Stories - Ralph "Chester" Chesnauskas

Several months ago I was at the annual 57-58 luncheon and it was announced that Ed Hickey was there from Cape Cod. We go to Cape Cod twice a year for seeing Ceda's mom (98) and sister. I introduced myself and told him that and that I had always intended to call Chester when I was there, but had not as yet. Ed said, call me and I'll set up a lunch with him. I did and he did. So last week I had lunch with Ed and Ralph.

Ralph hasn't really changed much, believe it or not. Like a lot of football linemen he's shorter that I am by quite a bit, maybe 2 inches. I don't remember his being shorter than we were, but this is one thing Joe Shea always mentions, that he, Joe, is shorter. Anyway, Ralph pretended he knew me, and maybe he did, but he had no memory of some rather memorable intersections. For example, shortly before their graduation we had to take a PT test and they, 56, had to do three pullups minimum to graduate. He couldn't do one. He says he doesn't remember that, but we all knew it then. He was right in front of me in line at the pullup bar and he grabbed onto that bar and hung there grunting. Mr Lewis said to me, Grab his legs so he doesn't swing. Swing? I said, he's not moving! I did grab his legs but that didn't help. About then I realized that I was supposed to help him. Honor? I thought. I don't think I can do that. So Lewis pushed me aside and hoisted Ralph up to the bar three times. He went armor.

He says that when all the trouble was going on in Lebanon he wanted to go kill the bastards but the Army wouldn't send him over so he resigned. I don't think any armor units went to Lebanon, but I may be wrong. He worked for some company in Boston for 2 or 3 years but saw no future there so left and went to Gillette, which I believe was in his hometown, Brockton, where he was a legend. He retired a few years ago as the VP in charge of engineering. He designed and engineered all the razors up to the jittering ones. So we talked razors for awhile.

I suggested that he was rich and he didn't deny it, then insisted on paying for lunch by saying, According to Palmer I'm rich. He is. He lives in a very upscale community on the Cape. I don't know it but Ceda's sister says it's where the rich people live. Of course, that pretty much describes all of Cape Cod except where she lives.

We talked about the 56 classmates I have seen over the years. Joe Dougherty, Conn Anderson, John Schaud, Bill Shrage, and the terror of my plebe year, RE Brown. I only saw RE once. I was donning a parachute at Pope AFB about to climb aboard a C something, probably 123, maybe 130, when who should appear to fly the thing but RE. I was ticked. You gave me hell for a year and you're driving a bus? as tho there should be some correlation. I think it was that jump, in fact I'm pretty sure of it, when I was a jumpmaster and on my plane was Dan Foldberg, Army All American a few years before us. He couldn't get the chute on. His chest was about 60 inches around I think, and they don't make chutes that big. So I pulled and squeezed him into it and into pain, and then, as usual, takeoff was delayed for hours. So I was in a bad mood when my old nemesis showed up as a part of the problem, and Dan was even angrier.

So far as I could tell Ralph is healthy, although at his age he has the usual aches and pains. It was good to see him and he said to call every time I come up, which I probably will.

Palmer

From: PALMERMCG@aol.com
Date: Thu, 28 Aug 2008
Subject: Re: Ralph Chesnauskas
To: USMA 1958 I-2 Classmates

I forgot probably Ralph's best story, which follows.

His plebe year he was turned out in math and decided West Point was too hard for him, what with football and hopefully baseball in the spring. He had a full scholarship offer at Wisconsin and decided to go there instead. Blaik found out he was considering that and called Jack Riley the hockey coach. Blaik told him to put Ralph on the hockey team, no tryout. Riley did. But Ralph had never played hockey, he was a basketball player in high school. He was from MA so he probably could skate and had actually probably played a little pickup hockey as a kid but had never been on a team. Blaik's strategy was to get him involved in another sport before he could leave and it worked, obviously. You will recall that Ralph was a fearsome hockey player. He said, I didn't know anything about hockey but I could hit so that's what I did.

Also, you may recall that he had pretty good grades. He said he got higher grades every year as he learned how to study. He had never taken a book home or done a minute of homework prior to entering WP. Sound familiar, jsvibtec?

Palmer

From: Stan Bacon
Date: Thu, 28 Aug 2008
To: USMA 1958 I-2 Classmates
Subject: Re: Ralph Chesnauskas

My first close-up and personal with Chester was shortly after Reorg Week plebe year when he stopped me coming out of the Mess Hall on the stoops of the 43rd div. with "Hey Mr. Bacon, come here! How much do you weigh?" I weighed 125 lb. by then. He grabbed me by the waist and collar of my dress coat and tossed me to Dick Fadel who in turn tossed me to Flay Goodwin and back to Chester. All were laughing but me.

On another occasion we were seeing off the football team as it climbed on the bus to go to a game. Bob Kiaski made some smart remark to which Chester replied, "Hey Kiaski, you want I should make your head roll down the street?"

Stan

From: Phil Gibbs
Date: Thu, 28 Aug 2008
Subject: Re: Ralph Chesnauskas
To: USMA 1958 I-2 Classmates

Yearling year I roomed with Mike Daley & Dale Cockle on the 2nd floor 44th Div,we had the front room on the left as you faced the Bks from the area. The room across the way was occupied by Nick Robinson,and Flay Goodwin. They were the playful type of cows, break your arm, etc. As yearlings they used to put John Burt in a barracks bag and throw him out in the hall of the 44th div.

Chester Chesnauskis and Bill Cody occupied the 1st floor room in the 43rd div, I don't recall if the I-2 orderly room was there at the time. I think it was. One night after supper, our two playful baboons from the 44th decided to visit Chester and Bill. They went into the room had their pleasantries and then proceeded to strip Chester's bed, dump his books and his wall locker all in the matter of a few minutes. Chester was slow to react but very volcanic. His roar brought our room to the window where we watched Goodwin dash from the 43rd to the 44th and Robinson hightail it through the sinks to their own room on 44th div 2nd floor.
They beat Chester to their room and promptly barricaded themselves therein. Chester pushed and shoved and could not get into their room. finally, he went to the latrine and discovered some of the BP floor wax and some rags. He brought these items to the base of their door borrowed a match and set them on fire. It was quite a nice fire and no one was going to stop Chester. Faced with a holocaust the two cows decided to face Chester -- that was still not a good idea. Chester won.

I attended the 1996 reunion for 56 and was a guest of Bill Schrage and Gene Lynch. I spoke with Chester about this episode in his life and he sort of downplayed it as I really could not have done that -- but he did -- and the two cows never bothered him again.

I also met Walt Muller about a year ago. You all of course remember the standoff June week 1955 at the mrsshall tables. They poured milk, water and all the other food on each other over a silly little game of butter target practice. The problem was the target: Muller's neck.

Phil Gibbs