John Hale - Agitprop / Fake News

Factoids

HOME: Outside Gettysburg, PA, originally from Denver, CO
AGE: 70 (70 is the new 30!)
AF STUFF: Intel guy in Vietnam/7th AF; staff for Cmdr/Tactical Air Command; MSM
​​CADET SQUADRONS: 7, 22 & 33
ROLE MODEL: If you read the actual accounts, no doubt it's Jesus, hands down.  Let me also salute the late Jesse Gatlin, (BG, USAF ret), first chair of USAFA English Department, pilot, scholar, true gentleman. 
​CIVILIAN STUFF: Foreign affairs hither and yon (mainly Asia and Europe); decade on WH/EOP staff; chief communications officer (SES) of nation's largest health system;  pioneered new media for several companies, including cable industry; new business development, publishing and marketing.  Semi-retired with projects to keep out of wife's hair 
SUPER POWER: Professional agitprop plus same old lame jokes my sons refuse to listen to any more, waiting hopefully to inflict them on grandchildren :-)

CS-07

CS-22

CS-33

RUNNING: Once in TOP million finishers (really!) of Marine Corps Marathon.  C-3 spinal surgery now slows me down, but great respect for — and very honored to support -- USAFA70 WINDED WARRIORS! 
CANCER:  Good people gone WAY too soon!  Just lost sister-in-law (age 65);  lost mom (age 68); lost three aunts; lost youngest cousin (age 58, a top jazz artist, Dizzy Gillespie signed his trumpet in concert);  and others.  LET'S #FINISHCANCER! 

PLEASE DONATE TO #FINISHCANCER

For more of John's bio ... including wild exaggerations and rumors .. click READ MORE ► for the "REAL STORY" 

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The Real Story

Nice threads

​My forebears included aircrew (DFC) who survived daylight bombing missions in B-24s over Europe (including Berlin and Normandy), so I was fascinated by WW2 aircraft and the bombers on SAC bases where I grew up in the 50's.  After the war, my dad was a "special weapons technician," meaning an atomic bomb mechanic, who participated in the Sandstone nuclear tests in the Pacific the same year I was born.  (I don't know whether or not that explains my "youthful" yet suspiciously evaporating hairline ... )

More bookish than athletic, one day in June 1966 I arrived at the "base of the ramp" leading up to the Cadet Area (which used to say "Bring Me Men" no longer politically correct but from a poem "Bring me men to match my mountains, bring me men to match my plains, men with empires in their purpose and new visions in their brains" — you know, stuff like that) scared cross-eyed but trying not to show it.  My eyesight didn't put flying in my plans, but they let me in anyway.  Marching to the beat of my own drum I bewildered people in CS-07 (Cadet Squadron 7 -- "Seagrams 7" also no longer politically correct), CS-22 and CS-33.  

The Air Force assigned me to fascinating jobs, and the camaraderie was something I didn't appreciate well enough until I moved into other realms.  Nonetheless, I followed on with great jobs in international security, cable and new media.  God has blessed me with a great family, including a wife who keeps me in line and sons (grads of NYU and UVA) who run circles around their dad! 

She keeps making it tilt to my side

I'm Mr. Right. She is Mrs. Always Right.

Setting the pace (until the cop yells "get-back-onna -grass!") has been a YUGE! help to my son's triathlon career

The couple who show off their medals together smile together

Jets and Broncos crew — going Hollywood

??? ... he didn't get that from me

Couple who plug business together smile together ►

With roomie Steve Rasmussen at our 45th Reunion ... dammit he never ages!

"Screw & Wings" made one Saturday in 7th Squadron - only one in existence because Cadet Store would not sell us 500 Prop & Wings to go into mass production

"Doolies" from 7th Squadron at our 45th ... moi, Arnold Brower, Mike Huber, Steve Rasmussen, Bruce French, Joe Kupko, Dave Sterling ... all amazing guys

Ray McKelvy and lovely wife Alyce were down for annual "Greyhounds in Gettysburg" ... glad I'm not the only one with a white beard

Israel - Jordan River near where John baptized Jesus

Back on my feet two years after surgery. Thank God!

#FINISHCANCER - sláinte mhaith "good health" in Gaelic

PS, illustrious running career:
How I finished my last Marine Corps Marathon in the TOP MILLION FINISHERS.  What helped was this.  I was on the last few miles out on Haynes Point, a notorious place for folks to hit the wall.  I hit the wall, but also for the first time had to pee.  The Marines do a great job of supporting the race.  So I staggered in a daze over to the nearest Port-a-Potty, threw open the door, the girl sitting there screamed, I slammed the door and fled ... all the way to the finish line.  Amazing what showing off for girls can do for a guy!