Lewis Cortez Olive

West Point, 1955

Be Thou At Peace

Posted by Carl J. Bossert on October 12, 2009:

Lew and I were members of the freshman track team. Lew ran the one and two mile events, and also ran cross country. We became friends freshman year. During that year on the return trip from a Syracuse cross country event, Lew rescued a child from a burning building. He left without leaving his name, but someone recognized his West Point uniform. He received the Soldier's Medal at a parade in his honor that year. As sophomores our track team went with the track teams from Oxford and Cambridge to the Bear Mountain State Park restaurant where they served a steak dinner. The steak was so large that it lapped over the edge of an oblong plate. The British teams had never seen a portion of meat that large, since they had meat rationing at the time. In our junior year Lew placed first in the Heptagonal cross country race. The Heptagonal is the name for track events with the Ivy League schools. That same year at the Heptagonal Track Championship, he placed first in the one mile run 4:20.9. One of these first place wins was the fourth best time in the country for that year. Lew had run track at another college in California before he came to West Point. Therefore he was not allowed to participate in track our senior year, although he was elected captain of the team for that year. After our graduation from West Point he came to St. Louis for a visit with my family on our way to Malden Air Force Base in Missouri. Later on Lew invited me to his church wedding in Kentucky which I attended. All of his family members were present. I remember him as a cheerful and a caring person, who was a good friend. Carl J. Bossert B-1 641 Hickory Lane St. Louis, Missouri 63131 314-965-3456

admin