News From Fort Schuyler

March 21, 2000 - Volume 4, No. 10

REUNION PLANS UNDERWAY - The Class of 1965 is already ready for their 35th. A recent e-mailing from ALAN ROWEN to a list of some 38 classmates, reports that venues and format are already set for their big evening' which happens to be Saturday, September 16 2000. Alan is interested in getting to word out to all his classmates, so if you didn't get his message send a note to Rowenalan@aol.com

45th CELEBRATED BY '47 - Classmates of BOB HOLZMACHER, Class of 1947, gathered in South Carolina on March 18 to celebrate the 45^th wedding anniversary of Ardeth and Bob. According to JACK HAYES, "A huge gathering of well-wishers who took over the club at Dataw Island included DICK LUND, JACK FITZSIMMONS and his bride, island neighbors Jack and Fran Hayes, myriad Holzmacher relatives from far and wide (literally), and many closed friend from the island. ...The Class of '47 wishes the Holzmachers calm seas and fair winds. They will be missed at the mini-gathering of the 'Scissorbills' in May at Longboat Key, while they continue their world travels."

SCHOONER AMISTAD PROJECT - A heads up from Captain DENNIS SCHROEDER, Class of 1965, that AMISTAD, the 129' replica of a symbol of the slave trade, will be launched at Mystic Seaport on Saturday, March 25. The vessel is a re-creation of the historic ship that in 1839 was to carry 53 kidnaped Africans to a life of slavery, but instead delivered them to freedom, years before the end of the Civil War. In his note, Dennis also asked: "Are there any Schuyler grads involved in the project?" The question was answered by the Captain of the AMISTAD, BILL PINKNEY, who informed NFFS, via e-mail, that QUENTIN T. SNEDIKER, Class of 1972, was the project coordinator for this major wooden boat construction job.

According to the Mystic Seaport website, AMISTAD will be in New York harbor: "... for OpSail 2000. Thereafter she will sail with hundreds of vessels to New London for OpSail Connecticut, where she will dock from July 12 to 14, and make her homeport arrival in New Haven, Connecticut, on July 15. The freedom schooner Amistad is the vision of Amistad America, Inc., a not-for-profit educational foundation created by Mystic Seaport, The Amistad Committee, Amistad Affiliates, the Connecticut Afro-American Historical Society and other interested individuals as a partnership to develop the Amistad project.....to teach the historic lessons of perseverance, cooperation and leadership inherent in the AMISTAD Incident of 1839 to people of all ages, interests and cultural backgrounds. After all, the Spanish word 'amistad' means 'friendship' in English." For more information go to http://www.mysticseaport.org or http://www.amistadamerica.org [BTW - AMISTAD still has openings for professional crew. If you are interested contact Captain Pinkney for particulars at Capbil@snet.net ]

SPRING TRAINING - The advent of Spring brings baseball to mind. DONALD DREVES, Class of 1969, wonders if the JERRY DiMAGGIO who entered with the Class of 1971 or 1972 was related to Fort Schuyler's present day representative of that famous baseball family, Cadet PAUL J. DiMAGGIO, Class of 2002 ? [We are checking.]

FIRST DAYTIME GRADUATE - In view of recent discussions about program changes at Fort Schuyler, it may be of interest to note that according to BARRY COOKE, Class of 1969, his brother DAVE COOKE, Class of 1972, was "..the first daytime student to graduate....he was in the class of '67, but left after the 1966 year, spent active time in the Army then returned to Schuyler to finish his degree. ..When he returned he was not required to be in the cadet corps because he had finished his military requirement in the Army." Barry goes on to say that Dave has spent most of his career working for the Military Sealift Command in Washington, D.C., where "he is an engineering manager overseeing operations of maintenance of many of the MSC owned/chartered ships."

USE YOUR NEW YORK CONNECTION - If you live, work, pay property taxes, or attend school in anywhere New York State, you can get a library card at any branch of the New York Public Library in Manhattan, Bronx, or Staten Island, which give you free 24/7 access to powerful online full-text databases such as ProQuest Direct, EBSCO Host (great for school kids), the Gale Directory of Associations, and more. All free with your NYPL card. Registration details: http://www.nypl.org/branch/apply/apply.html

NO NFFS NEXT WEEK? The editor will be on the road without a laptop, but back in time for the Blood Drive.