Soldiers Undertaking Disabled Scuba, or SUDS, pose during an outing in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The program gives wounded Iraq and Afghanistan veterans a new outlook on life by giving them freedom underwater, says SUDS instructor and U.S. Air Force veteran Larry Hammonds ’61, M ’72, pictured fourth from left in the back row.

Larry Hammonds ’61, M ’72 watches veterans make positive changes beneath the surface — both under the water and inside the mind — every time he works as a volunteer instructor with Soldiers Undertaking Disabled Scuba.

“For a lot of these guys, scuba is really the first activity they’ve gotten involved in since they were injured,” said Larry, who served in the U.S. Air Force from 1954 to 1958. Apprehension is common among Iraq and Afghanistan veterans who are submerging themselves minus one or more limbs. “After being in the pool for a while, they come up grinning ear to ear and I overhear them saying, ‘That was cool.’

“Underwater, they have complete freedom,” Larry said.
A retired art and photography teacher, Larry took up scuba diving with his wife, Sandi, about 25 years ago. He heard about SUDS shortly after it was founded in 2007 through his part-time work in a D.C.-area scuba shop.

Over time, divers graduate from the pool and go on to adventures in much bigger waters — like those off the coast of Rincon, Puerto Rico, or Morehead City, N.C. — over time. Part of Walter Reed Medical Center’s Wounded Warrior Clinic, SUDS serves as a gateway to other rehabilitation activities too, Larry said.

“They do learn scuba, but … that to me is not really as important as the life attitude that changes after those first few sessions in the pool,” he said. “It’s absolutely amazing.”

Members of the Class of 1961 marked their golden anniversary with the Tea and Remembrance Ceremony at Shady Shore during Reunion Weekend June 10 to 12. Pictured the next day at the Golden Alumni Society luncheon are, front row, left to right: William Ambrozy, John Baggett, Betty Baker, Frances Lefkowitz Bernstein, Caryn Dow Birchenough, Linda Mykland Blauvelt, Frank Bondellio, Melvin Bovee, Dorothy Graham Brining, Robert Brining, Eileen Switzer Clarke, Marion Brauner Covello, Mary Pidel Crawford, Diane Worthington Czajak, William Danehy, Linda Pollock Davis and Ellen Baldini Dowling. Middle Row, from left are: Philomena Camesano Mark, Ray Maraviglia, Charles Launsbach, Marguerite Giglio Larrabee, Carolyn Brown Krueger, Jerry Kranz, Judy Chengarian Koolakian, Sheila Pratt Khachadoorian, Pete James, Honey Friedman Goshorn, Dorothy Warren Gale, Edmund Frappier, Paul Fowler, Barbara Kelly Florczyk, Thomas Flaherty, Mary Gilmartin Fischl, Maria LaMotta Fay and Marilynn Nagy Farrar. Back row, from left, are: Matthias Mathewson, Joan Holland Meehan, Philip Messer, Marie DeJohn Miczan, Stephen Mizgala, June Bergendorf Nickla, Marbeth Hirsch Paulsen, Peggy Huntoon Podstupka, Pat Heafy Santoro, John Sapone, Judy Skillen, Edie Fiske Smolinski, Thelma Aa Taylor, Jytte Christensen Terns, Judith Johnson Tyler, James Vittorio, Sheila Block Weckstein, Stanley Weckstein and Elliot Yezer.

Over the years, Oswegonians have received their diplomas in Romney Field House, Laker Hall, the Richardson Theatre downtown, and the new Campus Center convocation center.

The 1941 class graduated on the steps of Sheldon Hall because the auditorium had been destroyed by fire. The Centennial Class of 1961 graduated in an outdoor ceremony. And no matter how big the graduating classes get — this year’s May Sesquicentennial class numbered 1,400 — one unique feature of Oswego Commencements endures: Each student’s name is read aloud as graduates cross the stage to receive congratulations from their dean and the college president.

It was the ride of a lifetime, when Maria LaMotta Fay ’61 and her cousin Ann Varsalona set out on an 8,900-mile road trip across America and back. Last summer, they drove from Maria’s home in Pompano Beach, Fla., across the southern United States to Los Angeles, up the Pacific Coast Highway to San Francisco and back to the East Coast via a northern route.

The traveling cousins visited Yosemite and Yellowstone national parks and the Grand Canyon, drove their convertible down Rodeo Drive and stayed at the oldest motel on legendary Route 66, in Gallup, N.M.

Maria LaMotta Fay '61, shown here at Yellowstone, crossed the Continental Divide many times on her 8,900-mile round trip across America/

The free spirits planned little, stopping at each state’s visitor center for maps of attractions. Then they would head off the interstate whenever possible to catch the authentic sights of America.

“It was fun, we drove with the top down most of the time. One time we thought we had gotten a beautiful tan,” Maria remembers. When they stopped after driving through the desert, Maria called her cousin in to see sand draining after her shower. “We weren’t tan at all,” she recalls. “We were just plain dirty.”

Maria’s impression of America? “The majesty of the mountains, the lakes, the snow on top of the mountains: Our country is beautiful,” says the world traveler.

For all her awesome memories of the trip, Maria still cherishes her remembrances of Oswego with her Alpha Delta Eta sisters. “The big snowstorm of 1958; going to class in the barracks;
making the ‘conga line’ [to pass books] for the first Penfield Library under Helen Hagger,” are some of her favorites.

“We were a close class,” she recalls. “Twenty to 25 of us keep in touch and see each other every year or every other year [at Reunion].”

A Reunion 2011 planning committee member, Maria has already planned one more road trip — to Oswego June 10 to 12 for the college’s Sesquicentennial and her own 50th reunion.