Suzanne Rice

Jan 04 2021

U.S. Military Academy Admissions Stories – 1976-2000

One of the jobs I had in the Army Reserve was an Attachment to the United States Military Academy as a Military Academy Liaison Officer, in addition to being Assigned to the Army Corps of Engineers, New York District. I worked in Western New York centered in Rochester with two other more senior officers at first, and when they moved on, I was the senior man and recruited two others to work with me. I interviewed candidates for the Military Academy and advised them of the opportunities afforded by West Point and by the Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC), as a college option. I always told them that West Point was hard, and that they wouldn’t like it, but that it was very worthwhile. Most years, the area that I covered produced at least seven cadets. I loved being the top guy, as I was the last several years I was in Rochester. It was also nice to see how the cadets had matured during their years at West Point. When they were home on leave at Christmas time, we had a social event, inviting that year’s candidates to meet them. We had another event to send off the new cadets who were entering that summer. It was also nice to receive an Army Commendation Medal and later a Meritorious Service Medal for the work I did as a Reservist for the Military Academy. I did that for thirteen years, 1976-89. Then, I became the Associate Director of Admissions at West Point as a Department of the Army civilian employee.

**Emblem of the Admissions Office, West Point**

I was responsible for 4 three-day visits by high school guidance counselors, and one Admissions Participant Conference. I led the Invitational Academic Workshop each June, where about 400 rising high school seniors would come for a week-long program. Also, to be conversant with what the Admissions Officers were doing, I was responsible for the admissions files for the state of Kansas and was the officer on duty for the day on a rotating basis, for calls that came in from anywhere. I left Admissions after four and half years and went to work for the Army Corps of Engineers in the West Point Resident Office. As a reservist, I became a Drilling Individual Mobilization Augmentee and went to work in New York City once a month, first at New York District headquarters, then later at the North Atlantic Division headquarters.

When I was promoted to Colonel, in 1997, I again became a Military Academy Liaison Officer. Although I wasn’t the senior officer, I was the only one who had actual experience in the Admissions Office. I usually answered any questions posed by parents when candidates were taking the Physical Aptitude Exam in the West Point Gym. The exam took about an hour: it was pull-ups for men or a flexed-arm hang for women, a standing long jump, an awkward positioned basketball throw, and a 300-yard shuttle run. It counted 10% of what West Point calls a Whole Candidates Score but must be passed or the candidate is disqualified. (Sometime, more recently, that test was changed. The pull-ups or flexed arm hang remains. So does the basketball throw. The standing long jump was eliminated. The shuttle run was changed to 40 yards. There are now two minutes for modified sit-ups, two for push-ups, and a one-mile run.)

The parents asked lots of questions. I particularly remember how I answered some. A parent asked, “When will we know?” I said, “Well, Sir, you never know for sure, so don’t give up hope, but most offers are made by mid-March. Make sure to complete the file, because even if not offered admission, you might be offered USMA Prep School; Civil Prep, a program where students could go to a civilian school for a year and be provided special consideration under terms acceptable to the NCAA (funded by donations to USMA); or a three-year advanced ROTC scholarship. “Then, I told this story. A father from Kansas (First District, in the Kansas City Metroplex area) called asking that same question, and I gave him that response. What I didn’t tell him was that four candidates from that District already had offers of admission. I had already told this group of parents waiting for their son or daughter taking the Physical Aptitude Exam, that West Point had one of the highest “Capture Rates” of any college. Ours was always around 75%. That meant that for an entering class of 1200 students, we would offer admission to 1600 candidates. As an aside, when I visit candidates in their homes, I explain that Service-Connected nominations come from the President, who has 100 vacancies to fill each year, offspring of Active Duty or Retired soldiers; 100% disabled veterans, who have 12; ROTC and Junior ROTC who have 20. Soldiers, either Active Duty or Reserve get 170, with most coming from USMA Prep. Congressman and the Vice President have a total of 5 vacancies to fill throughout the four-year program. Most have one vacancy to fill each year, and two every fourth year. For every Congressional vacancy coming open, the congressman can nominate ten.

