James "J. D. " Schnabel (1963)

Ed Heinricks Case (Ed Case) (1962)

Yvonne Heinricks (Alexander) (1964)

Although Jon was a year older than I, my experience with him was significant. Jon's first wife, Sue Arnold (Zama, 1964), was my best friend for over 20 years. Sue was at Zama only her freshman year (1960), but our bond was so close that after I graduated three years later, I took a Greyhound bus from the Port of Oakland to Sue's home in Seaside, CA, just outside Fort Ord, where Sue's mother worked. I stayed with Sue for a month, trying to find a job. Failing to find work, I set out for San Francisco.

Sue became a flight attendant for United Airlines, based in Coral Gables, Florida. She returned to San Francisco to be the attendant at my wedding.  A few years later, when Sue and Jon got together, I was not only the attendant at her wedding, but I helped plan the entire event, since I was in San Francisco (where she and Jon were to be married) and Sue was in Florida. Sue Arnold (1964) and Jon Rand (1963) were married at the small, beautiful chapel at the (Army) Presidio of San Francisco.

Sue and Jon had a daughter named Tristan and a son, Sean. Life as a military wife was difficult for Sue, especially when Jon was based in northern Maine, just south of the Canadian border, where the climate was brutal and Jon was often not home. Sue was, after all, a Monterey, California gal, having attended Monterey High with another Zama Alum, Darrell Coleman (Zama, 1963), with whom she was close.

After I returned from living in Brazil for three years, Sue visited me in the Bay Area with her son and daughter (and my son and daughter). Her marriage was not going well. Eventually Sue and Jon divorced, and Sue moved to Florida with Tristan and Sean, living in Niceville (yes!), Florida, where Sue's mother also lived. Sue took a job with a dentist and eventually married him. I think his name was Milo Herman.

I last saw Sue when she visited me in San Francisco in the early 80s. By then our lives had diverged in such disparate ways that we had little in common. Then we lost touch with each other for about ten years. It was only in the mid-90s that I learned that Sue and her second husband, Milo, had died in a house fire. I learned that Sue and Jon's two children were rescued by neighbors, and Jon took the children back to California to live with him and (I assume) the rest of his family.

For years I wanted to contact Jon and ask about Tristan and Sean. But I felt too fragile, fearing I would be overwhelmed with memories and grief.  I worried that I would meet Jon at a Zama reunion and not be able to manage the pain of Sue's death. But Jon went to the Vegas reunion and I didn't. He didn't attend the reunions that I did in DC, San Diego and New Orleans. Thus, Jon and I never connected.

And now I regret that I never spoke to Jon to ask how Tristan and Sean are doing. The children are probably in their late 30s or early 40s.

With the internet and technology, I suppose I will find the answers to my concerns: How are Tristan and Sean?  I would also like to find Sue's older brother, Larry Arnold, class of 1962 (or perhaps 1961). I know Larry was a mortician in California, so I presume there might be some internet connection there.

I remember Jon Rand's mother, but I never knew anyone else in the family. If any Zama Alumns have information, I would appreciate hearing about it.

Yvonne Heinricks (Alexander) aka Winnie Weedstraw, Class of 1964

Michael Warren (1963)

Jon and I were close friends at Camp Zama.  We liked a lot of the same things, science, math, aerospace stuff, and especially The Kingston Trio.  For a brief period while we were seniors, we formed a group along with J.D. Schnabel and George Wagner that sang folk songs--Armed Forces Radio even taped us once at the Teen Club. 

We saw a lot Japan together on our 50cc Hondas, and as close friends, we shared our aspirations for the future.  It appears that Jon fullfilled most, if not all of his dreams.