August, 2003; Page 5

(2005 Cont.)

Greg Van Bemden: C3- Greg was home at the beginning of the summer before reporting to Ft. Benning, Ga. for Airborne training. We were able to go up for the final weekend to see him jump and spend a little time with him at Ft. Benning. Most of our time was spent waiting for the weather to clear at the airfield then rushing to the drop zone for thrilling sights of the soldiers seemingly ripped from the planes like rag dolls before floating to the earth. Amazingly we only saw two ankle injuries though many more tangles than a mother should ever have to watch. The stories Greg told us at dinner describing the process of untangling in mid-air and the long waits in preparation to go were awe inspiring to say the least. It was one of the greatest moments in our lives to get to pin his wings on after seeing all that the paratroopers went through to get them.

Greg was able to return home with us for the 4^th of July weekend and we loaned him our car for his return to Ft. Benning for DCLT. He was with a great company that was short a drill sergeant so he was given those duties and received some real hands on experience. He loved it! They even had him teaching classes for the new recruits.

Back at West Point he has a heavy load of classes this semester, including several classes in computers and geography classes for his major; Geospacial information sciences and he is the Training Sergeant for his company. We are looking forward to his visit for Labor Day weekend.

Tye Reedy: Tye began his Cow Year by serving as a Squad Leader for the first half of Beast. This was a great and rewarding experience for him. Thus far in Tye’s West Point experience his only frustration has been not having any say in the decisions that were being made. Though he understood why, he still found it frustrating at times. However, this summer as a Beast Squad Leader he experienced his first major opportunity to be in on the decision making process and found it to be a very gratifying experience. In addition to being involved in the decision making process he found the leadership experiences he gained at Beast to be very rewarding. After Tye’s Beast assignment he was home for a week, which gave us all time to catch up and relax. Then he was off to a P.I.A.D. at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs where he had the opportunity to be evaluated and train for wrestling with some of the nation’s top wrestlers who were preparing for the Pan Am Games. Tye reported this to be a very special and beneficial learning experience. Tye called home Sunday evening, August 17th, and proudly reported that he had taken his reaffirmation oath and was committed to completing his West Point experience and serving this great country of ours!

Tania Miani: Our grand daughter, had a busy summer, first to Ft. Campbell for Air Assault school, she didn’t comment too much on that but was a platoon sergeant at Buckner for the 2^nd session, had a blast with that. She has a very full school year ahead of her. She did well last year finishing in the top 100 of her class. Looking forward to the possibility of speaking at a few high schools preceding the Thanksgiving weekend.

CLASS OF 2006

“NEVER FALTER NEVER QUIT”

James McCormick: Jimmy came home and enjoyed his 19 days off from the Point. He managed to eat, sleep, watch a lot of movies, and surf. When the surfing wasn't good on this coast he was on the East coast. His dad certainly enjoyed having his surfing partner back home.

After his stay I was a little worried about him going back to West Point. He totally surprised me. He went back with such a great attitude and is looking forward to the up coming academic year.

We have talked to him several times since he has been back at Buckner. The one thing Jimmy that has decided is that he would like to follow in his dad and granddad's footsteps and go Aviation.

The only thing that Jim is not to sure off is whether he will go out for the Marathon team again. After running in the Boston Marathon he is not sure if he wants to torture himself again. We were very proud of his accomplishment He placed 8936 out of 17046 and that is after they pulled him out of the race for 20 minutes for over hydration. His dad is now running more to try and qualify this year to run at Boston. If Jimmy decides to run and Jim qualifies they will run it together.

Heard from our son several times over this summer. He really seemed to enjoy Buckner. Made new friends and has a great attitude towards everything, which really makes his Mom happy.

Making the deans list really made him happy. His new goal is to bring up his class rank. He does great academically and needs work on the military. He is such a clone of his dad it is scary. Jimmy even surprised us by saying that he would be an escort for the Debutante Ball. He has also decided to try out for the JV Lacrosse team, Marathon team and the triathlon team. As he put it "he is going to have fun this year."

Carl Fisher: We enjoyed Carl's three weeks at home this summer. He was ready to get home and heal from a stress fracture in his leg he injured during the tennis season. We were having work done at our house so we spent the

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