Greetings Classmates - Mark your calendars now for the big 20-year reunion October 3 - 5. The local New London crowd (with additional help from others across the country) is making arrangements and has sent out an e-mail blast with details. If you haven't received anything yet, we need to add you to our contact database. If you know of someone that isn't a member of the Alumni Association, use this as a reason to give a friend a call and see if they are going. If anyone needs to be added to our contact list, just drop me a note or call and we'll get you connected.

The plans include making the area's newest and finest hotel, the Mystic Marriott (actually located in Groton right off I-95), our headquarters. A reception will be held at the hotel Friday night, a tailgate lunch on the Leamy Balcony (overlooking the football field) before the game, and an evening reception at the O'Club on Saturday night. Jean & I will host a brunch on Sunday morning to bring the weekend to a close.

As noted before, Charlie has created a web page to exchange information. Feel free to drop a note on the discussion forum page at http://www15.brinkster.com/cga83/forum/. There are some threads on the hotel as well as souvenirs. The more comments the better! Also, Charlie has established a news group to send messages to everyone with a single e-mail address. To send an update to all 83ers, just drop a note to cga83news@yahoogroups.com.

Twenty years is certainly reason to celebrate! The mantra "Society is rewarded with what it celebrates!" marks the weekend for celebrating good friends, service to our nation, and strong fellowship.

Best wishes to all who are making a transition at the twenty-year mark. In addition to folks retiring from active duty (send me your name and current plans and I will share them with others) we also have some classmates that are retiring from the Reserves. Joe Fischetti is scheduled to "RET-2" on June 1. The enclosed photographs show Joe once again recalled to active duty as a Public Affairs Officer in New York City running a media day at Bayonne, NJ. As Joe said, "If anyone tells you NYC is the media capital of the world, believe it. We had 70 reporters from the local penny-saver to press from Russia, Germany, China and beyond." Nice work Joe!


Some reunion discussion brought a note from Sharon (Kiel) Schilling in Maryland. She and husband Kirk built a new house and are now adding the finishing touches (a pool and hot-tub). Lisa (Tamblingson) Heffelfinger only lives a mile away, so Sharon and Lisa are able to spend weekends together hanging out. From the e-mail Sharon is with Battelle in Crystal City, VA as Deputy, Navy Programs. It is nice to know Coast Guard folks are helping civilians improve the Navy.

We also heard from John Dzwilewski all the way from Boise, Idaho. JohnJohn'sDiz fashion, he relayed that we all share a unique attribute of grads - those with W, Z, S, K, I in our last names. Too bad we weren't playing Scrabble.

A detailed dispatch came in from Terry Gilbreath from Louisville, KY. "I had dinner with Brad Lee. Brad lives in Republic, OH (about 40 miles SE of Toledo). He is a manager for RR Donnelley & Sons, a major book publisher. He and his wife Jennifer have 3 children and live in a small town (about 2000) in a big house on 5 acres of land. They are doing well and keep busy with baseball, basketball and fishing. Brad and I worked closely together when he was a 95' CO in Miami Beach and I was XO of Farallon. His e-mail is Brad.Lee@rrd.com."
"I talked with Dave Cinalli recently. Dave has orders to XO of ISC Miami. In addition to the job, Dave's parents are in Florida so he is looking forward to the tour. Dave welcomes anyone to Miami and has a nice place to stay.
"I see Lincoln Stroh and Steve Hudson frequently attending numerous functions as River's CO's. Both are headed to DC area and I will be the only 83er on the Rivers. We run into Todd Gentile frequently as the D8 Planning Officer. I always blame Todd for any problems in the District and he always blames the River CO's so we have a great love/hate relationship.
"I get to talk with Dave Gordner quite a bit as he works in G-I-1 and handles public affairs issues. His oldest daughter is a freshman at UVA. Dave tries to offer some type of M-jab as he deals with the M division in HQ, but I can always handle his comments."
"In final news, Liam Slein was on TV with President Bush in Philadelphia. Liam thinks he might be the first in the class to shake hands with President Bush (41) and President Bush (43). Liam is XO of MSO Philadelphia and I am sure he had an unbelievable XO type day with the President in his zone."
Nice reporting, Terry. You win the correspondent's award yet again.

An e-mail note came in from Stan Carson, " I bought a 'Play It Again Sports' franchise when I got out of the CG and I have been running it for the last 8 years. I have branched out somewhat since then so that I am also doing product liquidation, wholesale and the Internet. It sounds like fun, but not enough play and too much work. We live in a small town (East Wenatchee, WA) in the Columbia River basin near the Eastern slope of the Cascade Mountains in Washington. It's about 129 miles east of Seattle in the heart of apple and ski country." Neat! Take a peak at Stan's inventory to see if there is anything of interest to 83ers: www.liquidationsports.com. Feel free to drop Stan a note at sjc729@genext.com.

The other photo came in from the Aviation PCO/PXO course. Keith Taylor is slated for CO of A/S Miami, JJ O'Connor is headed to XO of A/S Sacto and Cub Schlatter is betting on a job as XO of A/S Atlantic City. What a great looking bunch, and especially so for aviators. works for Micron (too bad I didn't get the e-mail earlier since I met CEO last month - I would've told him all about my faith in the company's future since it has an 83er associated with it). In typical


Passing by CGA were PCO/PXO 83ers Mark Provaznik, D.J. Smith, Matt Bliven, Paul Weidenhoeft and Karl Schultz. With such 83 dominance in the leadership of our major cutters, the Coast Guard stands in great shape for the next few years.

Best wishes to all 83 COs and XOs. You are making all of us very proud.

John Macaluso sent a note that his is looking forward to the reunion. JohnJohn, I'm predicting a great turn-out.

A note came in from Tom Vitullo with an update on Don Karol. Don is the CO of the CG Port Security Unite 311 in CENTCOM. A media alert during the war came out with a line that makes us all very proud, "Persian Gulf, March 22 - Members of Coast Guard Port Security Units 311 and 313 relieved U.S. Marines earlier today of responsibility for security on two gas and oil platforms in the Northern Persian Gulf." Gives one a renewed understanding of the cheer "Blue & White, Fight, Fight!" Way to go, Don!

And marking our international connection, Ernesto G. Malapoegmalapo318@attbi.com) and Raul MangalindanRaul.Mangalindan@sprint-canada.com) both e-mailed in. Raul is in the Corporate Audit Services Division of Call-New Enterprises and Ernesto is in Pleasanton, CA working for Ericsson. Small world indeed.

Nice to hear from so many folks. Twenty-four years ago we all met, and the friendships continue to grow. May God continue to bless all of us. See you in October - Wiz & Jean.
 has been in contact with a number of classmates, many of who are planning to attend the reunion. Judging by that sampling, ( (