**The Long Road to a West Point Appointment**

There are three classes of Appointments. Vacancy Fills, 150 Congressionally-nominated Qualified Alternates; or Additional Appointees from any nomination source for desired Class Size or Class Composition goals—Minorities, Women, Athletes, Soldiers, Leaders, or Scholars. In this case, of the four who were offered Appointments, two were Early Action candidates. More than 90% of those candidates accepted their offers. I figured that three out of four would ultimately accept, and since their scores were better that this man’s son, the son would not get an offer as the vacancy fill for that district, nor was he rated high enough to get an offer as a Qualified Alternate or Additional Appointee. In late March, one non-Early Action candidate declined his offer. A week later the second one did, too. The Early Action candidates waited until close to the National Reply Date, May 1, when all colleges expect answers from their offers. The last one rolled in on April 29. All four had declined. They most likely went to Air Force, much closer to Kansas than West Point. Some might have gone to Navy. We lose most decliners to the other Service Academies. So, by law, his son, fully qualified, and next in line in that district, had to be offered admission. Normally, the Congressman advises the candidate that West Point will make an offer of admission to him or her. Once the Admissions Committee meets and decides to make an offer, our office in DC is notified, and they in turn notify the Congressman. Then, we wait three days before sending a packet to the candidate. We’re not supposed to upstage the congressman. I called the house in Kansas. I told the father that his son would get an offer from West Point, but that the Admissions Committee would not meet again until May 7, and the Congressman would be notified first; he would notify his son by phone call or letter, and his son would get a packet from West Point about May 15. It brought laughter when I said that we’re not supposed to upstage the Congressman, and here I am telling a whole roomful of people that I did that. (However, I never told my boss that I did.)

The father wanted to know if he and his son could visit West Point before making a decision. I made arrangements, and they came two days later, on May 1. The Committee met on May 7, approved his offer, DC was notified, the Congressman was notified, the packet from us was sent. About ten days later, his postcard declining admission was received. He had accepted an offer from Pittsburg State University, a state school near the Missouri border. Since the other five candidates from that district had not completed their files, there was no one to fill the congressman’s vacancy that year. So, you never know.

Another parent asked what to do if her kid didn’t get selected. I related another story. A candidate from the 5th District of Kansas, which encompasses the whole western half of the state, applied. The candidate’s father was career enlisted, so she got a Presidential nomination right off the bat and applied to her Representative and the two Senators from the state. All candidates are advised to do so. She got a nomination from her Representative. Found lacking academically, she was admitted to the USMA Prep School at that time at Fort Monmouth, NJ, for the next academic year. She struggled academically at the Prep School and was not recommended for admission to the U.S. Military Academy by the Commandant of the Prep School. But as far as West Point was concerned, she was qualified. She had nominations again from the President and her Representative in Congress. Only a handful of candidates had applied in her district, most had not completed the full file, and those who had been offered admission had declined. The latest one had done so in early June. So, she got an offer, accepted, and reported with the rest of the Prep School students. She struggled mightily at West Point, had to go to the Summer Term Academic Program several summers, but survived to graduate with her class. The last I heard, she was a Major, still serving on Active Duty. The last question was “When is the best time for someone to apply?” The answer was in the summer or early fall of senior year of high school. Then, I related this story, which, I told the parents, had a tragic ending.

I was the duty officer one day in the week before Christmas. A parent called, asking for an application for his son. They lived in Maryland. I wrote down the information and sent it to the Records and Testing Office, who sends out the Pre-Candidate Questionnaire along with some materials that explain the application process. It is a quite involved process, which includes nominations from a Congressional or Service-Connected source before a candidate can be offered admission. Two weeks later, the parent called again because nothing from West Point had come. I guess it was lost in the Christmas mail rush. So, I personally sent another packet, and called the home a week later to confirm that it got there. The son sent in his Pre-Candidate Questionnaire, which showed that he was a viable candidate, so he was sent a Second Step Kit, scheduled a Physical Aptitude Exam, and a medical exam. The kit included papers to be filled out by high school officials detailing sports and non-sports leadership experiences. That counts 30% of the total score. For those keeping track, 60% of the score is for academic achievement: high school class rank and SAT or ACT scores. The Medical Exam process is administered by the Department of Defense Medical Exam Review Board, located at the Air Force Academy. They review exams for the Service Academies and ROTC Scholarships. Though not part of a Whole Candidates Score, it must be passed. The young man came for an overnight visit to West Point. I met him myself, and I was impressed. He was disqualified by the findings on the Medical Exam, but because he had a good total score, West Point recommended him for a waiver. But this was getting late in the admissions cycle. Early Action candidate had their files complete by the end of November and were acted upon in December. Most other vacancies were completed by the middle of March. Second-try candidates who’d gone on to college had their files reviewed in early April. Very few offers were made beyond that time; those were mostly vacancy fills for a Congressional district where a candidate declined an offer of admission. Late in April, the Admissions Office determined that three people, next by Whole Candidate Score on the waiting list, would be offered admission.

