This column is due for submission on 9 June, the first day of our 61st/60 th reunion. For the Superintendent and Commandant the Alumni Association staff prepares Class Briefing Notes, for each reunion class. The Notes for the Class of ’38 has just been delivered since their 70 th reunion starts on Sunday June 1 st. This prompted me to check the class column for May which says, “We expect about 12 of our stalwart warriors and perhaps 35 wives, widows and children” and goes on to lay out their agenda. I tip my hat to you gentlemen, ladies and children. Will ’48 do as well ten years from now?
   

   Back to the Briefing Notes, they always include a brief history of the Class. Sumner wrote class histories for the previous Briefing Notes and I followed in his footsteps. In doing so I read back through what Sumner wrote for the 30 Year Book and the 50 Year Book. I very strongly recommend that if you have those books you read Sumner’s work, one in the 30 Year Book and two in the 50 Year Book. As I was working on the Notes I asked some of the “locals” to provide me some assistance and several did. Warren Graham 2 nd Co. covered one area so well here it is:
   

   After 10 years of sea duty a large group of classmates were stationed at the Academy as instructors or in the Executive Department at Bancroft Hall. During homecoming the 48A group had a room at the Officers Club and at the same time the 48B group also had a room at the Club. Before the night was out the two groups were mingling together. Someone brought up the idea that the two groups should get together in the future instead of having two separate parties.
   

   Hugh Loheed 18 th Co. (KIA Vietnam) and Ted Holt 18 th Co. drew up a 48 Resolution to form a “48 Association”. The two groups then started having by-monthly meetings at the O’Donnell Restaurant in Washington, D.C. These meetings developed into the suggestion that we do a homecoming dinner dance. Ray Lochner 6 th Co. (deceased) and his wife Jean ran these dances at the Chartwell Country Club after the football game for many years. When Ray became sick and could no longer do homecoming, DudleyHolstein20 th (deceased)took over and moved our dinner dance to the Boat House in the Yard. We remained at the Boat House until 2005 when the Academy decided it would no longer rent the Boat House for Class functions.
   

   The Washington lunches were moved to the Army Navy Country Club when the parking in Washington became more expensive than the lunch. The name was changed to “Washington/Annapolis Class of 1948 Association” and was incorporated by George Ball 21 st Co.

Our May lunch was again at Pirates Cove in Galesville, MD which is very popular with the Washington/Annapolis group. Lunch there always draws more of the Annapolis people because, among other things, it is considerably closer to them than the Army-Navy Club. This time we had 12 “Annapolitans”. Folks we don’t see very often included Joanne and Kevin Hanlon 2 nd Co., Phil Bolger 22 nd Co., and Harry Belflower 2 nd Co. The restaurant has an excellent menu, and wait staff. They treat us well there so we enjoy returning. Our guest speaker this time was our new football coach, Ken Niamatalolo. He gave a good talk dwelling on the fact that we have the lightest team in 1A therefore the team will depend on team work and speed. For those of you with computers, the additional pictures I took are posted on our home page at www.usna.com/classes/1948 .
   

   Not all of our travelers go foreign. An email from Jack McCord is an example, “Over a period of 3 weeks in April and May, Mary K. and I spent some time visiting friends and relatives in Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin, South Dakota, Colorado and New Mexico, AND we were able to visit with Betty and Dick Shimshak 10 th Co. in Lacrosse, Wisconsin and Betty and Fred Lafferty 7 th Co. at their ranch near Silver City, NM. Fred and I were classmates in the 7 th Co. and Dick and I were in flight training together and our first borns arrived on the same day at the Naval Hospital in Corpus Christi. What a great time to see these great good friends who we’ve visited several times over the years. Seen you in June.
   

Email from Bob Fargo 20 th Co.---Terry Terrass 2 nd Co. dropped by a week ago. He was on his way from Washington state to the reunion. We haven’t seen each other in about 60 years! Terry and I went to prep school together at Rutherfords in Long beach, CA and roomed together our first year. Terry was in submarines also. Our paths during our active duty years came close but never crossed. We had a wonderful evening discussing old times and old friends. Pat and I are still doing well here at Azalea Trace in Pensacola. Don’t have any classmates near by since Gordon Meriwether 18 th Co. passed on. Lovie Meriwether still lives here and is doing well. She had a hip replacement recently. Hope some other classmates will stop by. Would love to see them. Sorry we can’t make the reunion.
   

