Robert Louis Soper

West Point, 1955

Be Thou At Peace

Posted by Bill Haas on September 4, 2009:

The Antics of Soper (Throughout Cow Year) Soper was my Best Man and a life long close friend. I roomed with Soper Yearling and Cow years, and lived across the hall from him Firstie year. His Cow Year performance was particularly audacious, and I thought Classmates might enjoy reading about some of his antics. Cow year Soper, Bill Edwards, and I roomed together. When Edwards went to Annapolis for exchange week, we had a Mid in our room. Our Mid decided that on Saturday night he would go to Highland Falls. He asked if we wanted him to bring anything back, and Soper said he would like a bottle of Old Granddad. The Mid did as asked, we had a couple of slugs, stowed the bottle in the shrunk, and went to bed. Now the shrunk was a huge ugly bookcase that had a narrow door on one end that opened into a long narrow interior compartment. It was sort of an unwritten rule that our Tac, CPT Haig, did not look inside that compartment during the week. That's where we put the bottle of Old Granddad. The following Saturday was an "open" trunk room inspection. Haig always did a very thorough job of inspecting everything on open Saturdays. As I was cleaning the room Friday night, I pulled the bottle of Old Grandad out of the shrunk and headed over to the sink. Soper asked what I was doing, and I responded that I was pouring it down the sink. He objected, "Will, you can't do that, it's Old Grandad!" I responded that we couldn't drink it because we had a Juice WPR the next morning, and we couldn't hide it because of the open inspection. Soper responded that I had forgotten course of action #3. I asked what that might be, and he responded, "We display it." I said, "Right, Soper, and we display it right here!" I walked over to the shrunk and plunked the bottle down right over the imbedded rifle rack and right in front of our absence card. Soper clapped his hands, "Absolutely perfect, Willey. Haig can't miss it there!" I argued to no avail. Soper said it would work. When I got out of the Juice PR the next morning, I headed for the orderly room. Our classmate, Durf McJoint, was the CQ and as such had accompanied Haig on his inspection and had written quill dictated by Haig. I asked Durf if we had gotten any quill, and he said we each got 3 demerits for displaying unauthorized bottle in room. I asked him what happened. He said Haig walked in our room and came to a dead standstill staring at the very prominent bottle of Old Granddad. Finally he walked over to the shrunk, reached out for the bottle, then said, as he pulled his hand back, "Oh no they don't. I'm not falling for that one. Write them up for displaying an unauthorized bottle." Years later when Soper and I were back at USMA teaching, Haig was assigned as Deputy Com. We had a welcome back the Tac party at the club. In the course of the evening I asked COL Haig if he remembered us displaying the bottle of Old Granddad. He laughed, said he did and that it looked real. He asked, "What did you guys have in that bottle, coke and water?" I said, "No sir. It was Old Granddad." He muttered something like, "How the hell do I put two majors on the area." That wasn't the only alcohol related story with Soper. His younger sister and brother came down one Saturday to see him. They lived north and east of USMA maybe 50 miles. Soper talked his sister into going down to Highland Falls and buying us a case of Budweiser. Sope took a laundry bag to her car and carried the case to the room in the bag. I was certain that he would be stopped, but he wasn't. That night we drank it. The next morning, Sunday, we had to get rid of the empty beer cans. I suggested that we go down in the sinks, walk around to I-Company, who had a dumpster just outside their stoops. I would lift the lid carefully, and Soper could quietly slide the case of empties into the dumpster. Sope declared that would be un-sportsman like. He shouldered the case of empties and clad only in his skivvies and house slippers marched across the area to the dumpster, sat the case down, flung the dumpster lid open with a horrendous clang, held the case up and emptied the cans (with many loud rattles) into the dumpster, slammed the lid closed, brushed his hands together in a 'that's done' fashion, and strolled casually back across the area. Soper viewed the Blue Book (the book of cadet regulations) as a challenge to his ingenuity as opposed to a set of rules to be obeyed. He devised a set of strong rubber bands attached to the cover blanket of his bed and the bed frame. When he got up in the morning he would slam his fist into the middle of the mattress, which made the mattress jump. When it did the rubber bands kicked in, pulled everything tight, and his bed was made. He decided one evening to devise a way to get a few winks of extra sleep. Sope reasoned that if he did not have to put on socks and shoes, that he could save at least a minute. So, he painted his ankles and feet with liquid black sole dressing. The next morning he got his extra minute then raced down the steps with the rest of us, skidding into formation just as the last notes of reveille were sounding. The OC had picked our company to inspect that morning, and it started raining. We were in the back rank. By the time the OC got to us, the rain had washed the black sole dressing off of Soper's feet. The look on the OC's face reminds me today of General Halftrack's (Beatle Bailey comic) often muttered "Now what?" Sope came back from one weekend with a goldfish. We hid the fish in the shrunk until Saturday. Soper took the globe off the ceiling light, filled it with water, put the goldfish in the globe, and re-fastened the globe to the ceiling. We didn't turn on the light because we didn't want to fry the fish. Haig came in to inspect. We all stood at attention, and the CQ, per custom, turned on the room lights. Haig started inspecting, then looked down with a puzzled expression. A shadow was darting all around on the floor. Finally he looked up. We each got 3 demerits for unauthorized pet in room. At one supper formation, the company commander announced that anyone having one of the old style wood lockers should place the locker in the sinks by 1900. Soper had one of the old wooden lockers. He asked if we could have until 1930. The company commander read from the announcement in his hand. I then asked if we could have permission to leave at the 1st class light. Request denied. At the 2nd class light, Soper and I left the mess hall and ran full speed to South Area and up the three flights of stairs to our room. Sope grabbed the locker and yanked it forward to empty the contents. I grabbed one end, he took the other, and we exited the room. Just as we got to the head of the stairwell, the clock started striking 1900. Soper said, "Hoist it up here on the banister." He looked down through the stairwell, hollered, "Look out below," and shoved the thing over. It flew down the stairwell gap, hit the floor in the sinks, and disintegrated into a heap of wood. Soper did his 'that's done' with his hands, looked at me and said, "We got it down there by 1900!" He got slugged for intentional destruction of government property.

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