The son was at the top of the waiting list, but had not received a medical waiver, so he was passed over. There were no more offers of admission off the waiting list that year. The next day his medical waiver came through, good for the next admissions cycle, too. He applied again for the next year, went to college, did well, and was very likely to be offered admission when the second-try candidates were processed. Then, we received word from his family that he had been killed as a passenger in a car accident. What a shame. He would have been a great cadet and army officer.

Admissions, according to a Superintendent of West Point while I was there, is the most important part of the process; more important than Academics or Military Training. While complicated, from my experience, it is a very positive process. We look for reasons to qualify a candidate rather than to disqualify. We have some great candidates and we encourage them to complete their files. We encourage those who don’t make it on their first attempt to try again. After all, I’m the son of a man who didn’t get a nomination the first three times he tried. But on the fourth try he did, and he received a Vacancy Fill Appointment, finished first in his class in General Order of Merit, and became a General Officer.

Dec 15 2020

Decoys – 1974

I served in Korea in 1974-75 as the Battalion Signal Officer for the 1st Battalion 31st Field Artillery, an Honest John Rocket Battalion located at Camp Stanley, Ui Jong Bu, Republic of Korea (ROK).

In November of 1974 I had occasion to be at nearby Camp Casey for the visit of President Gerald Ford to the 2nd Infantry Division. As a cadet having marched in Washington, D.C. in the January 1969 Inauguration Parade for President Nixon, I found it ironic that just a few years later I would be in Korea welcoming his successor.

The preparations for the President’s arrival were intense. We were only a short distance from the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) and North Korean infiltrators were commonplace. Given that the 25th Anniversary of the beginning of the Korean War was approaching, we didn’t know what to expect from North Korea. Secret Service had been at Camp Casey for days finalizing security procedures to include using metal detectors to repeatedly sweep every foot of ground that President Ford might walk on. On the day of the President’s arrival, there were armed agents on every building top and high point in the area.

**CPT Ernie, middle, with his jeep driver and platoon Sergeant near the DMZ**

I will never forget the arrival of the President. He was coming by helicopter and we in the stands at Indianhead Field were all watching the skies. Suddenly, over one of the local mountains, you could see a huge helicopter, a Marine helicopter or a Chinook, I think, approaching the parade field at a very high rate of speed. It was surrounded by three or four smaller gunships, Cobras, I believe. Suddenly, our eyes were drawn in another direction as a second Chinook with Cobra escorts was also bearing down on the field. A moment later, a third Chinook and Cobras also approached from yet another direction.

We froze because they all seemed to be headed for a collision point right over the field. At what seemed to be the last second, two of these groups veered away. They had been decoys. With the Cobras still circling overhead, down came the remaining Chinook and out onto Indianhead Field, ROK, stepped the most powerful man on Earth, the President of the United States of America.

There were no doubters there that day. A giant cheer went up from the crowd with me screaming my head off like everyone else. I was never so proud to be an American and a member of the greatest fighting force on Earth.

Major General Emerson was (and remains to this day) one of the Army’s most decorated soldiers. Among a chestful of awards earned during his full career, the Gunfighter, USMA Class of 1947, received while in Vietnam two Distinguished Service Crosses for extreme gallantry and risk of life in actual combat, multiple Silver Stars and the Purple Heart after being severely burned while his helicopter was shot down in 1968. He got the nickname “Gunfighter” from his habit, as a Brigade Commander in Vietnam, of flying into active combat situation wearing unauthorized pistols and personally engaging the Vietcong.

