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View a eulogy for Fidel Valdez Ramos, USMA '50, who passed away on July 31, 2022.

Fidel Valdez Ramos

West Point, 1950

Be Thou At Peace

Posted by Thomas E Anthony on August 2, 2022:

Fidel V. Ramos is a personal hero. He was a great General and President of the Philippines. We met as members of the West Point Society of the Philippines in Manila. I was writing a novel "Rebels of Mindanao" and he ordered me, "Do not to cross over the valley". I knew what he meant and a few months later back in Manila, I reported, saluting, "Sir, I crossed over the valley." He ordered me to do twenty pushups, and he hit the floor with me and we did the pushups together.
Coincidentally at a West Point reunion we and our wives sat together by the Plain while the Corps passed in review. We walked around together after the parade; he was not recognized by the cadets as the President of the Philippines.
My wife and I lived in Davao, but when I would get up to Manila to watch the Army-Navy game on TV at the US Embassy or HQ Philippine Army, or in Manila on business, he would let me ride with him in his convoy to the occasions. At our last meeting, he went into detail about his opinions on the continuing conflict in Mindanao and inspired me to continue to write about it from my perspective with his insight.
His motto, "Care, Share and Dare" was inspiring for me and for his nation.

 
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