Posted by Joseph H. Schwar, Jr. on February 3, 2011:

I'm not sure how Mike and I got to be good friends. We were never roommates; were never in the same academic sections, far from it; he was a corps squader, my corps squad time was miniscule; he was never a disciplinary problem, I had my share of run-ins with the system. Being from Philadelphia I usually had several company mates back to the house after the Army/Navy game. I'm pretty certain Mike was among the group that came every year after that. He became a frequent visitor at my home in Philadelphia, not only for football trips but sometime just for a weekend away from West Point. I think we really got to know each other over Plebe Christmas. It had to be that our parents got to know each other at that time, while we cadets were off doing other more interesting things. Maybe that's the explanation. Out families remained friends, exchanging letters and Christmas cards until the McGees (his mother and step father) had both died. As I said we never went to class together, he being a star man; me not being one. He did tutor me a lot in plebe math. If it hadn't been for his help I might very well have been an ex-cadet. Days after graduation Mike was a member of my wedding party and later in the summer, on my way to Fort Benning, GA, Pat (my late wife) and I visited with he and his family in Kansas City for several days. I wasn't sure he was ever going to get married and then one day we got a letter (or perhaps a Christmas card) from Mike telling us about this girl he had met while he was in pilot training (near Bradenton,FL??). The next communication was that they were getting married. And the rest is history. We served together at West Point and I Mike and Bonnie lived across the street--or very close to it. Looking back on it our social contacts were not as frequent as I now wish they had been. I was a Tac; Mike was a P. Maybe that's the reason. We've lost a classmate, a company mate, and I've lost a friend.

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