Posted by Mitchell Malone on December 4, 2020:

I remember Bill as a Plebe roommate (and multiple other semesters roommate), friend, confidant, competitor, prolific planner, executer and overall compassionate person. We had countless late night discussions and we hatched many, many plans. His ideas were always exciting to me. The most memorable time I had with Bill was during Plebe year Army-Navy Spirit week where he, John E, myself and a couple other plebes teamed with some members of the upper class to, in the dead of night, to move via pulley system the Commandant's desk and office furniture into the Fishbowl. Without getting into all the specifics, that spirit mission was a great success. EXCEPT, not a complete success from the upperclass point of view. We (Plebes) did not know that their plans included trapping us (and one sorry yearling) in the Fishbowl through the night so that we'd be there in the morning for all of USMA to see...and get written up as well. Once all the furniture had been lowered and assembled into place (this took a couple of hours), we headed for the single door exit from the Fishbowl...it was locked. The Cows and other upperclassmen were in the hallway on the inside side of the window laughing at us who were in the Fishbowl. They yelled, "See you in the morning!" We were all fuming. Immediately, Bill said there has to be a way out! We all started searching (it's dark, remember). Bill saw the window up high first and hatched a plan. Thanks to the height of Bill and myself, and the climbing ability of John E, Bill and I were able to lift John E up high enough for him to scale further up the sculpted, stone window frames up to a window where he wiggled it open, climbed through and freed us through the door where we had entered. Wait, the story gets better. Bill and I, as roommates, could not sleep due to the severed loyalty we "thought" we had with those upperclassmen...so we hatched a plan. With Bill by my side each step of the way, the very next night there were spirit missions going on and we both declined to participate. In the dead of night we snuck down to the mess hall and into the kitchen area and stole as many Go Army cakes as we could carry (at least four). Within 20 minutes, four upperclassmen had Go Army Cake smashed onto their wool blankets and green girls (comforters). Wait, it gets better. One Yearling happened to return to his room (remember everything is dark) and catch us doing the cake deed...before the upperclassman could talk, as one unit, Bill and I ran to the door...a scuffle with this upperclassman ensued (his name starts with a P and I'll leave it at that). The upperclassman received a cut on hit forehead but we did not think he recognized us - spirit week and we were dressed to not be recognized. It didn't take much for the yearling named P to realize who our identities probably were and a yearling vs. plebe purge started. The noise rustled the appropriate Cows and Firsties who quickly halted the growing purge/war. In a dark hallway, Bill and I were locked up against a wall with Yearlings stating their case to Cows. With the Honor System fully in place even on spirit week, we were asked if we had done the cake deed. We of course said yes. We were asked why we did it and we explained the full story about the Fishbowl and the night before (note that some Cows who were there that night confirmed the Fishbowl incident because they were involved in it; also note that Bill and I only sought revenge on Yearlings because fear of the Cows was too great). It was purely revenge. Then the Cows asked us if we fought with P and struck him in the head. We paused at answering that for a second or two and then Bill, with his incredible wisdom, stated that we had struggled with P but only to get out of his room and while he was sure we had not hit him in the head ourselves that since the struggle took place in such close proximity to the door that it was probably the door that hit P in the head. Surprisingly, all Firsties that were listening laughed and walked back to their rooms. The Cows tried valiantly to keep from laughing but failed. Then the edict came - the Cows announced that spirit week was full of mischief and that this unintentional injury would not be further pursued. They expressed appreciation to us for our honesty and told us and the Yearlings to stay away from each other the rest of the night. Just as the Yearlings had disdain for us, we learned that the Cows had disdain for the Yearlings. Amazingly, the Cows did two more things for Bill, myself a a couple other Plebes: (1) They led Bill, John E, myself and one or two other Plebes through the steam tunnels (some very strenuous crawling and wriggling at times) in the dead of night to the gymnasium where we then all had a 2am dip and dive into the pool; (2) The Cows and specifically the fourth class systems corporal, Cow Mark H, saved us from cleaning up the messhall after the foodfight...why did he save us...just us two? Because Bill and I started the foodfight in spirit week of 1987. Ask Cadet Ganny ('88) and Mark H ('89). After the announcement's "Rest", Bill and I executed on our best ever plan!! We had not eaten the whole meal...the Cows and Yearlings were asking us why we were not eating, we replied "No Excuse, Sir." each time. They knew something was up. Cadet Ganny was the head of the table. As a Firsty, he allowed us to "fall out" that night at dinner but we sat there stone cold silent for the first half of the meal until announcements. He kept whispering to the other two Firsties who kept looking at us. Note that the Firsties never engaged us with questions...they knew. Finally, after continued pestering by the Cows and Yearlings as to why we were not eating, Cadet Ganny spoke his command - "Malone! Love! I know what you are going to do! DO NOT, I say again, DO NOT do it until we three Firsties have left the table!" We both yelled as loud as we could (not part of the plan, but so dramatic) "YES, SIR!!" and we smirked as we stared straight ahead. Caveat - even though we didn't eat, we still put food on our plate including dessert. After announcements the Firsties were allowed to leave and they usually took their time getting their coats on, talking and then meandering to the door. This night, all three Firsties quickly put their coats on during the announcements because "they knew" what we were going to do. They did not want to be anywhere near the table when we did the deed. Immediately after "Rest!" two things happened, three Firsties ran from the table as Bill and I screamed (Karate Kid was big at the time), "Strike First, Strike Hard, No Mercy, Sir!!" and slammed our fists onto the table as hard as we could. Then we stood up (not allowed), with our hands scooped all the food off of our plates, turned toward a table diagonal to us where the fourth class systems corporal, Mark H, was seated, and bombed him with the first salvo of our food. As you can imagine, he was looking right at us because everyone at several tables around us was gawking at us due to our screaming our battle cry. As Bill said later, it was a beautiful sight. When we grabbed our second salvo of food and looked up, there was food flying high EVERYWHERE (plates and cups too). It was a beautiful sight. Since it was Spirit week, we were dressed in camouflage and hardly recognizable unless you knew us (no name tags, etc). Only people in B-4 knew us. After 1-2 minutes of food combat, per plan, we ran to and exited through our pre-planned door (not the usual door since someone might be expecting us to leave through that door) and hurried back to the barracks. There, we executed our plan to quickly get rid of all evidence (dirty clothes into laundry bag, etc and take a shower). As you can imagine, there were several people who needed to shower food off of them so it was packed. As Bill and I were waiting for a shower, an announcement came over the loud speaker for all company chains of command to bring all Plebes back to the mess hall to assist cleaning it up. The fourth class system corporal and a few other Cows noticed us in the shower line...they ordered us directly into the shower bypassing a few Yearlings. They ordered us to take long showers until they came to get us - they were essentially shielding us from having to clean up the huge mess of the food fight that we started. The Yearlings were again, not happy. I assume that Cadet Ganny protected us as well because it was obvious that "someone" started the food fight. My memories of Bill are exciting! I will remember Bill until my mind can no longer remember things. I didn't realize until today that we could write eulogies for classmates. I loved Bill Love as a friend, confidant, and wildly fun partner in many fully executed plans. Rest in Peace, Bill.

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