Ken Barber

Ken was at Alamo Heights from 8th thru 10th grades, then his family moved to Colorado

Work: Northrop Grumman Mission Systems
719-572-8713

Ken C. Barber
krbcos@msn.com
www.linkedin.com/in/KenBarberCFI
M: 719-648-1966

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March 2004 ~ I don't know if one has to have graduated from AHHS to qualify for the mailing list, but I'd be interested in knowing what's happening from time to time. Being an AF brat, I was in 6 different grade schools between Panama, Dallas and Albuquerque, 2 different jr highs in PA and AHJS, and 2 high schools, AHHS and AAHS. I was at AHJS in 8th grade, 1966-67.

I was class of '71 at AHHS, but only for Freshman and Sophomore years. My dad retired from the Air Force in 1969 and we moved to Colorado Springs. I finished out high school at Air Academy High School (AAHS -close to AHHS!). I spent an extra year at AAHS by my own choice, for grins, but I wouldn't do it again. I had tons of credits and was sick of high school by the time I graduated! It was great to be an Air Force brat, but I'm somewhat envious of those who grew up in one place and had lifetime relationships. Not that their lives were perfect, but it would have been great to experience that. On the other hand, I've been a lot of places and done a LOT of cool stuff in my life because of my dad's adventurous spirit which I caught from him, and much travel. I (finally!) married for the first time in Feb 1999. Rhonda is a "stay-at-home" mom for our 20 month-old son, Joshua.

I think I looked younger than most of the kids. I was on the Freshman JV track team, and many of the other guys looked practically grown up to me. I was a late bloomer, I guess.

I have really enjoyed browsing the AHHS71 web site in depth and catching up with the activities of some of the people I knew back then. It's been a nostalgic journey. I was particularly touched by Jana Orsinger's writeup on Carol Stanberry. I didn't really know either of them, but certainly remembered their names and faces. I did considerable research on the helicopter make and model that Carol and her husband were flying when they crashed. I actually flew in that model one time in Miami, but after researching Carol's accident, that will be the last time. Not to bad-mouth the company, but, unless they have done some in-depth design changes and testing, I feel that the basic design is flawed. Just my opinion. I am a CFII with ME (not MEI - yet), and have experience with Naval aviation, so I have a little knowledge on the subject. Jana's writeup unwittingly served as a public service as well as a memorial to Carol.

Work has been slow here lately. I'm changing to half-time here at NG in May, to get something else going on the side. I've been here over 5 years now, but life's too short to sit in a cubicle! For instance - and Jana's story really got me going on this latest jag - Hawaii is one of our favorite spots. We want to spend a lot more time there and do other things besides working for someone else! We spent our honeymoon in Honokawaii, Maui, and snorkeled and scuba'ed and saw about everything on the island including a private tour of the Air Force space surveillance site on the top of Haleakala. The coolest adventure, though was renting a Cessna 172 in Kahului and touring the islands. We flew west past the cliffs and waterfalls of Molokai, then over to Oahu where we probably flew in close to Carol's accident site, though outside the Class B airspace. From there we flew north past Hanauma Bay and all the way around the island and back in to Honolulu where we landed, ate sushi and toured Pearl Harbor. Then back to Maui via the south shore of Molokai and north shore of Lanai, while spotting breaching Humpback whales (from a legal distance). Very cool, and something we would like to do more of. I flew a glider on the west end of Oahu in '86, and would also like to parasail off Haleakala. Too many fun things to do in life!