Posted by W. Dean Rogers on December 27, 2013:

Lee Smith was my roommate at West Point twice: first by chance and second by choice. I roomed with Lee during 1st semester plebe year with Lawrence Tubbs and Eric Gaines. In a room full of good men who made the start of plebe tolerable, Lee was the one who could bring smiles to our faces in our darkest hours. His quick wit, his irreverent sense of humor, and his Georgia twang were invaluable to keeping our spirits up as the horrors of plebe year lurked outside our door in the F-2 Zoo. When it came time to select a roommate for 2nd semester, I jumped at the chance to room with Lee. And my memories of him are too deep to enumerate here. But I will mention three of my fondest. First, every Saturday after our last class, without fail, we would cue up "Working for the Weekend," and dance about our room in celebration of another week survived at our rockbound highland home. It wasn't the weekend until we played "Loverboy" as loud as we were allowed to play it. To this day, when I hear that song, I'm instantly transported to 1983, playing embarrassingly bad air drums next to Lee's embarrassingly bad air guitar. Second, was his cycling. As a member of the cycling team, Lee would ride out of West Point every day, usually heading south towards New York City. When he got back, we would inevitably continue working on his dream of riding to NYC one night after Taps, enjoying all the city had to offer, and then riding back to school before Reveille. As far as I know, he never actually fulfilled this dream, but planning it sure made the days of plebe year pass by more quickly. Third, and most vividly, was how we spent our last week together during plebe year. An unnamed Firstie...a gorgeous cheerleader and the subject of many a sleepless nights...had just been slugged. And each day, she walked back and forth, just below our barracks window in Central Area. Back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. Lee and I sat side-by-side, hour after hour, and we watched and we talked: back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. I guess some might call it creepy, but looking back, it was a wonderful memory: 2 young men, finishing one of the hardest years of their lives, sitting side by side, talking about their futures, their dreams, their goals, and their lives. Behind them lay the remnants of a difficult challenge successfully met: before them was the stark beauty of an unknown yet promising future. That's how I choose to remember Lee and I: side by side, chins in our hands, as we dreamed of better times ahead.

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