Turning Back the Clock - Part Three

On Saturday night the Black and Gold Banquet was held at one of the larger hotels in the area.

This was an opportunity to bring together all the alumni, wives and guests in a social gathering. Cocktail hour was followed by a nice dinner and dancing. After a long day at Registration and a bit of a sunburn, I was ready to call it a night fairly early.

On Sunday we met for the morning brunch which was driven in doors by the weather. Maybe just a bit of unknown fate because many of us from our class had spent a few semesters working in the dining hall at the Academy during our cadet years to help off set the cost to our parents. So here we were one more time returning to the mess hall. However the brunch did not offer any SOS as we used to call Cream Chipped Beef on Toast. It was a pleasant surprise to see my old classmate Jack O'Brien show up. The last time I had seen him was not expected but during a deployment to Viet Nam, Jack was a Lieutenant Commander, U. S. Navy attached to a squadron on board the USS Ranger. We had a couple of nice memories to share at the time. He left the active service and maintained his reserve status retiring as a Captain. He went on to fly for Delta Airlines for 31 years. Now some forty years later, he was was sitting with us at the table having breakfast.

Shortly after the brunch came the Sunday parade of the cadets. How well we all remembered this event in our own cadet history. Cadets in full dress parading before special guests, parents and dignitaries. Only this time, we were the special guests as alumni to stand on the front line of the parade grounds as the Cadet Battalion passed in review honoring us. It was our final gathering of the weekend and we had great memories to take home.