Classmates and Wives/Widows--

      I must begin with another loss since December 2018 (January class notes) -- I received a call from Don Parker, oldest son of our classmate Bill Parker, informing us that his father died on 2 January 2019.  The funeral service will be on Friday, 25 February, in Port Charlotte (Florida) following the 0830 daily Mass.  Son Don estimated that the funeral should be about 0930 at St Borromeo Roman Catholic Church.  Scribe hopes that some classmates can attend Bill's funeral.  Bill's wife Claudia predeceased him, dying on 9 Jan 2010.  I plan to send these class notes well before the funeral to help spread the word.  No doubt you received the email from WPAOG informing us all about Bill's death.  And, I must get this sent before Bill's funeral on 25 Feb.

      My dream as Scribe is to write some class notes which do not require anyss and a corrections.  This did not happen with the January 2019 notes you recently received -- both a loss (above) and corrections (here).   I screwed up with turn-backs from class of 1957 who joined our class.  I overlooked or omitted Chuck Toftoy who joined us Cow Year from 1957.  Chuck, as the 21st turn-back makes my numbers work out correctly.  I also failed to mention Jim Wessel, who joined our class as a recognized Plebe from the class of 1957.  No doubt your are all confused, therefore, I will repeat and correct the infomation on those who joined our class after those of us who entered as Plebes in July 1954.

      From the class of 1956 we gained one: Bud Davenport (E2).  He came to us after having been medically turned-back to the class of 1957 and then academically found and turned-back to class of 1958.  Bud joined in August 1956 as a Cow.  I first knew Bud as an Army Brat at Ft Leavenworth while our fathers were students at CGSC.

     From the class of 1957 most joined us as recognized Plebes, some joined us as Yearlings and some joined us as Cows.  I will include the companies so that CCQs can check my information.  First the 13 who joined as Plebes: Bob Baker (H2), Tom Cameron (C2), Barry Eveleth (G2), Charlie Glover (I2), Fred Goodenough (K2), Jack Halsey (M1), Bill McCaffrey (M2), Bob Munger (H1), Bill Smith (A2), Carl Sullinger (L2), Jude Theibert (M1), Cliff Victorine (H1) and Jim Wessel (I1).

      Yearlings when they joined us from 1957 were three: Rosie Rosetto (K2), Bill Shepherd (B1) and Bruce Trott (I1). 

      Cows when they joined us from 1957 were five: Gene Fisher (L2), John Herren (G2), Dave Kyle (M1), John McKillop (B1) and Chuck Toftoy (E2).  The total turn-backs from 1957 through Cow year were 21.  We had no additions as Firsties.  We did have five losses as Firsties: three resigned, another was honorably discharged for deficiency in Conduct and fifth was discharged in May.  The one discharged was basically for honor but the matter was handled by a board of officers rather than the Honor Committee.

     For the record, Chuck LeMere was qualified to enter with 1957, but actually entered with us on 6 July 1954.  In error I included Chuck with the turn-backs from 1957 -- he actually was not a turn-back, but a late arrival.  This helped lead to my omission of  Jim Wessel among the 21 who entered in 1953 with class of 1957 -- Jim joined us in August 1954.

      USMA Registers (little gray paper-backs of which I have five years worth, 1954 through 1958) reflect at total of 573 grads in our class.  One joined us from the class of 1956, 21 joined from the class of 1957 and 551 who entered on 6 July 1954 - names above.  All graduated in 1958 (over three days in June).  We had no additions as Firsties.  The USMA Register numbers do add up to 573, which is the number we graduated.  I think we had 753 total who entered 6 July 1954.  We lost many, gained 22 who graduated among our 573 and gained others who did not graduate.  Not sure what the grand total is other than the 573 who graduated in 1958.  There were another 28 who began with us and were turned-back.  Plus one who joined us from 1957 and graduated in 1959.  Of course, there was one who started with us and graduated in 1960.  This adds up to a total of 603 graduates who at one time or other served in class of 1958.  I believe we entered Beast with 753 cadets.  Add to them our turn-backs from 1956 and 1957.  I do not have the total number who served with our class.  Maybe another day for the total who served in 1958 as cadets.

      More News.  Those on the Forum received a great report from Tony Smith about the WPSDC lunch at Ft Myer today and our talk from the First Captain.  Sorry more classmates did not make it.  I do not know how Tony did his email report with no notes.  Maybe that is why he was third in the class.  The closest I came to Tony was roomming with Jim Hall First Class year and during EOBC after graduation.  Jim was number four.  Tony's email makes being on the class forum worthwhile.  Your Scribe gets much of our class news via the class forum.

