Posted by R. Ren Hart on November 21, 2009:

Ernie my friend - In my memories, I still carry our many fun days, the twinkle in your eye, the delight of your laugh and the courage that was your life. I remember as teenage Soldiers at Stewart AFB, when we met, uncertainly at first, taking each others measure. Somehow, we made it into West Point... together, and as fate would have it, became roommates, laughing and sweating our way through Beast Barracks... molded in that crucible of discipline, suffering the demands of academics and learning to live with each others' foibles. We studied together into the night... and were caught in the hall by the Great Rienzi as we tried to learn valences for our chem test. We learned endurance during "the gloom period" and those bleak winter days on the Plain. Then you wrote to the gal who signed those Readers Digest letters urging you to renew your subscription, and got her to come to West Point. But by the time she announced she was coming to our Home Coming Game you were committed to the gal you had been dating and Mit had to pretend for the weekend that he was Ernie! Do you remember trying to get down to weight during Cow Year, to qualify to box in the "Light Weight" Intercollegiate Division? You told us of your dream of swimming through this wonderful stew of meat and potatoes, while starving ... keeping us in stitches, as usual. But you made your weight and won the match. Then there was the guitar as you sang "Princess Papuii has plenty papaya ... she loves to give it away", charming your listeners. Finally, one warm Spring Day we threw our hats in the air and graduated, emerging prepared for our future, standing taller, ready at every turn for life's croupier to spin his wheel. On that day, my best roommate also became my best man and the great adventure of life began. Ernie, I'd have been a better friend, but I trusted time... and now you are gone. As you know, before long we will all cross the river, and then we'll see the twinkle in your eye once more. We will laugh together again and speak of those days when once we were young, and Soldiers.

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