Because of his distinguished career, when the Gunfighter spoke, his soldiers listened. Below is the Second Infantry Division Commander’s letter to his troops on this occasion.

I want every man in this division to know that I’m proud of his performance during the visit of our Commander-in-Chief. Over my door, there is a sign that reads, “I give a damn!” I know, and President Ford, knows now, too, that the officers and men of this combat-ready force share that attitude.

Many of you, of course, could not be present at Indianhead Field or Honson Field House when Mr. Ford honored us with his presence at the combat football and Tae Kwon Do championships. Nor could you be among those who ate lunch with him as he moved from one event to another. You had to perform your duty – duty that must take precedence over all else. But those of us that were there appreciate your contribution of time and effort, a contribution which made a momentous occasion possible.

This issue of the Indianhead devotes a great deal of coverage of the President’s stay with the “Second to None” because I want you to share the pride, excitement and emotional uplift those of us fortunate enough to be present experienced, And I want you to read Mr. Ford’s words of recognition of your efforts on behalf of our country.

These are simple words, spoken in response to what he saw and felt. They are words that reflect his immediate understanding and appreciation of the PRO-LIFE spirit and what it contributes to the defense of our country and the free world. They are acknowledgement of the rightness of our positive approach to all problems and tasks. They are an endorsement of the will to win, the will to strive and achieve, the will to give of yourself for something of lasting value.

What we have accomplished here has drawn attention and enthusiastic approval from a host of visitors. However, I know you will share my elation and inspiration to do even better as a consequence of the wholehearted acceptance and encouragement of our endeavors by the President of the United States, a man who is and always have been PRO-LIFE!

With leaders such as these, the soldiers of the Second Infantry Division were encouraged and inspired to do their best while they were so far away from home serving on Freedom’s Frontier.

Dec 15 2020

Identification Friend or Foe

After graduating from the Air Defense Officer Advanced Course, I was assigned to a Hawk Missile Battalion in Korea.

I spent the first seven months of my tour as the Officer in Charge (OIC), Battalion Operations Central (BOC) on a mountaintop just outside of Ui Jong Bu which is north of Seoul and north of the Hahn River.

The BOC consisted of a long-range early warning radar and several control consoles used to assign airborne targets electronically to the HAWK missile firing batteries. HAWK missiles were surface to air rockets with explosive non-nuclear warheads designed to destroy an enemy high-performance aircraft (jets) at medium altitudes up to about 20,000 feet above sea level. The firing battery consisted of tracking radars and six missile launchers each containing three HAWK missiles. The missiles were radar-guided so that once a radar locked on to an aircraft the homing system in the missile would follow the radar signal to the target and destroy it.

Our BOC was the northern-most US air defense radar in Korea and could detect aircraft over 100 miles north of the DMZ. We took turns pulling 24/7 duty for two weeks at a time with a Republic of Korea (ROK) radar site. More often than not, the ROK radar site would report that it was down for maintenance, so we had to fill in for it. As a result, sometimes we were on duty for a month at a time. Almost every night our radar scope would show 4 to 8 North Korean high-performance aircraft approach the DMZ in attack formation. When this occurred our ‘hot’ missile battery would begin to assume a ready to launch status. At the very last moment, the aircraft would veer east or west at high speeds. I’m sure this was a test of our readiness and a war of nerves.

Late one evening, one of the radar specialists came to me with the report that a single slow-moving aircraft track had appeared to the west and was moving steadily east below the DMZ towards Seoul. The console operators had tried several times unsuccessfully to get an Identification Friend or Foe (IFF) response from the aircraft. All civilian aircraft have a responder that constantly sends a radar signal identifying it as a friendly aircraft. The speed, direction and location on the radar scope seemed to indicate hostile intent. Since it was a single signal flying fairly slowly, we felt it could be an enemy bomber. We immediately alerted the ‘hot’ firing battery to prepare to engage. Once the aircraft moved into the much shorter range of A Battery’s targeting radar, Battery personnel determined that the aircraft was actually a commercial airliner without IFF and not a North Korean bomber. Minutes later the KAL aircraft landed safely at Kimpo Airport and a potential international incident was avoided.

