Posted by Bill Bahr on September 6, 2006:

Here is a letter I wrote some 30 years after graduation about Jon Shine: Monday, January 25, 1999 Barry Willey, Colonel, USMA Class of '72 10333 Abbotsford Dr Tampa, FL 33626 Dear Barry: I read with interest Bob Kimmitt's Assembly note about your authoring a book about Jon Shine, my West Point classmate, and welcoming input. As I write you, I have beside me a profile honoring Jon which I clipped from the April '89 "Assembly." You may rightly infer that I thought quite much of him. Indeed, I'm sure this positive feeling must have subconsciously played a part in the naming of my own son, Jonathan. My first recollection of Jon Shine came in plebe year right after Beast Barracks and soon after my joining Company D-1, part of the "Iron" or "Iron-clad" First Brigade, an organization known in 1965 as not terribly hospitable to plebes. I recall that I and most of my fellow plebes seemed to be dogpaddling just to keep our heads above water in meeting the intense and conflicting demands of academics, athletics, and, above all, upperclassmen. What to my utter amazement, however, did I also see was Jon Shine and fellow plebe Mike Nardotti operating under the kind "tutelage" of Erin Audrain, a third classman then and 1st Regiment Commander later. Jon and Mike were definitely not dogpaddling; they were walking on water! No sooner would Mr. Audrain challenge them with researching the needle-in-the-haystack answer to some esoteric military question, than they would be shortly back reporting the extensive answer from memory. Several years later in my time at West Point, after Jon and I wound up in different companies, I have a memory flash of Jon's involvement in an advanced physics class. I was not part of his section, but somehow passed through the lab exhibiting his work. After seeing the "intuitively obvious" equivalent of e=mc squared written by a cadet on a subject as theoretical as extrapolating the number of angels on the head of a pin, my feeling can only be summed up as an intense "WOW'! I believe I also observed Jon's successful gymnastics efforts a time or two, as well as noted his consistent earning of academic stars. It was not a surprise to me then that this extremely intelligent and by every account decent person wound up being my Battalion Commander our first class year. Upon graduating from West Point in 1969, I left with many fond memories, not the least of which was a picture of what I thought a perfect cadet might look like. That mind's-eye picture was of Jon Shine. In 1989, after I read new information about him in the profile clipping, that picture was still Jon Shine. I am sure that, as your book gathers together more about him, the picture of this "finest" cadet, this remarkable person in every sense of the word, will become clearer to all. Thank you for honoring his memory. Best regards, Bill Bahr Postscript: Another recollection: at the 35th Class Reunion, I happened to stop in a parking lot next to the West Point Cemetery. I wanted to look for Jon's grave but did not have much time. With my wife Mary, I walked quickly into the cemetery and told her I was looking for Jon Shine. When I looked down at the names, what to my surprise but we were standing in the "USMA '69 Vietnam" section and right in front of Jon's grave! Ever since, whenever we visit USMA, we also visit Jon. I am not sure Barry Willey has yet published his book. However, he did publish the following about Jon: http://ocf.gospelcom.net/pubs/shine.php. Bill Bahr H-1 USMA 1969 4 September 2006

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