Air Force

Erik Boal GLENDALE -- o7 In an attempt to keep track of local high school players who now compete in college, the News-Press will devote a space to a weekly update.f7 Jenny Rowland (Flintridge Prep, 2001) freshman forward, Air Force Academy women's soccer -- It may have taken a few matches for the Flintridge Prep graduate and 2001 News-Press All-Area Player of the Year to get acclamated to the college game, but once she did, the Falcons have reaped the benefits, riding a four-match unbeaten streak.

LA CRESCENTA — By his mother’s account, Airman First Class Matthew Cameron, a 2004 graduate of Crescenta Valley High School, has grown up “really, really fast.” Just three years ago, Cameron was going to school, spending much of his time in auto shop learning skills he would use later to doctor his ruby red 1974 Chevrolet Chevelle. Now he spends his time as an Air Force communications technician, programming and repairing radios 10,000 feet in the air in an Airborne Warning and Control System plane, which coordinates air-traffic control over Afghanistan and Iraq.

Richard Thomas remembers when a flood in the 1930s damaged his neighborhood in Glendale and a time when going to a movie in Montrose cost a quarter. The 84-year-old La Crescenta resident moved to California when he was 2 and grew up in Glendale and Montrose. Thomas attended La Crescenta Junior High School and Hoover High School, but dropped out to start working. He earned 46 cents an hour as an electrician’s helper and drove a taxi cab in Montrose before he was drafted into the Air Force during World War II. Growing up in the area during the 1930s and ’40s was different than it is now, Thomas said.

Mary Jane "Janie" Kidd passed away on May 5, 2005 at the age of 86 in Montrose. She was born in Pasco, Wash. on May 29, 1918, and grew up in La Grande, Ore. She was graduated from the University of Oregon with a bachelor of arts degree. She met and married John B. Kidd during World War II, and enjoyed the next 30 years as the wife of an Air Force officer. She established homes over the years from Germany to Hawaii. Intensely devoted to the military, Janie was the "patriot of patriots."

La Crescenta Town Council representatives on Sept. 6 signed contracts for the production of the first set of banners to honor local hometown heroes serving in the military. The banners – similar to those flying along streets in other local communities, such as Glendora and Burbank – are being paid for by local merchants, organizations and individuals. The banners will bear the name and photo of La Crescenta and Montrose service men and women, as well as those who attended Crescenta Valley High School.

Gary Moskowitz GLENDALE -- Superintendent Jim Brown does not want the school district to lose its Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps program. Although insufficient enrollment in Crescenta Valley High School's JROTC caused the Air Force to put the program on probation in October, Brown has agreed to give the school one more year to fix the problem. The school's JROTC program must have an enrollment of 150 students by spring enrollment for the 2003-04 school year.

La Crescenta resident Frances Fechter is a story teller. The 81-year-old native of Germany has stories of danger and daring about the time she ran away from a convent in Germany and when her husband was kidnapped during the Watts Riots in Los Angeles. Fechter's extraordinary life experiences have led her to begin writing an autobiography. Her autobiography, which she does not yet have a title for, will chronicle her life from when she was in the German Luftwaffe , or air force, during World War II, to when she moved to America and started a dry cleaning business.

Laura Winter The four engines of a C-130 transport plane groaned in concert as the pilot eased the aircraft down to a runway visible only through night-vision goggles. In the enveloping darkness three Apache helicopters unhurriedly circled the airstrip, probing the heavily mined scrub with their infrared sensors for an elusive enemy. It was 1:20 a.m. "I love the night," said 43-year-old Air Force officer, Lt. Col. Nancy Sumner, steadily sipping her coffee from a brown paper cup. "Yes, there's the wind and the dust.

PHILIP KARAS Philip Karas died Dec. 31, 2004. He was 87. Karas was born Nov. 11, 1917 and lived in Glendale for 15 years. The son of Greek and Irish immigrants, Karas rose to the rank of colonel in the Air Force and served as a P-47 Thunderbolt pilot at the invasion of Normandy. His career continued as chief of air defense for NATO in Izmir, Turkey, during the Cuban missile crisis. He also served as chief of air safety at Tan Sanut Air Base in Vietnam.