   My comment-Betty and I still brave the airlines, (though we are talking now about giving the trains a try). We spent several days in Charleston, SC with our son and his family. We are considerably behind the rest of you, I think, since our grandchildren are 15, Miranda, adopted in Peru and 13, Fred, adopted in Bolivia. We really love Charleston, a beautiful, interesting city.
   

   As for foreign travel:

Martha and Cecil Duffee non-grad returned from a trip to Egypt and Israel in March and sent me a long email about the trip which I excerpt here for those of you perhaps planning on a similar trip:
   

   Our trip was physically very hard. I lost 10 pounds and got sick. I am glad I went, but would not go back to Egypt. The smog in Cairo Egypt was terrible and at the pyramids it was so bad I could tell I was getting sick. I would gag on the fumes. After Egypt, Israel was clean and wonderful. We could eat the food and drink the water. It snowed in Jerusalem while we were there and it was cold, but we still toured. The Sea of Galilee was stormy. We went out on a boat a short distance, but came back to shore. The Bible is absolutely true that you cannot be out on the Sea of Galilee in a boat without the danger of dying. We were amazed at the big waves and wind on that Sea or lake.
   

   We did go into Bethlehem. We had to let our Jewish guide out of the bus, and our Arab bus driver drove us through the security gate. That high wall that you have been hearing about on TV is there, dividing Palestine and Israel. We then got a Christian guide when we got into Bethlehem. I was there twice before, once in 1980 and again in 1999 and there is a stark difference in Bethlehem since the Arabs have taken it over. There were hardly any tourists. We ate in a café on the square where I ate before which was packed with tourists, but today it was vacant except for us. They have killed their tourist trade.
   

   Compare this with Paul Riley’s account of a similar trip in the last Shipmate. Both families commented on how strenuous the trips were, though the Rileys did not get sick while on the trip.
   

Betty and I have twice considered trips to the Holy Land with our church, led by our Episcopal minister. He has, on each trip, tried to cover as much ground as possible. When we read the itinerary we decided we weren’t physically up to it, and we are in pretty good shape. Those who did go were thrilled but also reported they were really beat when they returned home. They were all much younger than we. Bottom line, there is a lot of world out there which all of us would like to see but choose carefully when planning a trip.
   

   Dick Rubenstein tells me he has moved, his new address is:

       Richard B. Rubenstein

       Bishop Spencer – Apt. 2008

      720 West 44 th Street,

      Kansas City, Mo. 64111-3417

      Phone 816-523-3987
   

  Dick also sent me a clipping from the Dunwoody Crier about Andy Frahler being honored in April with the new Andy Frahler Team Meeting Room in the Fitzgerald Baseball Clubhouse. This was in remembrance of his baseball career including a Naval Academy record of seven home runs in one year at Lawrence Field and nine overall during the 28 game season when there were no fences surrounding the field. Good show Andy, glad they finally caught up with you.
   

   A final on the Herndon Monument- on Fri. May 16 th the Class of 2011 took 2 hours, 35 minutes and 59 seconds to top the monument-the longest time since 1997.
   

   Since our last column we have lost two more good men:

      Jack Stufflebeam 2 nd Co. 1/29/25-4/24/08

      Karl Thiele 21 st Co. 1/6/25-5/30/08

Karl has a biography in the 50 year book-very interesting reading
   

   And

   Three good wives:

      Colleen Pierson 3/20/08- Bill’s first wife

      Penny Shoemaker 4/7/08

      Doris White 3/?/08

   Our condolences to the families.
   

   As I said early on, when I was working on the history I asked for some inputs and was specifically looking for comments on observed changes in the various communities by members thereof. I have received inputs from CEC, AEDO, Surface Warfare, Air, Supply, and Submarine. I’m still looking for Intelligence, and Marines. I will share with you in future columns. If you have any inputs regarding your recollections of changes observed in any community during our tenure I would love to have them.