USAFA Class Heritage Class of 1963

Retired Col Air Force 85: FS: 

01: Retired;

95: Prof&C-Chairman DeptRadiology SchMed UnivMissouri-Columbia;

93-94: Prof DeptRadiology SUNYHealthSciCen SyracuseNY;

87-92: Prof&Chairman DeptDiagnosticRadiology SchMed UnivLouisville;

85-87: AssocProf DeptRadiology SchMed UnivLouisville;

81-85: AsstProf (Assistant Professor) DptRadiology WrightStUnivSchMed;

80-85: Consultant SurgeonGen USAF DiagnosticRadiology;

79-85: C Radiology USAFMedCen WPAFB;

76-79: C Radiology USAFHosp ElemendorfAFB;

73-76: ResidentRadiology UpstateMedCen Syracuse;

68-73: DirBaseMedServices CampNewAmsterdamNE;

68: USAFSchAerospMed BrooksAFB;

67-68: Intern USAFHosp WPAFB;

63-87: Stu (Student) UpstateMedCen Syracuse; 

1LOM1 MSM (Meritorious Service Medal)-1AFCM (Air Force Commendation Medal); 

11509 Baldy Ewell Way Spotsylvania VA 22551-4681: Yvonne

35th Reunion (1998): Many of you may remember that five members of our class were allowed to attend medical school immediately after graduation in the excess-leave-without-pay status. The summer after graduation, prior to starting medical school at Syracuse, Yvonne and I were married there on the 4th of July, or Independence Day, as it is referred to by some. The only employment I could find during graduation leave was cutting brush with a county road crew (and that was the result of “political influence”). For the first three years of med school, I was only paid by the USAF for a month or two each summer when I reported to Wright-Patterson Medical Center during the summer breaks; Yvonne supported us by teaching elementary school all four years. The fourth year was better; however, as I received a first lieutenant’s pay as a participant in the senior Medical Student Program. Of the five members of our class who went directly to medical school, four eventually became MDs. Of the four, three retired as full colonels after having served as department heads at major USAF medical centers. Within a few years after graduation, the Air Force began sending 5-10% of each academy class to medical school with full pay and allowances. This great source of staffing for the USAF Medical Corps had its humble beginnings in late May 1961 at the Honor Squadron Banquet- 13th Squadron, of course-when a thoroughly intimidated 3rd Classman got up enough nerve to approach General McDermott and ask him if we could establish some pre-med courses at the Academy. Our first son, Drew, was born in the Fall of 1967 at Wright- Patterson where I was serving a rotating internship. Flight Medicine Training at Brooks AFB in 1968 was followed by a nearly five-year assignment at Soesterberg in The Netherlands where I was flight surgeon for the 32nd Tactical Fighter Squadron and practiced family medicine from 1968 into 1973. Our second son, Dirk, was born in Holland in the fall of 1969. This was, needless to say, our all time favorite assignment. After three-year AF-sponsored residency in diagnostic radiology back at Syracuse, I served as chief of radiology at Elemendorf (3 years) and Wright-Patterson (6 years) until my AF retirement in June 1985. Subsequently, I was professor and chairman of radiology at the University of Louisville Hospital/School of Medicine for more than five years, took a “sabbatical leave” for a couple of years, and am now practicing and teaching again at the University of Missouri Hospital and Clinics in Columbia. Yvonne and I enjoy traveling, antiquing, bicycling, reading and doing genealogy research. Drew attended Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, NY, on a full AF ROTC Scholarship, graduated with honors in physics, earned a master’s degree in nuclear physics at U. of Illinois-Champagne-Urbana, and is an active duty captain at Brooks AFB in the Armstrong Laboratories. Dirk attended Ohio State University and the U. of Kentucky. He and his wife Tracy have added Jacob and Hope to the family tree. They live in Minneapolis where Dirk works for Pulte Homes.