The next morning our radar Chief Warrant Officer investigated the radar and determined that it had mysteriously fallen out of calibration by about 15 miles (more than the distance to the DMZ). Apparently, this was not an unusual circumstance with the vacuum tube technology of World War II vintage that made up the ‘brains’ of the radar. I was just thankful that our early warning system had enough redundancy to prevent the unintentional destruction of a civilian aircraft!

Dec 01 2020

Christmas in Korea – 1973

How to celebrate Christmas in a non-Christian country? Because I had showed up in South Korea unauthorized with only a suitcase of clothes https://thedaysforward.com/second-infantry-division-education-program-1973/, there were few options for decorations or familiar Christmas trimmings. It was hard to get to the big PX in Seoul, so it wasn’t possible to depend on that as a source of Christmas decorations for our home in a Korean house in downtown Ui Jong Bu. A soldier in 1-15 FA , who had also been in Bill’s battery in his last assignment in Augsburg, Germany, was a native of South Korea; he told us that there was a Christmas tree market in Seoul where we could find a Christmas tree. Wow! Great! When can we go? Not that easy, of course, for a battery commander to take time off to go get a Christmas tree.

When the time came, we had to catch a kimchi-cab (a tiny three-wheeled car common in Korea at that time) at the gate of Camp Stanley that was willing to take us to Seoul. That was the only way to get there in a timely manner and to have a way to get the Christmas tree back to Ui Jong Bu – can you imagine trying to take a Christmas tree on an hour long ride on a bus? A small kimchi-cab would have to do. That became the plan.

We never found the Christmas tree market. Disappointed, we had the cab driver turn around and head back to Ui Jong Bu. As we were driving through the busy streets of Seoul, I noticed a flower shop. “STOP! BACK UP.” Why? Outside, on either side of the flower shop door were two small potted pine trees. We rushed into the flower shop. Finding the owner, we tried to ask him if we could buy one of the trees. We had a language problem having to use a lot of hand signals – no English for him and little useful Korean for us. (I had taken a course in the Korean language, but I only learned practical words like how to direct a taxi cab driver to get me from Camp Stanley to our place in Ui Jong Bu: “right”, “left”, “straight ahead”.) The owner was surprised and dumbfounded by the two crazy Americans who came running into his shop at dusk waving their hands pointing to the trees outside. Eventually, he understood what we wanted. It was a hard decision for him, but he soon agreed, and we were heaving one heavy potted tree to the kimchi cab. The flower shop owner was not the first one that day who would be dumfounded by our actions.

The kimchi cab driver, already wondering what was going on, was stunned when we came towards his cab carrying the potted tree. It wasn’t so small when we tried to get it into his cab. I barely fit in the back seat with the tree, but with me and the tree filling the back seat, there was no room for Bill. He had to fit himself into the tiny front passenger seat, knees to his chin throughout the hour-long drive. Luckily, the cab driver accommodated our weird requests.

Getting back to Ui Jong Bu, we piled out of the cab, opened the gate to our Korean home and found our Korean landlords and their four children watching the spectacle. What in the world were we doing dragging a live tree into their home? (We had done other odd things that they remembered. https://thedaysforward.com/a-refrigerator-in-korea-1973/ ) Luckily, the husband worked at Camp Red Cloud only a few blocks away and knew about American Christmas customs, so that he could explain to his wife and family what we were doing.

For me, the next step was how to make the pine tree into a Christmas tree. I eventually conceived a plan (no internet purchases were possible back then). I made a trip the few blocks to Camp Red Cloud to see what they might have in their Shoppette and eventually found in the Camp Stanley PX Shoppette some candy canes, a little ribbon and got out some paper and scissors; with them I made a lot of paper snowflakes to place on the boughs of the tree.

adorns the Rice Christmas tree each year

When I was finished, the little pine tree looked festive in our Korean home. On Christmas Day we were able to go to Christmas Mass at the chapel and to the Mess Hall for dinner with the soldiers of Bill’s battery at Camp Stanley.

