Briefly with regard to visiting West Point, I only cried twice, once after the recruiter urged the posthumous white star recognition for his close friend's father... They pinned it on the soldeir in the battlefield, and wouldn't acknowledge it thereafter. Witnesses still live to confirm... To the children surrounding him as we walked by, overhearing, spellbound by his extemporaneous speech, he said join if you're devoted and passionate, beyond the ability... have the willingness to give yourself. You can take the man out of the military but you can't take the military out of the man.

He walked off with a limp...

It was homecoming for the graduates of 1981, of which I was one, FROM QUEENS COLLEGE, a City University, not a military academy....

The morning tatou of chopper-dropped paratroupers, guiding their chutes as they descended, surfing to the parade field on purple smoke streams, then the afternoon football game where Army mostly loses to dedicated football universities; you see, career football players get a better deal at Ohio's Kent State, but Kent State lost by three points in overtime as the kicked football came sailing at us in the sun.

The Kent State/National Guard incident occurred on May 4th, 1970. It went into Watergate Overtime.

OK, the Army team is called "The Black Knights," no, not Black Nights of the Soul. They have two mascots, the helmutted comic book black knight and the buff mule, muscles rippling washerboard style on the suffocating costume... no problem wearing those outfits for the cadets... the cheerleading girls with black warpaint on their cheeks, throwing themselves across the sidefield, bouncing, flipping, bouncing, moving fast forward, always landing on their feet.

Then the mules parade out during half-time... "A mule is the issueless offspring of a horse and a donkey..." The half-time orchestra covered "Hey Jude."

The great orchestra is sitting in the stands with percussion and horns, playing throughout the game.

Yellow low level horns blow out burial ground elephant calls. The cadets do their push-ups on the field at a touchdown. The girls flap their arms, tiny dancers standing on the the outstretched hands of the strong men.

They played against the Golden Flashes...the name of the Kent State football team.

So The Black Knights beat the Golden Flashes. !!!

Greeting the arriving freshman, blasting Linkin Park, the Eagles, Zeppeline, Modest Mouse... beer and an aromatic Bar-B-Q!

High School graduating military devotees, get to know your congressperson. Each member of congress selects two enrollees a year.

For those black nights of the soul, Bushnell Night Vision! View photons on a phosphorescent screen.

Free army visor with a completed Visa application, and you'll need the visor for the sun.

All the fodder for a wonderful essay, right here in semi-comprehensible phrase scraps... Thank you.