August 2005 President's Corner

Steve Frederick '72, USNAAA Atlanta Chapter President

With temperatures near 100° F, it is difficult to believe that by the time you read this the kids will be back in school and we will all be looking forward to Saturdays and Navy football again. As always, our summer months have been busy, hot and fun.

Our luncheon in July featured guest speaker Neal Thompson, author of Light This Candle, the in depth biography of Alan Shepard ’45, America’s first man in space. Neal started by describing some of his experiences as the military reporter for the Baltimore Sun in the mid 90’s. Interestingly, Neal explained that the first time he visited the Naval Academy he was “intimidated”, and that in retrospect, he considers the Academy to have had a “profound effect” on his life. He was immediately informed that the Academy had had that kind of effect on most everyone that was in the room that day. Neal read several selected passages from the book and related entertaining and informative anecdotes about RADM Shepard. He then listened as several attendees told their personal stories about the astronaut. It was a great presentation and as usual, the camaraderie was as good as it gets. (Also see article about Shepard on pg. 2)

July luncheon attendees were: George O’Connell, Jr. ’35, Jim Ravenel ’45, Mike Rose ’48, Duane Young ’49, P.L. Stephens ’51, Bill Rentz ’55, Dale Herndon ’56, Neil Block ’61, Art Drennan ’64, Lorie Moore ’64, Bill Holmes ’64, Bob Snelling ’65, “CM” Wood 65, Jon Barton ’66, Paul Borer ’70 (Chapter Secretary), Les Gable ’70, Bob Schultz ’71, Lee Whitfield ’71, Mitch Rowland ’71(Chapter Vice President), Steve Frederick ’72, Mark Sims ’82, Lidden Pate ’82, Kary Brownlee ’93, Brian Pilger ’93, Jordan Benson ’08 (home on summer leave) and Charlie Booth (guest).

Our monthly luncheons are held without fail on the third Friday of the month, at Jocks and Jill’s Sports Bar in the Brookhaven Shopping Center, just across Peachtree from the Brookhaven MARTA Station. We open for sign in at 1130 and the chow line opens at 1200. We do not have our guest speaker locked in for August yet, so check our website (see below) for last minute info. Please join us if you can.

During the football season we will meet at the same location to view all of Navy’s home games that will be broadcast on the College Sports Network, and each of the games that will be broadcast nationally, except for the Army game. (We make special arrangements for the get together with the Woops associated with that game.) Our plans include having the football viewing get together for one of the home games at a sports bar on the south side of town, to facilitate attendance of the members on that end of town. Please visit our website at WWW.USNAAAA.COM to see our activity schedule and for more information the specific plans for the upcoming events.

Hope to see you at the monthly luncheon on 8/19.

BEAT ARMY!

Steve Frederick ’72