Preserving our history and legacy is something that may not mean a lot to us now, but in a few years and hopefully, for our children and grandchildren, it can be a wonderfully enriching resource.
10th Anniversary Legacy – Our History
The Days Forward 10th Anniversary
10th Anniversary Thoughts – Reflecting the Generations
Over the last ten years, The Days Forward has gathered a tremendous number of stories. These stories are as unique as their authors. To our authors: thank you. The Days Forward could not, and would not, exist without you.
At another level, however, their stores echo across eras. The stories of friendship, of families separated, of danger, and of joy in survival, service, and reunion would be as familiar to veterans of the First World War as they are to those who waged the Global War on Terror. In time, every class produces its war heroes, its quiet workers, its exhausted fathers and mothers, its unknown servants, and its famed leaders. To our readers, then: enjoy the opportunity to look not only into one class’s past, but into all of our futures. You will see these characters again in different forms, striding the future’s battlefields, or – just maybe, walking down the sidewalk.
10th Anniversary Musings – Pleasantly Surprised
Happy Tenth Birthday, Days Forward!
When Chris Rice (USMA ’10) and Suzanne (widow of Bill, C-3 and G-3) launched this endeavor, I was not optimistic that it would gain the traction needed for success. Our classmates had recently completed compiling the terrific Legacy book, and my sense was that for many it was an arm twist to get those essays done. We’re soldiers, not authors, right? So, not many would rise to this new opportunity to write yet more autobiography.
As often happens, I was yet again wrong, wrong. The Days Forward has blossomed into a uniquely valuable collection of reminiscences about the lives we of ‘69 have lived. No great surprise, many of us have done some really amazing stuff, way beyond anything we might have imagined, or that West Point might have imagined for us, on 4 June 1969.
Among the surprises, to me at least:
- Lots of us have stepped up and contributed an essay, or several.
- Virtually all are well worth reading, for a wide range of reasons.
- Many of the things we have done are truly amazing, way beyond the Army envelope, but all consistent with the Duty, Honor, Country ideal
- These essays have become a destination Web site for many who have no ostensible connection to West Point. Who’d have thunk it?
- Collectively, these essays represent a worthy body of literature, short stories that share with the world the experiences of a group of friends who together experienced good and hard times, knew and loved one another and their country through a unique historical time, and will soon pass into that history themselves.
Nice work, Suzanne and Chris! Pop it up! And thanks for your unique contribution to the ‘Best of the Line’ and to West Point more broadly. Your husband and dad, our classmate Bill Rice, would be so proud of you both.
10th Anniversary Experience – Rich Legacy for the Best of the Line
I first became a TDF author after the 2019 reunion. It was quite by coincidence that while standing in some sort of signup line at the reunion, standing right behind me in line was a lady I didn’t know, nor her role regarding TDF. We chatted briefly and she encouraged me to submit an article for the TDF website. After the reunion, her encouragement at the reunion was in the back of my mind, but it took until late 2019 for me to finally decide to write and submit an article.
Reading the TDF articles illuminates well the great breadth of variety in the life events, experiences and accomplishments of classmates after graduation. Some of the Authors I knew well during cadet years, others somewhat, and some not at all. Yet, with each story, I am intrigued to learn what each of us has done, experienced or dealt with. I feel each story colors in a bit more of the author’s personality/character, both for those I knew as well as those I did not know. The cumulative collection of TDF stories provides a rich legacy of the post-graduation lives of the USMA Class of 1969. This repository furthers not only our classmates knowledge of each other, but may be of historical interest to future generations.
A final comment – I and Frank Finch are the only two TDF authors of our Cadet Company (C1). So, I encourage all C1ers reading this – consider writing an article for TDF and sharing with the class something about your experiences in the last 55 years!
10th Anniversary Opportunity – Unexpected Project
“Make new friends but keep the old; one is silver, the other gold.” I sang this song thousands of times as a young Brownie and Girl Scout in the 1950’s. My experiences with thedaysforward epitomizes that old jingle. It has been a way to meet for the first time some of Bill’s cadet friends, but also to renew friendships of over 50 years. A couple of years ago, a comment came on one of my Korea stories from a soldier who had been a medic attached to A Battery 1-15 Field Artillery in 1972-73 when they were serving near the DMZ every six weeks or so. Years later, the medic earned his PhD and was a college professor. When he retired, he decided to write the story of his year in Korea. Because of thedaysforward, he got in touch with me and asked my help in his effort to write the story. I was even able to put him in touch with another classmate that had also served at Camp Stanley who was able to clear up a question the medic/PhD couldn’t find an answer to. Stay tuned for On the Edge Along Freedom’s Frontier: The Untold Story of an American Army’s Ordeal in the 1970’s Cold War Korea.What a delight to make a new friend and participate a bit in his project!