      An email from Bob Rhodes to Tom Morgan on which I was copied contained  info on Battle of the Bulge.  Bob wrote: "Thought of you during our recent 74th commemoration of the Bulge in DC this past December. We will return to Belgium and  Luxembourg this coming December (2019) for the 75th commemoration - God willing!  You are the only classmate I know of who is similarly aware of the sacrifices of these nonagenarians who saved the world during the 1944/1945 ‘Bulge.'  Even though we studied the battle in the Military Art classes, I have found no others."

      Your Scribe knows that Bob Higgins' father was Assistant Division Commander of 101st Airborne Division in Bastone during the Battle of the Bulge.  Meanwhile my father just missed the Battle of the Bulge because of being wounded and evacuated to Staten Island Hospital in New York.  Lucky for him (and me) because his replacement battalion commander was KIA in Europe as was his predecessor shortly after D-Day in Normandy.  No doubt many of our fathers were in Europe for the Battle of the Bulge, one of the epic battles of WW2.

      A mystery from the 60th Reunion is solved.  Anne Russell is a name on the 60th Reunion attendee list under L2.  Margie and Jack Downing have run down the connection via Bob Shellenberger CCQ of L2 -- Anne is the daugher of Dave Turner.

      Sprint Football.  Here is info via Dick Schonberger, one of our lettermen in 150 Pound Football.  "Here's some background that you might find useful.  When we played it was '150 lb Football,' it morphed through 'Lightweight Football' and is now called 'Sprint Football.'  The weight limit has shifted from 154 Lbs when we played to 178 Lbs today.

      "The Coach, Mark West, a 90's-era player and grad (class of 1991 your Scribe thinks), has done a great job with the program and I'm told the 150 Lb/Sprint teams over time have the highest winning percentage of all Army sport teams. One of the things Mark has done is to organize 150 Lb/Sprint reunions each August with lots of social gatherings and featuring a scrimmage between former players and the current cadet team.  My introduction was in 2017 following the Class Leaders Conference, when I found myself as the oldest grad attending the Sprint Reunion (by ten years) and found there was a great interest in how the program began since there was little info available.  I wound up as the guest speaker at the dinner and my presentation seemed to be well-received.

   "During the weekend, I mentioned to Coach West that we got Minor A's when we played (and graduated about seven months after that first season).  He seemed surprised and said something like, 'I can fix that.'  First he said he would send me a Major A, then reconsidered, and challenged me to get all of our '58 players to the next reunion (in 2018) and he would present them at the team dinner.

      "And that is how the Major A's came to be awarded to our five team-mates.  Brad Johnson, Bill Shely, John Brinson and I attended the weekend last August (2018).  Jude Theibert didn't make it, and the Coach said he would mail the letter to Jude.  What a great moment it was!   Following dinner, the Coach called us up to receive our Major A's in front of all those players and families that followed us.  Brinson said there were players from 48 different classes attending.  What a great group to recognize and share our unique experience.  We were encouraged to submit this to Guinness (sp?) for longest time between winning an athletic award and then receiving it......61 years."

     Scribe is pleased to add, CONGRATULATIONS to our 150 Lb/Sprint team members and their Major A's.  Well deserved award even if late delivered.  Old expression: Better late than never.  And, just in case your did not remember, our Sprint Team defeated Navy that first year!  Navy was the strong favorite, having played 150 Lb football for a number of years and were the league champs in 1956 -- displaced by Army in 1957.   I am sure that all remember that Army's 1957 season was our first year playing 150 Lb football.  In addition to beating Navy, Army won the league!

      Distinguished Graduate of AOG.  The past three years our Executive Committe has nominated Bill Tuttle for this award.  I was just notified by Jack Bradshaw and Andy Andreson that Bill was not selected again this year.  Your Scribe would have voted for Bill, but I did not get a vote.  Next year our nominee for Distinguished Graduate will be Alan Salisbury.  I will keep you posted via Class Notes.  If someone can provide the information, I would love to know who our class nominated in the prior years.  Pretty sure that Butch Saint is a Distin  Good excuse for me to call the WPAOG and ask for the information.

