John Adams holds the Certificate of Appreciation presented by Col. Kurt McMillen, U.S. Army (Ret.). Photo by Deborah McGeehan, Lt. Col., United States Army (Ret.).
Deborah McGeehan, Lt.Col., United States Army (Ret.)
The Catalina Mountain Chapter (CMC) of the Military Officers Association of America (MOAA) held its recent meeting on Saturday, April 18 at SaddleBrooke Ranch. The meeting began with a business session presided over by CMC’s president, retired Col. Kurt McMillen, U.S. Army (Ret.), during which members were updated on the chapter’s current activities.
Our speaker was John Adams, deputy director and chief operations officer for Biosphere 2 in Oracle. He has dedicated nearly three decades to advancing Biosphere 2. John discussed the evolution of the “Biosphere 2 Project” from concept development to the current enterprise. B2 is the largest earth science living laboratory. The goal of Biosphere 2 is to study the earth’s entire complex geology, environment and ecology. His presentation gave an overview of some of the many projects affiliated with the University of Arizona and how they impact our understanding of our biosphere—-Earth. John explained that we are on the verge of becoming an interplanetary species, and both public and private endeavors are working together. The prototype for Biosphere 2 is to create SAM, a high-fidelity space analog for habitat on the Moon and Mars. Research teams visiting SAM can perform missions for as brief as five days or as long as several weeks. This presentation was interesting, enlightening and impactful.
CMC has started its summer luncheon meeting hiatus. Our membership meetings will resume on Saturday, Oct. 17 at SaddleBrooke Ranch.
Our speaker will be Col. Carey J. Jones, USAF (Ret.) The topic will be “Women Pilots in the Early Days”. Col. Jones was an F-15 Strike Eagle Pilot and a Commander of the USAF ROTC Detachment at the University of Arizona.
If you are a former or present officer of the uniformed services interested in joining our organization, please contact the membership chair, retired Lt. Col. Donald Timian, U.S. Army, by email at dontimian@hotmail.com or by telephone at 571-216-3679.
The membership of CMC encompasses the areas of Catalina, Oracle, parts of Marana and Oro Valley, SaddleBrooke, SaddleBrooke Ranch, San Manuel, Sun City, and parts of Superstition Mountains. For additional information, please visit our website at catalinamountainsmoaa.org.