Pleasantly Surprised

Russell – 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.