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August, 2002; Page 7  

(2006 Cont.) 

We received a phone call from him this past Sunday, July 14th and he was allowed 5 minutes.  He sounded like he was coming down with a cold and of course typical Mom that I am I told him to get some medicine.  Austin also told us that he would probably be calling again this weekend because he will probably be at his sponsor’s home and asked that I gather everyone at home around the speaker phone if they want to hear from him ‘coz he’ll probably only have another 5 min. He uses the toll free number that I got before he left for West Point to make things easier for him and I also got him a phone card and he says it really helps knowing he can call all the time without having to look for change. 

Carl Fisher: This has been a very good week for the Fisher family.  We received Carl’s 5-minute and 30 minute calls, 3 letters, and 2 surprise emails written while he was at a validation interview.  They all continue to encourage us that he is in the right place and happy to be there.  Carl has been fortunate to have a great roommate who attended USMAPS last year who has helped him tremendously with the military matters, a good cadre, a room assignment near the bathroom and stairs keeping him somewhat out of harms way, and feet with few blisters!  He has loved the military exercises he has completed including the crawl in the mud under the barbwire and shooting 20 blank rounds from his M-16.  He has also enjoyed the Chapel on both Sunday and Wednesday. He has been upbeat in each communication and said that he has enjoyed seeing how he can handle the pressure of West Point.  He expects re-org week to be as much pressure as R-Day but looks forward to it. 

Matthew Green: Matthew was thrilled with his appointment to USMA just a week and a half before R-day.  Thank you to all who encouraged and prayed for him.  He has been known as New Cadet No Name since, with his late appointment, none of his uniforms have his name on them.  He is taking it all in stride and sounds like he absolutely loves being at West Point.  Since we stayed in the area after R-day we went to West Point for the Fourth of July for the concert and fireworks.  They were very impressive and LOUD!  We saw him march by afterwards and he looked great.  He actually wishes his brother were cadre for Beast even if it would mean extra pushups. 

Michael Riccitiello: Our son, Michael, is in C-4.  He is really enjoying himself.  He told us that he is on the 6th floor and for the first week, his legs were killing him but he’s gotten used to it.  His roommate is from Gainesville, Fl.  Michael said he really enjoys both his squad and platoon leaders and has learned a great deal from them already.  He made us laugh with his story about “bonding” with fellow cadets by sitting around, spit shining boots and singing the Alma Mater.  He was very grateful for the Ice Cream Social Sunday.  His host family lived on a lake and the cadets were able to swim before a dinner of barbecued ribs.  Heaven.  Our only surprise was to learn that Michael had signed up to take German.  He has had several years of Spanish so we assumed he would continue with that.  He stated he wanted to try something new.  He (and we) are looking forward to A day – we are going to make the trip up and will have our “Welcome back Florida Cadets” sign prominently displayed.

Planning Dates

As of 24 June 02 

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