After graduation, I headed to Fort Belvoir, VA, for the Army Engineer Basic Course and became Atomic Demolition Munition qualified. From there, went to Airborne training at Ft. Benning enroute to Korea. Did thirteen months there commanding an Engineer Bridge Company. Got extended a month because of some deal in a place I'd never heard of ­ the Tonkin Gulf! Got my Master's in Civil Engineering at the University of Missouri, Rolla. Then to Vietnam, where I commanded a combat engineer company with the 9th Infantry in the Delta. We did lots of road clearing, bridge building, land clearing, and tunnel busting. Did two years assigning Engineer lieutenants around the world before going to flight school enroute to Vietnam again. This time commanded a Recon Airplane Company in the Delta (221st Shotguns). We did recon and spotting for gunships as well as USAF ground support, Navy Blackponies, and artillery. Enjoyed three great years teaching engineering at USMA, West Point. Three years in the Pentagon in the early days of the ALLVOL era preceded two years in New Orleans as the Deputy District Engineer in charge of constructing the Red River Waterway -- and keeping it off the Carter hit list. From there commanded a Training Battalion at Ft. Leonard Wood, MO. After ICAF, spent two years at SHAPE, Belgium, doing engineer programming Land and Missile installations around NATO. Spent another year doing the same thing for Seventh Army in Heidelberg. My last duty was as Commander of the Army Engineer District, Rock Island, IL, with responsibility for flood control and navigation throughout a major stretch of the Upper Mississippi and tributaries. I retired to the Northern Neck of Virginia on the Chesapeake Bay. I'm active as a church organist. Continue to build and concertize my harpsichords. Married the former Georgia Diane Barry and had two children, Noel and Heather. Our first grandchild was born in April, 2001, at West Point. where both son and daughter-in-law are on the faculty. Contact info: postal address P.O. Box 159,Mollusk, VA 22517; Home phone 804-462-9926; E-mail nasmart@crosslink.net.

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        Congratulations go to Lisa and Jim Metcalfe for the birth of their first grandchild, Matthew Metcalfe Thornton, on 26 June. Their daughter Megan and her husband David Thornton described the new grandparents as "insufferably proud." In a flurry of activity, Jim has made multiple contributions to this news exchange in recent months. Last month's Shipmate included his account of the commissioning of WINSTON CHURCHILL in Norfolk.

Steve Duncan at CHURCHILL commissioning	Jim Metcalfe at CHURCHILL¹s helm

Most recently, Jim submitted this report about a birthday celebration for one of our classmates:

    Lisa and I went down to Colington Harbour on the North Carolina outer banks in late May to join a whole lot of folks for a surprise 60th birthday party for Ron Baxter. Of course Ron wasn't surprised it was his 60th birthday -- just surprised anyone showed up! The 60th is somewhat traumatic for airline pilots because they must give up flying. Ron is (was) a captain for Northwest. He is lucky, however, since he can fly another five years as a flight engineer on the long overseas flights, mostly to Japan and the Orient. Northwest is one of the few airlines that still uses flight engineers. Lettie had done a great job of getting a large number of family and friends to their home near Kitty Hawk without Ron being tipped off. His brother Glen came from Canton, OH. Some of our classmates will remember when Glen, a VMI cadet, spent a night in Bancroft Hall masquerading as a midshipman. His sister Linda had a great poem in which she highlighted a number of Ron's shortcomings, concluding that he was her "weird" brother. Ron's son Mike and wife Heather came down from near Philadelphia where Mike is with Vanguard Funds. Son Jeff and wife Kristie and grandson Parker (age 2) came up from the Atlanta area where Jeff is an engineer with Delta (he designs airplane interiors). Jeff will also start law school this fall (while continuing to work for Delta). Walt Cummings, USNA '69, and his wife Linda came down from Virginia Beach. Walt is a retired captain and was an H-2 pilot (as was Ron) and well known in the LAMPS program (as Ron was not). Walt gave Ron a very special gift of a chair from the old mess hall. They were about to all be thrown into a landfill when some alert grad grabbed them and is selling them. The old hat rack underneath brought back memories. Ron pointed out that only the first four inches of the chair showed any wear. Lisa and I gave Ron a concrete alligator to grace their back yard and in payback for the pink flamingo Ron gave us a few years ago. Ron and Lettie live on a canal. They have a sailboat, speed boat, jet ski, and two kayaks. Apparently the Coast Guard has to put out a NOTAMS when they go to sea. There was some mention of fouling aids to navigation and a few other incidents that raise questions about how well the Seamanship and Navigation Department trained Ron.

Ron Baxter playing with his concrete alligator