Copyright by John T. Reed

Have you ever wondered how the quotes you see in the media get there? The quote from me in the 11/25/07 USA Weekend (the rotogravure magazine that comes with your Sunday newspaper) about the Army-Navy Game provides an excellent case history. Here, in chronological order are the emails I sent to USA Weekend at their request, along with the responses I got back and culminating in the final quote that actually made it to the magazine.

6/24/07 from Reed to USA Weekend in response to their request for stories from graduates of Army and Navy
I graduated from West Point in 1968. I happened to be from Collingswood, NJ, a suburb of Philadelphia, the location of the Army-Navy game for each of my four years there. Here are all my Army-Navy stories.
PARKING MESS
My Uncle Jack was the youngest non-pilot captain in Europe in World War II. He used to carry the newspaper clipping about it in his wallet. I went to West Point because he was the assistant manager of the Hotel Thayer which is at West Point. That caused us to visit and I fell in love with the place.
For my first Army-Navy game as a cadet, my family parked in one of the dirt temporary parking lots adjacent to JFK stadium. Back then the 100,000-seat stadium was always sold out. Heisman Trophy winner Roger Staubach was the Navy quarterback that day.
After the game, is was apparent that the guys who took my mom’s money when she parked before the game had no interest in helping us get out of the lot afterward. They were gone. The many police who were present seemed to have other things to do. The lot emptied out onto Broad Street which is about ten lanes wide.
The cars in the lot were not moving at all. My Uncle Jack finally uttered a few expletives, got out of the car, and disappeared towards the street. After a few minutes, the cars in front of us began to move. When we got close to Broad Street, we could see why. Out in the middle of Broad Street, wearing casual civilian clothes, was my uncle, stopping five lanes of traffic periodically to allow cars out of the parking lot. When our car got next to him, he hopped in and the parking mess presumably went back to its pre-Uncle Jack status. Apparently, he had not lost his take-charge-guy talents in the twenty years after the war.
FORGOTTEN GLOVES
In a later year, my classmate and friend Dick Steiner took weekend leave with me and stayed at my mom’s house. In the morning before the game, we visited my Uncle Bill. After we left to go to the game, my Uncle Bill found that Dick had left his black leather gloves at Uncle Bill’s house. Having been in the Navy during the Korean war, Uncle Bill knew that the gloves were part of the uniform. Of course, we were going to march into the stadium and perform our routine of saluting, and taking our hats off in unison. Imagine how that would look on national television with 2,511 black gloves saluting and one bare hand.
Uncle Bill hopped in his car and raced to the stadium. When he tried to get to Dick, the Philly police would not let him. Finally, they figured out what he was trying to tell them and being in uniform themselves, understood the urgency. They let him through.
After asking dozens of cadets if they knew Steiner, he found one who did and directed him to the portion of the massive cadet formation where our company was. When he finally got to Dick, Dick was grateful to have the gloves, but he had already implemented the standard cadet trick for that situation. He was wearing his black socks on his hands instead of his feet. Not wearing socks gets you more demerits than not wearing gloves, but it’s harder to see because of the length of the trousers. The delivery of the gloves enabled Dick to be in uniform at the ends of all four extremities. (On another occasion at West Point, Dick forgot his tie and wore a sock there instead to class. The military officer instructor did not notice that he was using a sock for a tie—they were both black and the tie was tucked inside the shirt—but he did notice one bare ankle because the trouser legs rises up a little when you sit. That day Dick got demerits.) Dick is now a nationally known magician (www.dicksteiner.com). My wife and I saw him perform at the Magic Castle in Hollywood last year.
DON’T BUY A LARGE BLOCK OF TICKETS
One year, my mom chartered a bus to take 40 of her friends and relatives to the game. I was assigned to buy the 40 tickets which I did at the Army ticket office at West Point. The general public could not buy tickets on their own. Being a naive teenager a the time, I just said “40 tickets, please.” They were in the bottom two rows of one end zone—worst seats in the stadium. The friends and relatives were nice about it, but that was the last chartered bus my mom did for the game.
RED LIGHT
