Engineer Memoirs _____________________________________________________________________
"Newcadumpsir," Mario said without flinching. The firstie finally sorted it all out after that.
I have told that story, with encouragement from my wife, Ann, a thousand times, and Mario
has told it. We met up at a reunion 10 years ago and he said to his kids, "He's the one that
was part of the Newcadump story."
Q:
Well, you develop some strong friendships in that first year, generally, and I noticed there are
a number of engineers in your class. Every class has a number of engineers. Could you talk
about some of them?
A:
You do develop strong friendships--because of the cultural shock. They work to get rid of
the civilian in you and your upbringing and start the remolding process from a common base.
Because you endure with others the same kind of pains, deprivations, and challenges, you do
start a bonding process that carries on for a lifetime. Now, there are friends and nonfriends,
and the people you like and don't like, like every other place; but because you have gone
through a common experience, you start developing those kinds of friendships.
So, yes, plebe year you start that, but it really goes over all four years and continues beyond. I
don't know that my plebe year friendships necessarily have been the most enduring. Surely,
some of my classmates, those who have gotten out of the Army over time, we've lost contact.
Throughout the four years there were other friendships that we developed, other contacts
with other people. Jim Ellis, now retired, was in the other regiment across the way. Somehow
we met on the steps of the mess hall one time, started talking, and developed a start of a
friendship. We have been assigned together many times, gone to civil school at the same
time, been in 3d Armored Division together, and
later I followed him. I followed him in the 82d
Airborne Division; I followed him into Fort Belvoir.
I don't know if we met plebe year or not, but it was
early on there that we met.
Another classmate, Jim McNulty--whom I don't
recall meeting as a cadet--went engineers, and I
went engineers. We met at Fort Belvoir in the basic
course and went on to the Ranger School where we
were buddies. That is another place where you have
the bond of enduring and going through a tough
experience very closely, and so we have been fast
friends over the years.
As a group, our class has remained close. We still
meet quarterly for lunch at Fort McNair. I went to
the last one a week ago. There were 30 classmates
there. We must have 80 to 100 in the area. So, those
Cadet "Sam" Kem
kinds of bonds remain.
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