      "War is hell."  I just ran across a clipping with a longer quote from William Tucumseh Sherman.  We are all familiar the shorter quote "War is hell" which comes from a longer remark or writing by Sherman: "I am tired and sick of war.  Its glory is all moonshine.  It is only those who have neither fired a shot nor heard the shrieks and groans of the wounded who cry aloud for blood, for vengeance, for desolation.  War is hell."  Amen adds your Scribe.

      From John Brinson who has been tracking mortality (longevity) of the class: "Thanks ! I’ll try to do an accurate projection.  My goal is to encourage our Classmates to take heart and stay in good health.  I would love to see a group of us make it to an 80th reunion - even if I’m not alive too see it!"

      Your Scribe doubts that many (or any) of us will make to our 80th reunion in another nineteen years, however, I do hope that many make the 70th, only ten years away when we will be our 90s.  And some should make the 75th in 15 years when we will be in our high 90s.  Scribe hopes to make them both and see John there as well.  Who knows?

      From Tom Morgan: "Founders Day is upon us and out here at Joint Base Lewis/McChord (JBLM) and it will be 30 March at the McChord Club again. I gave the "Oldest Graduate" speech last year and I suspect that as a former President of our local society, I will be tabbed to give it again.  Palmer, I used some of the things that you sent me for last year's speech and they seemed to go over fine.  Therefore, I am soliciting material from you two raconteurs for this year's speech.

     "The Army has changed a lot since we 'shed our Cadet Gray,' and I like to remind younger 'grads', even GOs, that they do not know as much about West Point history and traditions as they think they do  - in a humorous vein of course. Therefore, if you have anything that you think that I could share with our local Society members, please let me know.

      "Just as an aside, I am somewhat surprised at how the Army is 'reinventing' the wheel these days and is bringing back the 'pinks and greens' although they are careful now to call them 'Army greens' because enlisted men never wore 'pinks and greens' in the old Army.  And the PT standards are swinging way off the charts again (throwing a medicine ball over the head backwards seem illogical because I always thought that the enemy was supposed to be in front of us.)  Also, the new Security Force Assistance Brigades (SFABs) are springing up all over the place and I always thought that was the Special Forces mission.  And, they are now considering mounting 155mm artillery tubes on the back of trucks.  Wasn't that they idea of the old self-propelled artillery?  Anyway, I always like to hear from you guys so please send me some good stuff.  Tom"  Thanks to Tom Morgan for great memory (his) and memories (ours).

      Your Scribe encourages any classmates who have info about the Army or uniforms or PT tests for Tom, please contact him via his email (tmorgan58@hotmail.com).

      Oldest Grad in Portland area.  Note from Tony Smith to Terry Connell on Terry's becoming the oldest grad in Portland OR area: "Thanks, Terry.  Congratulations (I think) on becoming the Oldest Grad.  One of the benefits of living in the DC area is that '58 is not yet at the front of the Old Grad queue.  Warmest regards to you and Harritett, Tony"  Please note the double "t" in Harriett.

      Actually, the the Connell couple is replete with double letters: Terry, Harriett, Connell.  Double "r" (both names), double "t" along with double "n" and "l." Does any other couple in the class have more or even as many double letters in their names?   Doubt it.  Your Scribe is seeing "double" and may have missed some of their letters.  I always have trouble with Terence because it does not have a double "r" inspite of being doubled in our Locator, but not in the Register of Graduates or our various reunion books.  It is getting late and this old grad needs his sleep.  Stopping for now.

      Back at it and this is from the WPSDC flyer: Tuesday, 5 February, 6:15 - 8:30 PM, Wounded Warrior Mentor Program New Mentor and Refresher Training at Booz Allen, Tysons Corners.  The mission of the Wounded Warrior Mentor Program (WWMP) is to assist Wounded/Ill and Injured Soldiers, including Spouses, to transition to a new productive life and profession using education, internships and jobs as the mantle to accomplish this.  The WWMP matches volunteer Mentors with WWII servicemen/women at Walter Reed NMMC and Ft Belvoir as well as other locations around the US. Contact POC: Lee Miller if you have any questions at 240.620.5019 or mlmiller58@verizon.net.   Scribe adds his congratulations to Lee for his great work on behalf of wounded warriors.

      Ron Turner lives in the tradition of the annual WPAOG Ring Melt.  Here is what was written about it in an email I received from WPAOG:  In the May/June 1999 edition of ASSEMBLY magazine, Ron Turner ’58 imagined a new tradition for the West Point Association of Graduates, "…a program whereby graduates may bequeath (or graduates’ descendants may donate) West Point class rings for the specific purpose of incorporating the gold into the class rings of future graduates.  On November 20, 2000, at a foundry in Providence, RI, Turner’s idea became a reality as 29 rings and portions of two others were melted to begin what has become known as the 'Ring Melt' tradition."

