I got a nice collage of photos from Dave Serhan and I cut out a few images so I could post them in the weblog. These were taken on a recent ski trip to Big Bear in California.

I didn't really know Dave very well in high school since I don't think we had a single class together. However, when we went to Penn State in Lehman, we had nearly all the same classes since we were both in the engineering program. We spent some time studying at his house at Harvey's Lake and we realized that we had some interests in common, like hunting, and spent many an hour 'walking through the woods with our guns'. That was a term we gave it due to our lack of success in shooting anything.

Aviation was also a common interest of ours and Dave got his pilot's license while he was still in high school. I recall flying with him at the Forty Fort Airport in a very small Cessna 150 during our freshman year at Penn State. It was the first time I'd ever sat in front of the controls of a small plane and we took off and started flying over the back mountain.



A few minutes into the flight, Dave reached in the back, pulled out a 35 mm camera, and told me to take over the controls because he was about to take some photos. I had no idea what I was doing, but I guess I did OK because we didn't crash. Dave proceeded to demonstrate stalls and wingovers and it was all great fun. I guess it contributed to my getting the aviation bug, and why I now have that airplane addiction.

Later we went to the main campus in State College and were roommates. Being roommates with a practical joker like Dave sure added a new dimension to college life and provided more stories that I would have room to print here. At PSU, Dave joined the ROTC program since he always knew that wanted to fly jets in the Navy. You can look it up in the yearbook page and see that his career choice next to his picture was 'Naval Aviator'. Just about everyone else was much less specific about future career aspirations sticking with 'safe' things like 'college', myself included. When Dave graduated from Penn State as an Aerospace Engineer, he went to flight school in Pensacola, Florida and was later assigned to the Mirimar Naval Base in San Diego.



After a 20+ year career where he was a naval flight officer flying F14's off the decks of aircraft carriers, he advanced in his career to the rank of Commander and was the Executive Officer of Fleet Aviation Specialized Operational Training Group Pacific Fleet. Dave retired from the Navy in 2003. It didn't take him long to find another job and for the past 2 years he's been working as a program manager for an IT services company doing major contract work for the military.

Dave and his wife, Anita, live in San Diego and have two beautiful daughters. Kristina, age 11 and Lindsey, age 15 whose pictures I've also included here as well.



If you want to send me some family pictures, please let me know and I can help you to put them in the weblog. Getting a posting in the weblog wasn't Dave's intention in sending me the photo collage, and I hope he forgives me for the liberty I've taken in posting them here, but I'm sure everyone else is interested in what Dave's been up to lately. Hopefully, we'll have a chance to see him again in 2007!