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65th Reunion Comments About Cadet Chapel and West Point
Cemetery
Jim Oals thinks one of the most impactful moves made for this reunion was to
decide to conduct the Memorial Service in the Old Cadet Chapel.
The beauty and majesty of the Cadet Chapel would have been an equally
impressive setting. But the size of our group, the simplicity of travel (or lack
for need of same), and the opportunity to spend quite time in the West Point
Cemetery before the service made the Old Cadet Chapel a perfect choice. I do not
need to spend many words on this since video captured by Chan Eiland at the
service will allow you to follow most all of it. Simply go to the Class Web Page
and watch, look or read what Sam Weiss has posted. You will also find a copy of
the program that Ed Brown carefully put together and a map showing the location
of the graves or burial places of classmates. Ed told me that Leigh Major put
that together and it was indeed helpful in finding grave sites. Leigh had
purchased roses for us to take to place at the burial sites. She and her husband
Ted had also spent several hours on Thursday marking each site with a card to
allow us to more quickly find the graves.
Since I was the only person from my Company I-2 attending, I had five
stops to make. Dave Price, Ron Hannon, Chuck Westpheling, Dick Buckner and Jim
Goldstine are buried there. From an earlier visit to the cemetery in 2019 I knew
the general location of Dave’s grave and knew that Ron and Chuck were in the
Columbarium in the basement of the Old Cadet Chapel. Ann and I had
attended Dick Buckner’s funeral and knew where he was located. Actually, Rod
Grannemann had asked if he and Jan could place the rose at his site since they
had been close to the Buckners during their time in the service. I willingly
agreed.
The only site I was not familiar with was where Jim and Lynn Goldstine
were buried and Leigh’s map provided the answer. When I found the location, with
the help of Will and Kathy Conley who were in the same area visiting Dutch
Welsh’s grave, I asked them to make a picture of me at the Goldstine’s monument.
From there I paired up with Todd Counts and the two of us went to the other
sites of men from my and Todd’s (H-1) company and ended at Dick Buckner’s
site in the new Columbarium wall. He wanted a picture there to show
Dick’s wife Trish who lives near Todd in Gainesville, VA.
By the time Todd and I finished our pictures it was about time for the
service to start in the chapel and I needed to coordinate with the organist, but
my time in the cemetery, along with Todd, will be a lasting memory of the 65th
Reunion at West Point.
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