Category Archives: More to the Point

More to the Point newsletter

April 2021 – More to The Point

[If you are reading this, this is a draft that is not ready for public consumption.  It will hopefully be finalized and published soon.  Draft date: 6 Jun 2021]

Welcome…

to the first issue of our unofficial/unauthorized newsletter! Its purpose is to reach out, connect, support, and celebrate with classmates, families, and friends of the West Point Class of 1977.

We want to make this newsletter easily understandable from the “Star Men” to the ‘Ejection Section”, in a format more like People Magazine than Pravda.  We all lead busy, chaotic lives, so hopefully these newsletters will be a simple, useful “poop sheet” for those to catch up & pass along. So, here goes, . . . take boards!NOTE: To prevent spammers from harvesting accounts to spam, this newsletter does not contain email addresses. If you were a member of USMA 1977 at any point in time, you should have received an email copy of this letter in April 2021 which does cite the applicable email addresses. If you did not receive this via email, please contact your company coordinator (see below).

Current Situation

Our Class Leaders have been busy planning for our 45th reunion (Football weekend, Oct 2022). To this end, we have revised our constitution & bylaws.

A Band of Brothers (BoB) committee has been formed to promote camaraderie & “encourage recognition of class members”.  Click here for the latest SOP. The committee is headed by Lance Betros, Andy Chmar, & with regimental reps (Tom von Kaenel-1st Reg, Bruce Cogossi-2nd Reg, Kevin Benson-3rd Reg, John Shephard-4th Reg).

What Should I Do?

In a phrase, we ask that you consider doing what you can do to promote camaraderie & “encourage recognition of Class members”. It will be different for each member of the class of ’77.  Here are a couple of suggestions.

1.  Keep in touch with your company coordinator:

    • A1 – Bob Bankey/ Mike Nicholas
    • B1 – Pat Linehan/ Tom von Kaenel
    • C1 – Joe Sullivan
    • D1 – Mike Johnson
    • E1 – Steve Morrow
    • F1 – Dale Bodman
    • G1 – Tom Watson
    • H1 – Pete Kingman
    • I1 – Crannie Butler
    • A2 – Kevin Clement
    • B2 – Ken Hicks/ Bill Ry
    • C2 – George Mitroka/Ron Porter
    • D2 – Jim Vaughn
    • E2 – Bruce Cogossi
    • F2 – Barry Bomier
    • G2 – Tim Flanagan
    • H2 – David Anselmi
    • I2 – Jimmy McFadden
    • A3 – Pete Palmer
    • B3 – Kevin Benson
    • C3 – Mike Church
    • D3 – Rand Ballard
    • E3 – Len Shartzer
    • F3 – Greg Gorzelnik
    • G3 – Dan Fuller
    • H3 – Craig Schwegman
    • I3 – Stan Warrick
    • A4 – Geoff Clark
    • B4 – Gene Nosco
    • C4 – Steve Collier
    • D4 – Ray Bosse
    • E4 – Jerry Dittman
    • F4 – Richard Anderson
    • G4 – Lance Betros
    • H4 – Bruce Frasier/Andy Chmar/John Shephard
    • I4 – Bill Woodson

2.  Find missing classmates and link them up with the appropriate company coordinator.

3.  Reach out to former classmates to invite them to become an associate member of AOG. Click here to learn how.

Ladies of the Class

We are actively soliciting support from spouses/ partners/ girlfriends of our classmates to help with the planning activities leading up to our 45th. The next meeting of lady reps from each company is 24 April. Email Pam Warrick or Diana McMaster for more info.

1977 Class Gift 

Now is the time for us to consider our class gift (to be given at our 50–year Reunion).
Click here for the memo on developing class gift ideas. The key points:
– The gift should resonate in a way that we can see the connection to an idea or theme.
– The gift should link to one of the Supe’s strategic priorities.
– The cost of the gift aligns with classmates’ potential to give (roughly $800K – $1.3M)
– One or more classmates must commit to doing the required legwork.

Taps

We currently have 56 deceased classmates who need a memorial article.  Click here to read the relevant email from Keesy Goerbetus and for the list of deceased classmates
The goal is to identify someone to write each memorial article by Fri, 26 Mar 21, with the goal to complete all by Feb 22.

Comments?  Email Rich Trotter.

Esprit de Corps