Greetings again and "Happy 22-Years" to those of us still on active duty. The more I look at it the more that I am struck of the genius of the pay schedule and its distribution of carrots.

Retirements seem the to be the story of issue. The most appealing invitation for a Change of Command and Retirement Ceremony came from Bert DiehlBert & Rachel as they move back to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland.

For those in the DC area, Al Marsilio will retire on July 1 as the Executive Officer of the Marine Safety Center. Al's ceremony will take place in the courtyard of the Department of Transportation at L'Enfant Plaza in DC. No word on Al's next position, but I know he has a set of skills that many a company would be interested in. Best wishes to Al and his family as they leave the Coast Guard.

The photo from Quincy Market was compliments of CAPT Ted Montgomery's CoC & Retirement. It was a great ceremony made all the better by having classmates around.Joementioned that Todd Pellman was a fine representative of the class in the Boston Marathon where he cranked out a 2:55. Joe relayed that Todd lives in Utah and probably benefited from the altitude. I suspect that it was more attitude than altitude. Way to fly Todd. who was stepping down as the head of facilities in Honolulu, HI. It would be hard to imagine that the base wouldn't be in the best condition for this party. Best wishes to

Tom Vitullo, Joe Fischetti, Vince Wilczynski,
and Eric Hultmark in Boston.

The enclosed photo came from Paul Wiedenhoft. It was taken during the PACAREA/MLCPAC Commanding Officers Conference in April. The list of represented commands included CGC Alert (Matt Bliven), ISC Honolulu (Matt Cutts), CGC Polar Sea (Bruce Toney), CGC Acushnet (Paul Wiedenhoeft), PSU 311 (Barney Moreland), CG-481 (Sarah Shores), CGC Hamilton (Mike Tekesky) and CEU Juneau (Karl Calvo). Brian MarvinD.J. Smith (CO of CGC Active) was underway covering for all the import ships and couldn't make the party. It was noted that the Swab Summer Band Platoon accounted for 5 of the 8 present.
(TRACEN Petaluma) was also at the conference but wasn't around for the picture.
Matt Bliven, Matt Cutts, Bruce Toney, Paul Wiedenhoeft, Barney Moreland, Sarah Shores, Mike Tekesy, and Karl Calvo
at PACARES/MLCPAC Commanding Officer Conferense
in Alameda, CA, April 2005

I got a short note from Dave Harper, Vice President of Development for Thomson Financial, Content Technology Group. He was looking for some e-mail contacts hoping to reconnect with folks. I sent Dave to Charlie's

Among those coming by CGA recently were Charlie Jager for a lecture on the CG database applications and Gil Teal for lawyer related visits. I wasn't able to catch Charlie's lecture and I'm sorry to have missed him during a day when we were interviewing a new faculty member. I also missed Gil on his first visit, but he came by for a return trip later and filled me in on the legal-beagle side of CG Headquarters. Gil promised to give a call ahead of time for his next visit so that we can plan a fishing trip. Believe it or not one of the best places to catch striped bass is right at the Academy. webpage (listed above) so hopefully some 83ers are now in contact.

Everything is looking up these days - including the fishing.