Winter 2005 Class Notes

Hunter Trumbo

719 S. Alfred St.
Alexandria, VA 22314
Home: (703)549-5381
Work: (703)276-2221
trumbh@smartdynamics.com 

Howdy BR’s!

I’m writing these notes on 14 November ’05, with only one VMI football game left in the 2004 season. My family and I managed to get to the Liberty game last week, and I ran into a couple of our Brother Rats who had made day trips to Lexington. John and Betsy Cabell were in town for the game with their boys William (5), Nicholas (3), and the newest edition Jack. John’s a project manager with Capital One in Richmond, and is the president of the Richmond Club Chapter of the Alumni Association. I also had a quick conversation with Sam and Rita Stocks on the track with their toddler Mason as we were leaving the game. Sam is a manager with a big general contractor in Richmond, and went to the UVA-Miami football game this past weekend with a bunch of guys from his firm KBS: Bill Loughridge '65, Tom Henning '89, Mark Loving '92, Matthew Gehring '01 and Adam Britt '03.

Mike Kimberly and I have chatted a few times over the last year. He’s been in the DC area for a while and is living in Fairfax with his wife Tara, who is expecting a new sibling in April ‘05 for their kids Alexander (6), Autumn (5), and Amber (1). Mike recently completed 2 years of recall to the US Navy where he was supporting the plans & policy operations shop. He’s now working for an IT company in Crystal City supporting the Joint Staff J-8, Joint Theater Air Missile Defense Organization in the Interagency Homeland Air Security division as a senior analyst. Mike had spoken with Doug Henderson a few weeks back. Who is a Major stationed at Tyndall AFB in Panama City, FL. Doug is assigned to the Southeast Air Defense Sector (SEADS) and is married with three children.

My Rat-year neighbor Dave Osborne dropped me a line from North Central Texas. He was in the process of moving to the Norfolk after spending nine and a half months in Afghanistan with the Oklahoma Guard. Welcome back to the states Dave, and to Virginia.

Tim Haynie sent me a note from the island of Bahrain in the Persian Gulf. He’s on his second tour of the Middle East in two years for Operation Iraqi Freedom as part of a team from the Army's Space and Missile Defense Command. Tim’s group runs a ground station pulling down imagery. In his words:

“Life on the island is fairly relaxed and relations with the locals are good. Unlike last year's romp in Baghdad, I have time to learn a bit about Middle Eastern life. The job also affords me the chance to travel throughout CENTCOM and a trip or two back to the States which is always a welcomed relief. I saw Lenny Carson and Chip Chenery on my last trip and both are doing very well. I will be here for another six months and then on to my next assignment.”

Tim’s wife Susanna and their kids are doing well in Colorado Springs, keeping busy with ball games, ballet lesson, and bike rides. Tim’s going to be back in the States over Thanksgiving during his mid-tour leave.

I had a short chat with Chip Chenery, who is loving life out in Front Royal. He and Mary are expecting boy #2 in early Janurary, and he gave me a few tips in case I want to start a pool on when baby Chenery will make his appearance. Chip let me know that he was in touch with Tom West, who had gotten back from Iraq safely. Tom sent a picture of his USMC crew, and Chip said they looked like some hard core Marines. He also mentioned that Lenny Carson was in China picking up daughter number 2 named Grace.

I got the chance to seek out Rob Uhorchuk and reconnect him with his Rat Sean Farley ’93 the other day. Rob is an attorney in Chattanooga, and has been married to Shannon for 3 years. They have two boys - Daniel Everett (2.5 years) and Caleb John (4 months). His wife and her family are from the Chattanooga area and she is a Univ. of Tennessee alum, so he is obligated to pull for UT during football season. They live about 10 minutes west of downtown Chattanooga. Rob said he does keep up with Don Bowers, and they had talked about trying to road-trip and get together for the JMU football game.

Mark Hennigan and I have kept up while he’s been in Iraq. Here’s an excerpt from his last email to me:

“As of the end of October we have escorted over 150,000 commercial tractor trailer tucks full of supplies and fuel and driven over 3.5 million miles on our vehicles. We have changed nearly 900 tires and over 30 engines. We have spent around $5 M on supplies and repair parts. We have processed over 50,000 pieces of incoming and outgoing mail. We helped rebuild two schools. We captured over 50 weapons and 1,600 rounds of ammo. These are just some of the highlights. By the end of Nov. we will have sent around 97% of our battalion home on R&R leave and will have 100% by the end of December. This is a big accomplishment as previous units could only send 50-70% home during their tour. Anyway, things are going well and we continue to drive on until properly relieved.”

As he has been deployed for about a year now, Mark was hoping to get himself home for Christmas as well.

Yuhhuei Wang sent me an email with an update. He’s been in the ROC (Taiwan) Army since our graduation. He is currently working at ROC (Taiwan) Embassy as the Director of the Military Student Office (it’s an unofficial position, since we don't have formal diplomatic ties). He graduated from the Monterey Institute of International Studies, CA last year and received a MA in translation and Interpretation (Chinese and English). His nine year old son Jimmy and his wife Mandy are here in the US with him.

CPT Dave Kaulfers sent me a good picture of him, CPT Garrett Thompson, and MAJ Tim Bosetti, which should make it in the review sometime soon. They got together to smoke cigars and tell stories recently. Garrett is a company executive officer for a cargo handling company in Kuwait, Tim is the Health Protection Officer for the Chief Surgeon's Office in Kuwait, and David is an Engineer Company Commander in Northern Iraq.

I also was forwarded a photo of Bill Arnold who is is currently serving in Iraq. Bill was pictured with Chip McWilliams when they met up in Fallujah, Iraq in October 2004. Chip is a Major in the US Army attached to US Central Command, and Bill is a Major in the US Marine Corps and commands Scout Platoon, 4th Tank Battalion, 1st Marine Division, currently stationed in Fallujah.

This fall Stacy & I were finally able to make a trip out west to see Rob and Laura Clark, and let our son Jacob harass their boys Nathan and Andrew for a few days. The Clarks are living in Santa Rosa, CA where Rob is doing public relations work for a medical device company. They have adapted well to the Northern California lifestyle, and took us on a whirlwind tour to 6 of the scores of wineries within a short drive of their house. We enjoyed it enough that the bottles we purchased pushed my baggage weight over the limit on the trip home.

And last but not least, I received a short note from Mike Trahar announcing the birth of Emma Delaney Trahar. Mike’s excitement was thoroughly conveyed in his email message -- congrats Mike.

Folks please keep in touch. Feel free to drop me a letter, email, or phone with updates about you & your families so I can get you in here.

All the best to you,

Hunter '90