To extend our holiday festivities, we decided to invite the ladies that worked with me at St. Louis High School and their husbands over for New Year’s Eve. Bill had given me a beautiful Korean brass punchbowl, matching cups and ladle for Christmas along with a sewing machine. We would have punch for our New Year’s Eve party!

**Korean Brass Punchbowl, Cups and Ladle**

We decided upon having eggnog for our guests. It was homemade: lots of eggs and cream and some bourbon from the Class VI store. Our American guests liked our eggnog. We invited our Korean landlords in for some snacks and eggnog. They didn’t like it one little bit! They are not used to milk products, so it was overwhelming for them – oh, well, we had tried to be hospitable! They liked the hot buttered rum that we served, too, but the brass cups weren’t too good for the hot liquid – oh, way too hot to even hold the metal cup, let alone drink it until it cooled!

It was a most unusual Christmas season, but a memorable one! And the punchbowl, besides being a wonderful memory of an unusual Christmas, was used for many celebrations during Bill’s 27-year Army career. Even so, I don’t think we ever made homemade eggnog or hot buttered rum, again!

**This photo gives you an idea of what a “kimchi”cab looked like. We were unable to find a photo the kimchi-cab prevalent in South Korea in the 1970’s. This truck would have been better than the car to transport our tree, but then there would have been no room for Bill and me! If anyone has a photo of a kimchi-cab from the early 1970’s, please leave a comment on the story. We would love to have a copy.

Nov 21 2020

Let’s Go Skiing – 1986

I love skiing and look forward to a ski trip every winter. But, that wasn’t always the case. For many years, I had an intense dislike of skiing.

It started in the winter of 1968 – Cow Year at West Point. One lackluster gloom period Saturday, looking for something fun to do, several company classmates said, “Let’s go skiing”! I hedged on that, protesting that I didn’t know how (they had skied before). Growing up in Florida, skiing to me meant the waterborne type – I had done that. Finally, they persuaded me to go, with assurances such as, “It’s easy”; “We’ll show you how”. So, we headed off to the West Point ski slope.

Those not familiar with West Point might be surprised to learn it has its own ski slope. Called the Victor Constant Ski Area, it was named in 1946 in memory of Captain S. Victor Constant, who was the coach of the West Point Ski team from 1943-46 and an instructor in the Civil and Military Engineering Department. In 1945, he supervised the construction of the ski slope with the help of WWII prisoners of war.

**S. Victor Constant Ski Slope at West Point**

During my time, Constant Ski Slope had a single chairlift and a beginner’s rope tow.

**Skiier Using Rope Tow Similar to Pat’s Experience**

We first checked out our equipment. Skiers will remember that ski equipment was still fairly primitive at that time. Skis were all wood, not the blend of various high-tech materials in today’s skis. They were straight and not shaped. Boots were hardened leather, and bindings were metal cables that strapped the boots to the skis. I’m not even sure what appropriate ski wear consisted of then, I just know I didn’t have any.

**Wooden Skis and equipment from Cadet Days**

After getting out on the slopes, my friends spent about 5 minutes showing me how to make a “pizza slice” shape with my skis and to place weight on one ski at a time to turn. Then, they headed to the chair lift, leaving me on the bunny hill at the rope tow and said something like “practice that and we’ll check back later”. First, I had to use the rope tow to get to the top of the bunny hill. They had mentioned that you just grab it, hang on and let it pull you to the top. However, it was not that easy. Riding a rope tow is a little like learning to drive a clutch transmission automobile – you have to apply pressure, just the right amount until it catches smoothly, but doesn’t slip or jerk. Also, you have to keep your skis positioned in the ruts in the snow that have already developed from previous skiers. The first try, I grabbed too quickly went a few feet and then tumbled to a face plant. Two or 3 tries later, I grabbed successfully and rode to the top. Of course, they had not mentioned anything about how to exit. Exiting the tow smoothly requires some good timing, balance and finesse. I timed, balanced and finessed it right into another face plant.

Now at the top of the bunny hill, I was ready to ski down. I tried to remember how to do the pizza slice thing my friends had told me about and headed down. Or perhaps I should clarify – that’s literally “down”, as in travel a few yards, fall down. Get up, repeat. Once I got to the bottom, I repeated the whole scenario, without much improvement.

