John Scott Hardy

West Point, 1955

Be Thou At Peace

Posted by Preston Mayson on November 12, 2004:

John Scott Hardy I really don?t quite know where to begin, so I?ll just talk. So many years ago, John and I were truly very close friends. I roomed with him at Sullivan?s School in Washington DC (our third roommate at Sullies? was Don Hilbert ?55) preparing for the entrance examination to West Point. Later, John & I were assigned to the same company at West Point and for three years John, Stan Sydenham & I were roommates in L-2. In fact the three of us were so close back then, that when we saw each other again at an L-2 ?muster? in Hendersonville, NC (I believe the only time since graduating that all three of us were together again), the three of us sat up and talked deep into the early morning hours after all our other L-2 classmates were long asleep. I greatly admired John. He was very bright as I am sure we all know, also very independent and a little distant in his relationship with others. I do not know even today if he was simply shy or kept his distance for other reasons. Whichever, it likely was a good trait for any military officer and I am sure he was a good pilot and commanding officer. I do want to tell you one interesting story about John. When we were studying one night at Sullies, John looked out the window and noticed a male figure using binoculars on the roof of an apartment building next door. Sullies was in an old home in a nice residential area. After watching this man for a while he correctly concluded that the man was a peeping tom, called the police who, along with John, trapped the man on the roof and arrested him. Even before West Point, John had strong beliefs as to right & wrong and acted on those beliefs. Anyway, even though John & I did not keep up with each other very well, he is a happy memory in my past and I can still see him sitting at his desk at Sullies and West Point expounding on something esoteric and twirling a pencil in his fingers as he talked (a habit of his back then). ?Be Thou at Peace,? Preston Mayson, L-2, USMA ?55

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