Posted by Robin R Cababa on March 21, 2025:

Ron and I go way back -- even before West Point. We went to high school together -- one of Los Angeles' inner city schools (Belmont High School, just west of City Hall). He was a track star (pole vault) and in the class ahead of me, but we shared science and math classes together. After he had graduated (Spring,'64) we stayed in contact and were playing tennis at the Echo Park Tennis courts when he suddenly said that he needed to leave and take a bus to downtown Los Angeles to the Federal Building and pick up a competitive application form for West Point from his congressman. Since I had my brother's car, I said that I would drive him to the Fedeal Building. When we got there and he was picking up his form, I noticed that my congressman's office was right next to his. He suggested I pick up a form too. I did. We filled out the forms and then waited. Both of us were invited to the physical/medical/academic testing site (Fort MacArthur, CA) in the Spring of '65. We said that we would continue the process to see if we could get in. We agreed that we could/would drop out at any time -- no harm/no foul. We had a two-day testing period, first medical, then physical, and a day of SAT and other tests. Finally, we were interviewed by representatives of West Point (COL Maertens). Well -- we both were selected! We discussed attending and said that we could still quit anytime so we entered. Periodically, during beast we would meet at Grant Hall and check on each other. We always ended up saying we could quit anytime -- but for now we would stay. Since we were both in 1st Regt, we shared some classes together and at times we would discuss how we were doing -- and each time continued with the closing that we could/would quit at any time.... That went on until graduation and commissioning. We both chose Corps of Engineers and attended airborne, ranger, and basic together. I lost track of him after graduating basic. But I fondly recall our joint commitment to stick it out as we could "quit at any time"... Ron was just the friend I needed to help me get through all of our rough times together. I hope I did the same for him. Rest in peace.

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