I should update this thread, since he’s in his last year now. That was a blink of an eye and now he’s got a few months left before he posts to Fort Bragg and continues in his Infantry vocation.
We live just 20 miles from West Point so we’ve been able to make most big events over the years. We’re very fortunate since so many of his classmates are from all over the country and family visits are rare. To that end, we’ve had many cadets over for long weekends when they can get a weekend pass and want to get the hell out of there for a day or two and for some home cooking. To a man, they have been gracious, polite, smart as hell, and tremendous eaters. My wife pulls out all the stops when they’re here and cooks some huge meals, as happy as could be.
About a month ago we were there for his Class Ring Weekend ceremony. West Point does such a nice job with this as with most things: they take donated rings from prior graduates and melt the gold back in with the new rings so each ring has strains of gold from nearly every year going way way back... “The Long Gray Line”
Today we just returned from there watching his team compete in the Sandhurst Military trials- 30 hour competition where they ruck over 30 miles burdened with all their equipment, and conduct shooting, swimming, and physical obstacle courses as a team. It’s an amazing event and makes you proud to know that this country can still produce young men and women of this caliber. It’s a wonderful environment and he’s made life long friends. It’s just unreal that it is nearly over and getting very sobering now as deployments begin to loom.
