Posted by Mark Conforti on January 22, 2002:

I first met Scott in 8th grade at Patton Jr. High School at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. From there Scott and I crossed paths often. My father was transferred to Fort Lewis Washington and Scott's dad was transferred there a year later. While we went to rival high school's, we saw each other often and always considered each other friends. I fact, I often accompanied his sister Tina to Scott's athletic events even though they were the events of our cross town rival. Scott was one of those guys to whom everything came easy, much in contrast to me at least athletically. He was All State in football and baseball and went to the state chamionships in wrestling. He was homecoming King and "most likely to succeed" at anything. But despite all this success, Scott was one of the nicest guys you'd ever meet. He refused to hang around in a "group" and had time for anyone that ever approached him, regardless of whether they were an athlete, or just a "nobody" that was in one of his classes. West Point was the same way. Scott, Mike Courts, Dave Pritchard and I all were admitted into the class of 1981 from our school district. When any of our family's came to visit (Mike's more than the others due to his father's reassignment closer than FT. Lewis) the 4 of us would get together for the mini-reunion. Most of the pictures I have of plebe year are of the four of us. Scott decided he wanted to run a marathon and did. From what I understand, he was one of the most liked classmates in his company. He decided to fly helicopters like his father and was doing well. We saw each other again in Korea as we were both assigned to the 2nd ID about 6 months apart. The next time I saw Scott was when I was out running at Fort Lewis, and he caught up to me, slowed down to run with me for a while to coordinate meeting at the Officer's Club that evening, then ran off and left me in his dust! That night was when he explained to me that he had leukemia and that he had been medically retired and re-located to Fort Lewis for treatment. I spoke to Scott, his parents and his sister what seemed like often at the time to stay in touch with his progress, but now seems like not enough. I visited Scott at the hospital a couple of times, once fairly close to his passing. He never doubted he would beat his disease and always was the most upbeat person in the room. I can still see his smile beaming whenever I think of him, which is almost everytime that I receive an email, piece of snail mail, or anything else that refers to West Point. While Scott was taken much too young, he achieved more in his lifetime than many of us will in ours despite the fact that we were here longer. I know Scott is in a better place and I'm sure he's waiting to greet each one of us with that big grin as we join him at our designated time. He was a great friend and I only wish I had been given more time to enjoy his friendship.

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