Kenneth Edward Bloomfield

West Point, 1964

Be Thou At Peace

Posted by Michael McKinley on December 20, 2018:

I was Ken's roommate during our first class year 1963-1964. The first noticeable thing about Ken was his love for Rose. It was obvious she was always on his mind. He constantly talked about her. It was an honor to be in their wedding party. Ken was a true gentleman. He never had a bad thing to say about anyone. He was always an optimist regarding an individual's behavior no matter how difficult they might be. And he had amazing patience to have listened to his roommate's Irish music on a daily basis. His military bearing was readily observed. He was recognized as a leader early in his cadet career and became an officer in the Corps. He was a lieutenant platoon leader and I was his platoon sergeant. He held the respect of his superiors, classmates, and subordinates. It was easy to admire him. We laughed for many years about some of the incidents we experienced. One was when we overslept for reveille one freezing morning. Our company commander(who was also our classmate) sent a plebe to our room to wake us up. Our CO held the entire company at attention in the freezing weather until we both came to the door in our underwear to report our presence. We seemed to have a problem waking up. The last time was the swearing ceremony for new second lieutenants in the Regular Army. Both of us overslept and had to run across the Plain to meet up with our company classmates who were awaiting us to partake in the ceremony at Trophy Point. Another formidable experience about which Rose still harasses me occurred during Ranger School in the Georgia mountains. We were learning how to lower an injured ranger down a cliff. Ken was strapped to my back and I started repelling but lost my grip and we fell about 30 feet before I could stop. We bounced back and forth against the cliff. Ken was on the inside and I crashed him against the cliff several times. Luckily he did not injure himself. The final incident was not a laughing matter and occurred in the Richmond VA hospital. Rose placed the telephone from which I was calling under Ken's tent so he could hear me and I said goodbye. I told him how privileged I was to have known him all these years. There is a special place in heaven for such a wonderful man. I loved Ken as much as one man can love another.

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