Great Lakes GRUNION RRC

The Great Lakes Naval Training Center Grunion Road Running Club was formed by Bob Esquire, at the time a Navy Dental Commander, and other fun loving runners. Bob, Amy Suggs (now Amy Rosacker - Amy gave me my first Grunion singlet) and several others encouraged runners of all ages, military affiliation (yep an Army retiree, Clyde Downs, brought continued praise to the club) and speed to join for better health and friendship. Friendship brings to mind our Ravina runs, "Q" pasta dinners and having a beer out of the backseat cooler from a little yellow Karman Ghia on a Zion Street after a successful race.

The 1984 Blue Angel Marathon Military Team Champions with Bob holding the traveling trophy: (L) to (R) standing Clyde Downs, Andre Santos, kneeling Tim Smith, Bob Esquire, Frank Dillman.

Bob and "Red Car" led many caravans to 5K's to marathons in Chicago, Milwaukee, Duluth, and the Twin Cities. Bob planned and handled it all for us; special flights to Pensacola, Grunion water stops and support personnel for our longer races, team composition, photographers, medical advice, writing articles for the base newspaper and a good friend.

As a strong team in athletics as we were, the spirit and comrade was never ending. Upon then Captain Esquire's transfer Krissa Bonebrake (now Krissa Drentlaw) accepted the helm and carried our tradition and responsibilities forward. I remember one year when we were racing the Army she somehow made arrangements for me to fly to Glenview from Norfolk so I could again enjoy the service competition and festivities. And as luck would have it Bernie Mangalindan was also on the manifest and we reminisced our Great Lakes and Grunion days during the entire flight.

Thank you Bob Esquire and Krissa Drentlaw!

Now some 2 decades later Bill McKiernan suggested a reunion. Krissa quickly accepted the challenge. Those in attendance had a great time and we talked about ours (and yours) Great Lakes racing days as well as our fun runs.

There was some rekindled discussion of a cruise being our next reunion. So lets stay in touch. If you know of a GRUNION not listed below or your address has changed please do your best to keep this list growing and current - notify me. If you do not mind sharing your email or snail mail address with others I'll handle that chore too: I'll do this off line unless you would like me to provide an email link for you. We are still looking for Dennis Hartman, Tim Smith, Ginger Springer, Karen Doyle, Tom Howe, Dante Flogio, Monty Brothers, Tom Howe, Terry Oldfield, John Parks, Tony Burkhart, Woody Wentworth, Dwight Severn, Rod Catabay, Donald Sieloff, Chaplain Burchell, Bill Fisher and many others.

Composed, written, and maintained by Frank Dillman. Email, comments and suggestions will be appreciated

updated: January 12, 2008