During his career with the Burbank Police Department, Edward Skvarna often thought that the then Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport would be a nice place to work. Now that he is chief of the Bob Hope Airport Police Department, he is finding out just how true that is. "If I'm not doing some public service, I don't know what I'd be doing," said Skvarna, who lives in the Santa Clarita Valley. "It's a natural place for me to be." Skvarna was named as the new chief of the 32-member department during a ceremony on Sept.

GLENDALE — The following are updates on area athletes at the collegiate level.   Vinni Lodolo (St. Francis High, 2009) freshman, Air Force Academy men’s tennis: Lodolo, a reigning All-Area member, played a huge role in helping the Falcons post a 4-3 win against service-academy rival Army on Sunday in Orlando, Fla. It marked the ninth win in a row for Air Force, which saw Lodolo clinch the victory with a 6-3, 7-6 (8-6) win against Johnny Lucero.

GLENDALE — For hundreds of local residents who turned out to Memorial Day ceremonies across Glendale, Burbank and La Cañada Flintridge, the hours of tribute — complete with bagpipes, benedictions, names of fallen service members, patriotic hymns and roses — serve as an annual exercise in remembrance. But for Liam McKenna, a second-grader at St. Finbar School, such an exercise takes place weekly. “Every Sunday, I take a marble from the ‘Iraq’ circle and put it in the ‘home’ pile,” said Liam, dressed from head to toe in Army fatigues and wearing his dad’s rank, Sgt. 1st Class.

LA CRESCENTA — By his mother’s account, Airman First Class Matthew Cameron, a 2004 graduate of Crescenta Valley High School, has grown up “really, really fast.” Just three years ago, Cameron was going to school, spending much of his time in auto shop learning skills he would use later to doctor his ruby red 1974 Chevrolet Chevelle. Now he spends his time as an Air Force communications technician, programming and repairing radios 10,000 feet in the air in an Airborne Warning and Control System plane, which coordinates air-traffic control over Afghanistan and Iraq.

Richard Thomas remembers when a flood in the 1930s damaged his neighborhood in Glendale and a time when going to a movie in Montrose cost a quarter. The 84-year-old La Crescenta resident moved to California when he was 2 and grew up in Glendale and Montrose. Thomas attended La Crescenta Junior High School and Hoover High School, but dropped out to start working. He earned 46 cents an hour as an electrician’s helper and drove a taxi cab in Montrose before he was drafted into the Air Force during World War II. Growing up in the area during the 1930s and ’40s was different than it is now, Thomas said.

La Crescenta Town Council representatives on Sept. 6 signed contracts for the production of the first set of banners to honor local hometown heroes serving in the military. The banners – similar to those flying along streets in other local communities, such as Glendora and Burbank – are being paid for by local merchants, organizations and individuals. The banners will bear the name and photo of La Crescenta and Montrose service men and women, as well as those who attended Crescenta Valley High School.

La Crescenta resident Frances Fechter is a story teller. The 81-year-old native of Germany has stories of danger and daring about the time she ran away from a convent in Germany and when her husband was kidnapped during the Watts Riots in Los Angeles. Fechter's extraordinary life experiences have led her to begin writing an autobiography. Her autobiography, which she does not yet have a title for, will chronicle her life from when she was in the German Luftwaffe , or air force, during World War II, to when she moved to America and started a dry cleaning business.

During his career with the Burbank Police Department, Edward Skvarna often thought that the then Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport would be a nice place to work. Now that he is chief of the Bob Hope Airport Police Department, he is finding out just how true that is. "If I'm not doing some public service, I don't know what I'd be doing," said Skvarna, who lives in the Santa Clarita Valley. "It's a natural place for me to be." Skvarna was named as the new chief of the 32-member department during a ceremony on Sept.

Mary Jane "Janie" Kidd passed away on May 5, 2005 at the age of 86 in Montrose. She was born in Pasco, Wash. on May 29, 1918, and grew up in La Grande, Ore. She was graduated from the University of Oregon with a bachelor of arts degree. She met and married John B. Kidd during World War II, and enjoyed the next 30 years as the wife of an Air Force officer. She established homes over the years from Germany to Hawaii. Intensely devoted to the military, Janie was the "patriot of patriots."