Ralph John Harting

West Point, 1998

Be Thou At Peace

Posted by Sean Protas on May 11, 2005:

I am a fellow Salesian '95. I did not know Jay personally. My only contact with him was from seeing him in the halls and watching him play soccer. My fondest memory will always be his play in the 1993 State Soccer championship vs St. Mark's. From everything I have read and from the rank that Jay obtained in the US Army he has carried forward the true Salesian spirit throughout the world. I have allowed my thoughts to trace back to my time at Sallies and from what I remember whenever I saw Jay in the halls, even in high school Jay carried himself with the demeanor and class of a army officer and a true gentleman. To his wife and family, the words of Abraham Lincoln come to mind in terms of what you have sacrificed in the loss of a husband, son and truly great man. "I feel how weak and fruitless must be any word of mine which should attempt to beguile you from the grief of a loss so overwhelming. But I cannot refrain from tendering you the consolation that may be found in the thanks of the Republic they died to save. I pray that our Heavenly Father may assuage the anguish of your bereavement, and leave you only the cherished memory of the loved and lost, and the solemn pride that must be yours to have laid so costly a sacrifice upon the altar of freedom." Jay: May your eternal patrol be in peace. May you watch over all those in uniform in defense of our grand nation. "Tenui nec Dmittam" and "Pro patria moria, dulce et decorum est." (It is sweet and becoming to die for one's nation.) Sincerely, Sean Protas Salesian Class of 1995

admin