Posted by Wayne Whiteman on April 15, 2006:

I have so many fond memories of Bill Bowers it?s hard to begin?. Bill and I were company classmates. We spent our cow (junior) and firstie (senior) years together in Company H-3 from the fall of 1977 to graduation in June of 1979. Bill, Jerry Tabin, and I were roommates for a semester in our senior year. Bill actually came up to my parent?s house in Chatham, New York a couple of times. My little sister, Wendy, was about 9 or 10 at the time and particularly remembers Bill because he was such a friendly and nice guy. Bill also liked to dance (a lot!). We thought we were, as Steve Martin would say, ?wild and crazy guys.? In the late seventies, disco was the craze and Bill loved to dance disco. I remember dancing at places up by my parent?s house and I also remember going to disco?s around the West Point area. There was one place in particular I remember at Five Corners in Vales Gate about 10 miles north of West Point. We liked that place a bunch. Bill and I also had some academic classes together. As I recall, Bill was studying civil engineering like me. In fact we both ended up choosing the Corps of Engineers branch upon graduation. I distinctly remember going to a briefing in Washington Hall before graduation where we were asked whether we wanted to sign up to go to Ranger School. Bill and I, pretty much on the spur of the moment, said ?why not,? and signed up to go for it. We ended up going to the same Ranger School class together and ended up in the same platoon. In fact, we drove to Fort Benning, Georgia together at the beginning of the School and spent time eating and resting up before we started the course. Ranger School is a very physically demanding and difficult course?.. ?A real suck,? as we would put it. There was more than one occasion when we were suffering through the course where we looked at each other and blamed the other into talking each other into going to the school and then laughing about it. Bill Bower was one helluva a great guy. I actually flew to Chicago to be an usher in his wedding with Evelyn. You couldn?t have asked for a nicer guy or a better friend. He was dearly loved and will be sorely missed. Top of the Line 1979, Wayne E. Whiteman USMA 1979

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