William Childs Westmoreland

West Point, 1936

Be Thou At Peace

Posted by Samuel P. Lamback on July 20, 2005:

General Westmoreland was my first idealized image of West Point. He arrived as new Superintendent as our 1964 class entered as plebes in July 1960. He will remain that model of handsome integrity, impeccable dress, and the full resume of leadership at every level-- the consummate military leader. I felt some personal identity in that he too had roots in the South, as I was extremely homesick for Georgia. Besides, I taught his daughter in the Cadet Sunday School program. Time passed and General Westmoreland led us through Vietnam, the defining crisis of our junior officer years. He bore the brunt of our generation's frustration with that tragic episode. In the spring of 1972 (or was it'73?) I was serving as Army chaplain in Puerto Rico when the general came to speak at an AUSA dinner near his retirement from the Army. I had the special privilege of a tennis game with him the afternoon prior to the dinner. He confirmed his incredible gift of remembering people, as he recalled my teaching his daughter years before at West Point. I was away the next week on an Easter retreat. When I returned home I discovered a gift. The general's aide had delivered an Easter basket to my quarters. Nestled in the basket were my three yellow tennis balls he had inadvertently taken from the court, and an official photo with note of thanks. That memory confirms for me his greatness at the personal level despite his burden of public criticism, the product of that agonizing period of our nation's history.

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