Gary Steven Kadetz

West Point, 1965

Be Thou At Peace

Posted by Tina Serafini on February 27, 2005:

Gary was my handsome, brilliant cousin. I was twelve years old when I went with the family to see him off during his freshman year at West Point. What a fabulous place of pride and glory! I'll never forget it and its beauty. Four years later, he got married under a canopy of swords. Then he went to Vietnam. I was seventeen when we got the news that he had been blown to bits by a landmine in a rice paddy far, far away. He had just sent a tape to his wife in Hawaii telling her "If I die, I know why I die." That was something I never could get my head wrapped around. His children would have been brilliant and beautiful, had they had a chance to be brought into being. As it is, they are shadows, who would have been proud of a father who served the country he loved. I've visited West Point since then and I've seen him in the serious faces of the cadets, heard his name silently sung by the very stones of the buildings overlooking The Hudson. God bless you, Gary. I am so proud to have you as part of my family. I cry for the life you could have had, but I know you lived exactly the life you wanted. If your brother Howard ever visits here, let him know that many people loved them both and still do.

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