out of the Army now, he will go on terminal leave in May. They plan to travel the world for a year and then go to graduate school, degree to be named later.
Currently stationed with the 25th ID in Hawaii.
3) Carolyn is a project manager with an architectural firm in Bethesda, MD. She recently graduated from University of Denver with an MBA in Ethics and a Master of Science in Real Estate Construction Management. She is enjoying her new position and living "inside the beltway".

Parents: Both doing well. Living in a retirement community, Saddlebrooke, just north of Tucson.

Me: I'm responsible for all of the Recruiting, Agent Retention and Management Development efforts for New York Life Insurance Company. I participate in a lot of the schools and represent the Company at a lot of industry meetings. I find it amazing when I suggest "Task, Conditions and Standards" and "Skill Qualification Training" and they think I'm amazing.

Isn't it funny how smart the Army seems in hindsight?

I'm having fun since Barrett can travel with me a lot of the time. We've got trips to San Antonio, New Orleans, San Francisco, and Maui all set up between now and May, where the only expense is her ticket. This would be not so much fun if I had to travel alone.

My career plan is to do this for a few more years and then volunteer to move to Hong Kong or mainland China and work for our International subsidiary for my last 5 - 7 years.

Not sure of where we are planning to retire. Thinking about the Washington DC area - somewhere where we can take advantage of the military resources and flights to Europe, and somewhere close to the water. All talk so far, we've never lived in the area, and need to be far enough away to not pay the premium for a commuter abode.

Anyway, I've never "blogged" before so I hope I'm doing this right.

27 December 2007

Chuck adds his two cents!

Steve;

Its obvious you are still the smartest F-Trooper and you have pasted on your intelligence to your son!! I'm on board.

Chuck

Gerry Hartig Update

(moved from the comments to where all can see, thanks Gerry!)

Bugs, Ok, I'm onboard.

Wife: Anne, Pharmacist

Daughter #1: Krista, second year in Doctor of Physical Therapy program at UNLV

Daughter #2: Nicole, black sheep of the family; 3rd Degree at the US Air Force Academy

Me: Director of Language Resource Center here at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas