The Sacrifice is Real

laxdad
Sat, 27 Aug 2005 18:41:59 +0000

The West Point version of USNA’s “golden bond” is called the Class Ring Memorial Program. Graduates’ class rings are donated back to the Academy after they pass away and are melted down into an ingot of gold. The ingot currently includes gold from rings dating back to the 19th Century. Each year there is a ceremony at the foundry in which some gold is taken from the ingot and added to the gold that produces the rings the graduating class receives early in their Firstie year. Thus, each class ring carries a small piece of the Long Gray Line. (Information is from the Class of 2005 Ring Banquet program.)

This is Ring Weekend for the Class of 2006.

The fifty-year bond is also strong at West Point. Representatives of the fifty-year class attend the R-Day oath ceremony, do the 15-mile Marchback from Lake Frederick at the end of Beast (remember that these guys are around 60), and participate in every major class milestone over forty-seven months. At graduation each grad is handed a set of inscribed “butter bars” by a member of the fifty-year class.

The bonds at these institutions are powerful.

Go to Laura Walker’s eulogy site and read some of the messages. Don’t expect to keep dry eyes, though. As a plebe, one of our sons was in her company. He said that she was one of those perpetually positive people who make everyone around them better. A tragic loss.