Lots of 83ers are involved in the Katrina situation. With Todd Gentile and Jennifer Lay in the 8th District office, they were in the center of the storm. Terry Gilbreath (CO. MSO Morgan City) and Randy Scott bore the brunt of the weather as well.

Many thanks to Terry for keeping the class up to date in the midst of the catastrophe, and a special thanks to Charlie Jager who previously set-up the list-serve to share news with the entire class. Charlie has since added a forum to the class website devoted to Hurricane Katrina at http://wwwl5.brinkster.com/cga83/forum/

Terry was moved from Morgan City to Alexandria, LA, where he has been in the command post as the night time Incident Commander. Terry provided some great accounts of the sacrifices and impact made by the Coast Guard immediately after the hurricane passed. He praised the crews, "I am more proud of our service following this incident than ever. We live and associate with real-life heroes. From Aircraft crew to boat crew to admin staff to logistics personnel, medical personnel, etc., etc., etc., it has been a moment to make me proud of our service." Terry and his family live in Thibodaux, west of where the eye of the hurricane hit. Fortunately there was not significant damage to their home or community.

Todd Gentile weathered the hurricane by remaining at home in Covington, LA (on the north side of Lake Pontchartrain) while Leah and the girls went to her parent's house in Houston. Todd applied his DC skills to keep the water damage to their home at a minimum while tree after tree fell in the neighborhood. Todd described the storm as, "You wouldn't believe the devastation even where I live which is well inland and 20 miles to the west of where the eye went. I was very lucky. Just in my neighborhood there are few trees still standing, numerous roofs blown off, and I saw a lot of homes with 2 to 3 pine trees that fell and went through the roofs." Todd is now in St. Louis where the district headquarters has been relocated and he expects to be there for two months.

It is reported that Jennifer Lay is on duty at the LA Office of Emergency Preparedness in Baton Rouge. Her husband Scott Kitchen ('86) is XO of the New Orleans Air Station where he has helped direct the station's work and flown many missions. Scott's been described as, "one of the pilots that have been doing great things." From satellite imagery, it appears that Jen & Scott's house avoided external damage from the storm and flooding, but the satellite imagery is all that we have to go by.

Bryan Seale reported in at NAS Belle Chasse after the hurricane passed as part of the Department of Defense response to Katrina. Bryan is working as part of the US Northern Command deployable command and control team and their group coordinates all DoD operations in the area. Bryan is working very closely with Air Station New Orleans to help them obtain the extra supplies they need.

Randy Scott sent a note announcing the birth of his son Daniel who was born on June 10, 2005. Randy's family survived the eastern most portion of the storm, which included 75' knot winds for over eight hours. Katrina was the second hurricane that young Daniel went through since his birth, which is a lot more hurricanes than most folks go through in their entire lives. Randy

We are certainly thankful that the initial reports have all 83ers doing well, and that no major damage was inflicted on their homes. It is wonderful to see so many classmates involved in the rescue and restoration effort in New Orleans, and very inspiring to hear how proud they are of the Coast Guard men and women that are engaged in the operation. Well done, Terry, Todd, and Jennifer, as well as others we have yet to hear about.

It seems like the folks of Dover, NH, are still proud of Scott Larochelle. A recent article in the Dover Democrat was titled "Dover native to oversee all patrol of Lake Michigan" and reported on Scott's position as the CO of Sector Lake Michigan. As Sector CO he oversees the operations and administration of nine search and rescue stations, two aids to navigation teams and one icebreaking cutter. The article quoted Scott's father, "He's done a good job and has never held back." It is nice to see the hometown still proud of its native son.

The photo came in from Jim Ferguson showing some of the DC 83ers. Kirk Hiles, Dan Abel and Jim all work for the Commandant's Acquisition Directorate which moved from the Headquarters Building around the corner to the Jemal Riverside Building earlier this year. Since all are still smiling we can assume that all is well in the Acquisition shop. relayed that "Our thoughts and prayers for all of the active/reserve forces involved in the search effort and clean up along the entire Gulf Coast."

Kirk Hiles, Dane Abel, and Jim Ferguson
outside thier new offices in DC.

Our thoughts, thanks and prayers continue to go out to the many Coast Guard men and women, and their families, that are dealing with the effects of Hurricane Katrina

- Jean & Vince