Service Notes
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A first lieutenant
in the Marine Corps 26th MEU Battalion
2/8, Jonathan Owen, BA ’01,
(far left) completed a yearlong tour
of duty in Afghanistan and is now
aboard the USS Kearsarge and operating
in Iraq, reports Andrew Mescolotto,
BA ’01. “Joe is a really
great friend and someone who has
made great personal sacrifices to
defend the freedom that we all enjoy,” Mescolotto
says.
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Editor’s Note: We invited alumni to tell us about Colonials who are serving our country. Below are the responses we received. We welcome any updates or clarifications via e-mail at magazine@gwu.edu.
Keith Bishop, BA ’03, is currently serving
in Iraq, according to Carrie
Marsh, BA ’02.
George Hamilton Buzby,
BA ’88, MAccy ’97,
is currently serving in Afghanistan, reports
Ronnie Smith, BA ’89.
Since September of 2002, Lt. Kevin
Gillooly, BA ’98, has served with Naval Intelligence
and currently is serving at the Office of Naval
Intelligence in Washington. He reported to
the staff of the Commander, Amphibious Squadron
Eight (Amphibious Ready Group) in March 2003
as a staff communications officer. “I
was onboard the USS Bataan on Sept. 11 and
led the effort to secure the ARG prior to getting
under way that evening fully expecting orders
to head to New York. Those orders never materialized
and we returned to Norfolk, Va., on the afternoon
of Sept. 14,” he says. He was then re-designated
as the staff’s antiterrorism/force protection
officer; he was part of an exercise off of
the coast of Egypt, Bright Star 01, and later
received orders to transit the Suez Canal and
head for the Arabian Sea. “Prior to our
canal transit, I authored the anti-terrorism/force
protection plan for the first ARG transit of
the canal following Sept. 11,” Gillooly
says.
Dave Greenlees, BA ’92, former ROTC,
was “part of the first wave in Iraq,” according
to Chris Shoulet, BA ’93.
A government civilian with the Department
of Defense, Meghan Harrison,
BA ’03,
arrived in Iraq in June and will stay through
October.
Anaklara Hering, BA ’00, served her
country for four years as an officer in the
U.S. Marine Corps. She began her service immediately
after graduating and was deployed to the Middle
East from January to September 2003. She served
in Kuwait and Iraq. In Iraq, she was second
in command of a combat mobile hospital that
treated thousands of American and Iraqi patients.
The Palm Beach Post published a July 4, 2004,
article by Hering that documents her experiences
there.
Mitchell Moffitt, MD ’00,
served in the Middle East for four months,
reports Athena
Stoyas, MD ’00.
During 2003 and
2004, Maj. Jonathon P.
Myers, BA ’92,
served in Iraq with the First Marine Expeditionary
Force. He was awarded the Bronze Star for his
service. He now works for the Department of
State.
Aboard the guided missile destroyer USS
O’Kane,
Thomas Scazzafavo, BA ’05,
serves in the Navy in Hawaii. Scazzafavo
recently returned from deployment in the
Middle East, during which he made port visits
to Manama, Bahrain; Muscat, Oman; Darwin
and Brisbane, Australia; and Porta Villa,
Vanuatu.
Alexander F. C. Webster,
an associate professorial lecturer in the University
Honors Program, was mobilized in June as a
U.S. Army chaplain. He serves in Afghanistan
and Iraq, providing ministry to soldiers of
the Eastern Orthodox faith and acting as plans
and operations chaplain for the Joint Forces.
Webster is the author of The
Virtue of War: Reclaiming the Classic Christian
Traditions East and West (Regina Orthodox Press, 2004),
which outlines the moral teachings of different
religions centered on the justifiability
and necessity of some war traditions.
Currently serving in Iraq, Lt. Cmdr. Jerome
R. White, MBA ’04, is on the staff of
the Principle Assistant Responsible for Contracting—Forces,
Joint Contracting Command Iraq/Afghanistan
as chief of the plans and programs division.
A first lieutenant going to Iraq this fall
with the 1st Armored Division, John
Mooney, BA ’03, reports that
the following alumni have served in Iraq or
will be going soon:
Tom Calhoun-Lopez, JD ’01,
a captain in the Army, served as a field
artillery officer in combat and is now serving
in the JAG Corps;
Jeffrey Fanelli, BA ’04,
second lieutenant in the Army; Christina
Fanitzi, BBA ’03,
first lieutenant in the Army, going in February
with the 1st Armored Division; Josee
(Radzikowski) Goldin, BS ’01,
a captain in the Army;
Anthony Heisler, BA ’04,
a second lieutenant in the Army; Sean
MacCarthy, BA ’02,
an Army ranger who served with the 101st
Airborne and is now attending Special Forces
Assessment and Selection; Joseph
Merrill, BA ’02,
a first lieutenant in the Army currently
in Iraq who is also in the New York Army
National Guard; Danny Ponzo,
BA ’02, a first lieutenant
in the Marine Corps; Phil
Radzikowski, BA ’00,
a captain and Army ranger with the 10th Mountain
Division; Genevieve
Rickmeyer, BA ’00,
a captain in the Army; Stephen
Schwab, BA ’02,
a first lieutenant in the Army; Adam
Tiffen, JD ’03, a second lieutenant
in the Army, now serving as an infantry officer
in Iraq, also in the Maryland National Guard;
and John
Stepniewski, BA ’03, a second
lieutenant in the Army.
In Memoriam
Ricardo A. Crocker,
BA ’89
May 26, 2005
Redondo Beach, Calif.
Crocker, a GW NROTC alumnus,
was killed while serving as a major with the
II Marine Expeditionary Force (Forward) in
Hadithah, Iraq. He was assigned to the Marine
Forces Reserve’s 3rd Civil
Affairs Group, Camp Pendelton, Calif. Crocker
also was a nine-year veteran of the Santa Monica,
Calif., police force.
Tracy Hushin, BA ’92, MA ’94
Jan. 3, 2005
Islip, N.Y.
Hushin, who held two degrees
from GW’s Elliott School of International
Affairs, was killed in Iraq while working with a BearingPoint Inc. team that
was under contract for the U.S. Agency for International Development. She had
been coordinating an out-of-country training mission for approximately 60 Iraqis.
Kylan Jones-Huffman,
admitted to PhD program in history
August 21, 2003
College Park, Md.
Lt. Jones- Huffman, a
reservist stationed in Bahrain with the Navy’s
Criminal Investigative Service, was killed while on temporary duty with the
1st Marine Expeditionary Force in Iraq. Through fundraising efforts of his
wife, Heidi, a permanent endowed fund for graduate study in Middle Eastern
history has been established in his honor. On Oct. 28 in the Marvin Center’s
room #310, the history department will host the Kylan Jones-Huffman Memorial
Lecture, followed by a reception in Phllips Hall, rooms 328-329. For information
about the fund or the lecture, please contact Brandy Vause at 202-994-8372.
Mark D. Taylor, MD ’96, MPH ’97
March 20, 2004
Stockton, Calif.
Maj. Taylor died in Fallujah, Iraq, after
a rocket attack. He was serving as an Army
combat medic with the 82nd Airborne Unit, based
in Fort Brag, N.C. Taylor was a general surgeon
who had developed a program for weight loss
that included gastric bypass surgery.