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View a eulogy for Neville Colburn, USMA '64, who passed away on May 17, 1993.

Neville Colburn

West Point, 1964

Be Thou At Peace

Posted by Michael Griffith on April 24, 2001:

I think our whole class knew Toby. Not just to know his name, but he was known as a fun-loving, hardworking guy who would stop to help a classmate in a heart beat. I don't recall exactly how we selected each other to be Ranger buddies, but it happened sometime during Airborne and he became a great pal during those 9 memorable weeks.

My fondest memory, if that's possible, of Ranger School was the night we had procurred rations for our patrol, then slept through chow, chickens and potatoes. We had become the perpetual road crossing scouts for the patrol, so that night when we were sent out to clear a road we just "got lost". We were picked up by the Aggressor Forces within an hour. They gave us hot rations and a rack. When the patrol attacked the objective five hours later, Toby and I were sitting atop it eating Twinkies. We were 'repatriated' and spent some tense time with the tac.
Toby and I went to the ROK for our first tour, and joined about ten classmates in two sister Infantry battalions. Whenever we got together, which was very often, Toby was always there with his guitar, setting the mood, enjoying life. I hope he knows how much we enjoyed his zest for life.

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