      You all know that Ron died on 29 Apr 2013 and his wife Sue died on 6 Dec  2013.  But Ron's tradition is going strong some twenty years after that first Ring Melt.  Quoting further from the WPAOG email: "West Point Class Ring Memorial Program:  The Ring Melt for the Class of 2020 was on January 25^th.  For the first time ever, this event was hosted at West Point.  Read more about it here: https://www.westpointaog.org/ring-memorial-program-class-of-2020.  Did you know that we have a form on our website that you can use if you would like to will your class ring to the Ring Memorial Program?"

      Your Scribe finds it wonderful to write about two programs begun by classmates Lee Miller (Wounded Warriors)  here in the DC area and Ron Turner (Ring Melt) for the WPAOG.

      A great deal of our email traffic has been about Army basketball.  A quote from John Schaffer in an email to Tony Smith:  "Tony and all: Army also plays nearby on Saturday 16 Feb 2019 at Annapolis against league opponent Navy. We defeated Navy earlier this year at West Point by some seven points.  One nice thing this year, we will not have to watch Navy carry the Commanders Trophy onto the court at half time.  We did that this year at our home.  Go Army!"

 Scribe encourages as many as possible to attend at Crabtown to watch Army beat Navy again!

      Cadet War Stories from our day...courtesy of Hal Lyon (via 1958 Class Forum).  "I also explored all the hidden byways from building to build in the sewers and mapped out for our track team group, we called the Tarantulas, who had time to do such fun as we didn't have to march in the band-box reviews. I published an article anonymously in the Pointer about it entitled, "The Tarantulas."

On one occasion we discovered a beautiful bell mounted in the clock tower in Central area and rigged a solenoid from our noted in "Juice" class and at a winter band box Review, as each if the Ruffles and Flourishes sounded, "dum da da dum DUM" we then rang the bell. "dum da da dum DUM" BOING! but no-one even noticed and thought it was just a new way of sounding off the Ruffles & Flourishes.

      "On one occasion in North Area while we were all were preparing for a Saturday summer parade when we were cows, I happened onto an unlocked door in our barracks which was ajar, which I had always wondered what was in there as it was usually locked. I opened the door and saw a microphone in the middle of the room. I couldn't resist the invitation it offered me and I knocked on it with my knuckles only to hear a resounding 'Wam' echo throughout all the speaker systems in the area and barracks.  That was just too much temptation so I stood up to the mike and said: 'Attention all Cadets, Attention all cadets. There will be no parade today. There will be no parade today.'I then ran back into my room where my roommates were happily taking off their gear. (I believe I roomed with Frank Waskowicz, Lenny McCormack, and Dave Swanson, then but not certain.)  

      "A huge 'Whoppee' echoed throughout the barracks as the Firsties ran in and started taking off their parade uniforms to head out for weekend in their new cars... until 15 minutes later, Captain Patton's voice boomed much more authoritatively than mine saying, "Attention all Cadets! There WILL be a parade today. I say, again, there will be a parade today!"  I confessed my crime to my roommates and then began Captain Patton's investigation. Later heard that Captain Patton was going to bust the Cadet Officer of the Day, unless he found who made the parade canceling  announcement, and fool that I was I wanted to go and turn myself in, but my roommates, talked me out of it. And somehow the Cadet officer of the day was not busted to my relief.

      "Later in an unrelated incident when I was walking in the rain with a date, Captain Patton approached me and said in front of my drag, 'Cadet Lyon, You are written up for a disreputable rain coat!' He put his fingers in the small hole by the collar of my raincoat and pulled hard until it ripped a huge hole in it.'  I was tempted to say, 'Thank you Sir!' but refrained.  Then I learned what real loyalty was when Tom Carpenter, who was our Cadet Regimental Commander, stood up for me, and reported this conduct as unbecoming of an officer to General Throckmorten who I understood chewed Captain's Patton's ass.  I've always had huge respect for Tom since that day for standing up for one me as one of his undeserving classmates!  Best wishes, Hal" 

      I have more info but it will keep till next month. I hope some classmates can attend the funeral for Bill Parker on 25 Feb in Port Charlotte (details in first paragraph).  Your friendly Scribe