AFIT RETIREES NEWSLETTER (Spring 2004)

The Spring Luncheon will be held on April 17, 2004. The cocktail hour will begin at 1200, with lunch at 1230. We will meet again at the Tuscany Grille, 129 W. Franklin Street, Bellbrook. It is located on the South side of street. Please give your reservations by Tuesday, April 13^th to:

To say things are changing at AFIT would be an understatement. The graduate school has moved most of the faculty and staff into Bldg 641 to allow for the renovation of Bldg 640. Laboratories have been moved to other locations on base and doctoral students to relocatables (today’s term for trailers). Student enrollments have increased dramatically from approximately two hundred annual entries two years ago to nearly five hundred for the coming year and are expected to reach one thousand by 2007. Clearly completion of the renovation project slated for July of 2005 will provide welcome relief. To accommodate the growth in students, AFIT will need approximately one hundred new faculty by 2007. Twenty-five new civilian faculty and fourteen new military faculty positions have been added during the past year so we are well on our way to meeting this challenge. A comprehensive plan to accommodate growth is currently being developed, with the first phase being a new building slated for construction in 2006.

The new and larger student population is also a more diverse group than ever before. Enlisted personnel are now eligible for AFIT degree programs, and the first noncommissioned officers (seven Air Force and six Marines) ever to graduate from AFIT received degrees at the March graduation. The Secretary of the Air Force, Dr. James Roche, who championed Air Force sponsored education for enlisted personnel, was the graduation speaker. As part of the AFIT – Naval Postgraduate School (NPS) Alliance, the NPS no longer offers aeronautical engineering and thirty Navy officers are now enrolled in AFIT’s aeronautical engineering program. The first set of Navy aeronautical engineering students, a group of officers headed for the Naval Test Pilot School, will leave AFIT in June and upon completion of the Test Pilot School will graduate from AFIT with an MS in aeronautical engineering. A graduation ceremony will be held in September the first group of Air Force officers to receive credit for immediate service school by attending an AFIT resident degree program. Graduates of these programs will not only get an AFIT MS degree, but also in-residence credit for Air Command and Staff College.

Additional sister service, international, and civilian students are anticipated in the next several years. AFIT is now authorized to charge and keep tuition funds for all non Air Force students. Previously AFIT could only take these students on a space available basis. That is, if the Air Force failed to fill its annual AFIT quota, these students could fill those unfilled quotas. Hence only a few students could be accommodated. This change, sponsored by Senator Voinovich as part of the 2004 Defense Authorization Bill, provides AFIT for the first time with the resources to provide education to these students.

Let me close with a few words about our efforts to focus our research and program offerings more closely on defense needs. This is being accomplished through the development of Centers of Excellence. Four centers are well developed and several others are at various stages of development. These are: The Center for Systems Engineering, The Center for Directed Energy, The Center for Information Assurance, and the Center for Measure ment and Signals Intelligence (MASINT). Each center has both a research and educational component and each has an associated certificate program. The certificate programs consist of a focused set of graduate courses that provide a specialization in an important defense related area. They are between one and one-half to two quarters long and may be taken as part of a degree program, or to simply develop an area of expertise.

Former faculty member Tom McGetchin, who served as the resident geophysicist in the late 60’s, was recently honored by USRA (Universities Space Research Association). After leaving AFIT, Tom served successively on the faculty of MIT, at the Smithsonian Institution, and at the Los Alamos National Laboratory before being named Director of the USRA’s Lunar and Planetary Institute, in which position he served until shortly before his death in October of 1979. A Memorial Fund and Scholarship program has been created in his memory, and in his honor. All of us who worked with Tom remember his boundless enthusiasm and creativity. Wally no doubt remembers especially well the time when Tom enthusiastically took a geology field trip down the San Juan River in Utah and Arizona – and creatively filed a travel voucher for the trip.

Did you know that the AFIT Foundation and Association of Graduates now give a $1000 US savings bond annually to the student identified by the faculty as having written the most outstanding thesis. If you already don’t belong to the Foundation, your membership would help support this activity.

AFIT and the AFIT Foundation continued the tradition of recognizing former graduates for outstanding achievement. Named last November as Outstanding Alumni were General (Ret) Lawrence A. Skantze, GNE (Nuclear Engineering) 1959, and Lt Gen (Ret) Richard K. Saxer, GAO (Air Ordnance) 1957. If you would like to suggest a graduate for this honor, see Bridgman, Breuer, or Torvik for more information.

More News

Matt Kabrisky recently attended an Aerospace Conference and presented a paper on a new system he has developed for non-destructive testing of carbon composite aircraft panels.

Joe Cain is trying to keep up with his grandson, but finds it gets harder and harder as he (the child) gets bigger.

Helen Downing has moved to the St. Leonard’s Senior Development. Her new address is 8100 Clyo Rd., Apt. 110, Centerville, OH 45458.

The Keplers expect to move into a 3-bedroom cottage in this same development in late summer of this year.

MG (Ret) Ernest A. Pinson, former Commandant of AFIT, died on December 10 in San Diego.

We were all saddened to learn of the untimely deaths of two other members of the AFIT extended family. Christopher Davis, son of Florence and Richard, lost his life in a home accident this past January. A scholarship fund has been established for Samuel and Christian Davis. Contributions may be made through Florence Davis.

Our deepest sympathies to Harold and Mary Ann Kepler on the loss of their daughter Marilyn Bird, who died unexpectedly last November 22.

LaVerne Fred Lewis, son of Fred Ellis Lewis and Alma Ewalt Lewis, born in Amboy, Illinois June 5^th, 1911, passed away February 13^th, 2004 in New Carlisle, Ohio. Interment was held at the Monmouth, Illinois Cemetery. Mr. Lewis is survived by two sisters, Margaret Lewis Grabbe of Lexington, Kentucky, and Cargil Lewis Mitchell of Sugar Land, Texas, and ten nieces and nephews. His wife, Dorothy Payne Lewis; a brother Ben E. Lewis; and two sisters, Dr. Elizabeth M. Lewis and Ethel Lewis Pillar preceded him in death.

Professor Lewis, a nuclear physicist, earned his MS in Physics from the University of Illinois in 1941. He then served as an instructor in radio engineering in the Army Air Corps Training Command until 1946. Mr. Lewis joined the Air Force Institute of Technology at Wright Patterson in November of 1946. In addition to teaching physics courses, Professor Lewis served as an assistant to both Dean Downing and Dean Graetzer. He retired in June 1972.

From 1972 to 1983 Mr. Lewis and his wife Dorothy traveled extensively, making five trips to Europe and also visiting in Asia. After Dorothy’s death in 1984 Mr. Lewis continued to travel, again to Europe and then to Antarctica. Mr. Lewis’ deteriorating eyesight limited further travel. He maintained his residence in New Carlisle where he continued to be active in his church and enjoyed the company of many friends. He maintained a keen interest in people and in world affairs. Mr. Lewis’ gift of a covered stair entrance to the First United Methodist Church in New Carlisle was dedicated November 23^rd, 2003 in appreciation for the friendship and service of Norman and Helen Eiler.

Memorial contributions may be made to the First United Methodist Church, 220 S. Main Street, New Carlisle, Ohio 45344. We will all miss Laverne’s companionship and sense of humor.

Reminder: Make your reservations by April 13 for the April 17 Luncheon.

P. Torvik prepared this edition of the newsletter. Please submit items for the Spring Edition to D. W. Breuer.