Letters
Dear editor,
Re: "Dateline Iraq" spring 2010
I enjoyed this story. It brought back memories of patriots from past U of A classes. I was reminded that the class of 1960 had a number of career military graduates. Pete Weimer, the Bartholmew brothers, Joseph Baldwin, Paul Hunter and me. So long ago and so many great patriots. There were others whose names have eluded me over the years. The university can be proud of these men and women.
Robert W. Browning
Dear People,
I'm a busy guy. So I hadn't read the copy of Aurora you sent me yet. Since I had now two items from you, namely the magazine and a survey, I picked or rather retrieved Aurora from the compost heap that is my kitchen table.
It's nice. That's what we said in creative writing class when we hadn't read our homework. So, the very best thing in the magazine was the back cover.
My house is overflowing with books, more than I will ever read. So I subscribe to 12 magazines, get a dozen or so freebies like Aurora. I don't read articles in depth unless they touch on my personal interests. I read Scientific American (about 50 percent of it), I flip through Bicycling and various other mags. I read Smithsonian 75 percent. You get the picture. I clip out articles for reference and toss the rest. I'll file Aurora intact for now.
Now the gripe.
Why, why, why are you printing on 70-lb. glossy card stock? This is extravagant and wasteful. The university is always crying poverty and then putting out a nonrecycled or recyclable deluxe out-of-state printed FREEBIE? You jack tuition, yanked my senior free tuition and you have the @#$%^% to print a full-color glossy giveaway!?!!
John D. Corning
Editor's note: Previous issues of Aurora were printed on paper made from 35 percent postconsumer waste. This issue is 10 percent postconsumer waste, a change that represents a cost saving of about 35 percent. (The cover continues to be printed on cover stock, not card stock.) We try hard to balance our fiscal and environmental responsibilities. For paperless, e-mail delivery of Aurora, subscribe at www.uaf.edu/aurora/.
Dear Aurora magazine folks,
I just have to send you a note to tell you how very impressive the alumni magazine has become!! This latest issue is beautifully done and most interesting. Thank you!
I do note that having been a sort-of student in the '60s, I am such an antique fossil that there seems to be little news of my cohorts during those long-ago years.
I absolutely loved my years at the U of A at Fairbanks! A great student I was not, but a full participator I surely was … treading the boards with Lee Salisbury's dramas, imagining myself a literary light with my favorite English classes and professors, learning to ski on the old ski hill, managing student government with pals, monitoring the annual mudball game, presiding as waitress at dear Dr. and Mrs. Wood's parties, doing a fair amount of partying on my own, and capably representing the U at Tommy's now and then.
The staff and the faculty were all marvelous and memorable … and in those days the whole school was so small, we were all one big family it seemed, and I made long-lasting friends!
Since marrying my roving engineering husband in 1963, we've lived all over the world while capably managing projects in developing countries for an American engineering firm. And there, too, we learned an enormous lot about how people live, and again we made lots of wonderful friends.
We're now retired, more or less, in Colorado and contemplating what to do next. Again, congrats on a fine alumni magazine.
Cheers!
Susy Collins
Dear editor,
Re: "Dateline Iraq" spring 2010
The comments about the coin are incorrect. That is not a "heart with a lightning bolt." That is a taro leaf with a lightning bolt. If I remember correctly, the 24th and 25th Infantry Divisions both had the taro leaf insignia, were formed out of Hawaii before WWII, and both performed well in WWII, Korea and Vietnam. The taro leaf was split by the lightning bolt on the insignia of the 25th to emphasize the "Tropic Lightning" name of the division, while the 24th stayed plain. The 24th was a stellar performer in Desert Shield/Storm. It was re-flagged as 3rd ID, and is in Iraq doing a fine job there. The 25th ID has performed well in both Iraq and Afghanistan. I wish that the media would do a little research on the history of the units they embed with. I have a lot of respect (usually) for embeds, but please think of the units as well. Other than that, nice story.
Darrell Henry