My friends were back to check up on me every 10-15 minutes. I knew they meant well, and were trying to coach me, but they didn’t have the ski instructor skills necessary to get me properly trained. After about hour or so of this, I realized that my fashionable ski wear (thermal underwear, jeans, and Cadet Parka), was somewhat less than waterproof. I was soaking wet, freezing, and miserable. At the next rendezvous, I informed them that this was not fun, wasn’t working for me and I was done. They offered to take turns staying with me, but at that point I was no longer interested. I headed back to a hot shower and swore off skiing… for a while, anyway.

There were two more outings. I went, against my better judgement, with a small group over spring break to a resort in Vermont. I did a little better, but still fell a lot. I even attempted the chairlift once and entertained nearby skiers with an acrobatic exit routine. The end of the day still resulted in being wet, freezing and miserable. At least, there was a big lodge to hang out in. I, and another in the group with comparable skills, ended up leaving early after one day. Then, in 1971, while stationed at Ft Carson, Co., I was once again coaxed onto the slopes by roommate skiers, who said they would show me what to do. In the 3 years that had elapsed since my last ski adventure, I had lost most of what little skill I had previously acquired, but not the results.

After that, I really swore it off, and that lasted 15 years.

Now fast forward to 1986. My skiing adventures were a distant unpleasant memory. However, at that time, my wife and I had some friends in our social circle that were skiers. I always remained quiet or just professed to being a non-skier in any discussion at gatherings, where the subject turned to skiing. But, in the winter of 1986, after listening many times to friends describing how much fun it was, I made a decision: I’m going to learn to ski – the right way.

Shortly thereafter, that same winter, my wife and I headed off on a long weekend to a small North Carolina ski resort, Sapphire Valley.

I took 2 days of lessons with a personal instructor – someone that stayed with and “trained” me full time for those 2 days. The training kicked in and I “got it”. What a difference actual lessons and training made. This was indeed fun! I turned at that point from complete dislike to, “we need to start going out west to the big resorts”.

That triggered annual ski trips out west for the next 34 years, missing going only a few times. Of course, there were more lessons to further improve skills in those first few trips. This year’s trip (2020) was just completed in early February. We covered a lot of ground over those 34 years, skiing at a variety of resorts in Colorado, Utah, Wyoming, Montana, New Mexico, Nevada and California. When the kids were younger, they went too – when we could fit the trip in as part of spring break.

And it all started with that decision in 1986. I guess it reinforces those 5 P’s we all learned (Proper Planning Prevents Poor Performance). On those first few outings, I had not done any planning – I knew nothing about proper ski wear, didn’t plan for proper training, didn’t plan for ongoing proficiency assessment and development.

I hope to continue to ski as long as possible. Most friends that ski started dropping out a few years ago: too old, too expensive, too cold, too much hassle, too tiring, too hard on the legs, too hard on the knees, and similar reasons. Aging does take its toll. On the most recent trip, a friend and I reminisced while riding the lifts about how the ski experience has changed for us. In our younger days, a ski trip was 6 days of skiing. Now, it’s 3. We would be at the lifts when they opened at 8:30 and catch a last ride up for one more run when they closed at 4:30. Now, we’re on the slopes at about 10:30 and done about 2:30-3:00. It’s still a lot of fun, just tempered a little for age and physical stamina.

In regard to aging, I read about an interview a few years ago with Clint Eastwood. He was asked about advice for successful aging. He referred to advice he himself was given by an older friend, which was: “Don’t let the old man in”. So, I was both surprised and inspired to see a very recent article in USA Today with a picture of Eastwood on a ski slope – he is now 89 – and skiing! I guess he took his friend’s advice.

**Clint Eastwood on the slopes with Arnold Schwarzenegger**

That makes me wonder – will I still be able to ski at 89? Will I even want to, even if I’m able? Sounds crazy and that’s a good many years away yet, but maybe it could be possible if I can stay in shape and can stay healthy. Oh, and maybe I also need to ensure that I “Don’t let the old man in”!