Sophomore year (1965), I was sitting in the stadium next to my roommate Dan Kaufman. He was the academic dean of West Point a few years ago. Coincidentally, he and I have both been interviewed by Morley Safer on 60 Minutes. I think we are the only members of our class to have been on 60 Minutes.
At one point during the game, I looked up and saw the TV camera pointing at us with the red light on. I calmly whispered to Dan, “Don’t look now but I think you and I are on national TV.” He looked and also saw the camera and red light. We tried to look as dignified as possible as befits cadets of the United States Military Academy. We cadets had an expression then: GAP which was the abbreviation for the Great American Public which we felt obligated to look good for because they were paying for us to go to college. Dan and I did our best to look good for the GAP when we had our brief moment of national TV exposure. Later, my brother, who was watching on TV at home confirmed that we were on TV close up.
I only mention it because of an old West Point expression: “The Corps has.” It’s short for “The Corps has gone to hell” meaning the cadets today are not as good as they were back when the old grads were cadets. For decades since I graduated, the cadets have reacted like idiots whenever they saw the TV camera being pointed at them. Irrefutable evidence that the Corps has.
THE PROFESSIONALS
You’re going to think this is Army-Navy rivalry BS, but it’s true. The year we had the 40 tickets at the bottom of the end zone, it was the end of the stadium where the midshipmen and cadets march in before the game. That year (1966 I believe), the midshipmen marched in first. My Uncle Jack was standing next to one of his friends. The midshipmen were just a couple of feet away from them as they marched in. As is typical of the students at Navy, they were eager to show the civilians who were close by how cool they were and how unmilitary they were—some nutty group norm that has long been in effect at the Naval Academy. They seemed embarrassed to be in the military and always did their best to show they were not really military types. That was during the Vietnam war and long hair was in and all that. My uncle’s friend was quite annoyed and disappointed and commented that close up, the midshipmen looked like a bunch of bums in the way they were dressed and behaving. My uncle assured him that when the cadets came in, he would see “the professionals.”The friend scoffed that he was just saying that because he was in the Army during WW II.
Meanwhile, I was one of those cadets. As we were approaching the stadium, we were screwing around with each other and kidding as we always did in such situations, then the word started to come back from the forward ranks: “GAP, GAP, GAP.” It meant knock off the screwing around. We are about to be close to the Great American Public and we need to start behaving. When we got to the stadium entrance and the GAP, we were all totally silent, eyes straight ahead, trying to march with perfect arm swings and all that. In short, we were trying to live up to the expectations of the public, expectations that we were proud of. West Point cadets of the era were chagrined to have short hair cuts and be in the hated military, but our attitude was, this is who we are, let’s make the best of it. My uncle’s friend, after observing a couple of companies of cadets go by, said, “I’ll be damned. The cadets look as good up close as from a distance, not at all like the middies.”

Note by Reed after the 2007 Army-Navy Game broadcast: I saw the beginning of the 2007 Army-Navy Game on TV including the march-on by both academies student bodies. The TV cameras took some close-up footage. As I just described above happened in 1966, the same happened in 2007 in the close-ups. The midshipmen were clowning around and showing off. The cadets were professional. 41 years has passed, but the Navy midshipmen are still jerks trying desperately to prove to the world that they are too cool for [military] school and the Army cadets are still pros who feel obligated to live up to the expectations of the American people.


RAIN
One year, maybe 1967, it looked like rain before the game. Accordingly, we cadets, the corps had swollen to 4,000 by then, we wearing our raincoats, which are very Dickensian with very long bottoms and a cape around the shoulders. Then the sun came out. It was a beautiful day. Thinking we would look foolish wearing rain coats, the officers sent the word came down to take them off as we were about to march in.
So where do you put 4,000 immaculate raincoats when you are standing in a muddy parking lot? The officers chose a bunch of cadets from each company to collect and carry them. Those cadets did not have to march in the parade that day. So after we marched in, the raincoat cadets, each carrying huge balls of cadet raincoats sort of sneaked in and went to the cadet seating area. After we took our seats, the cadets with the rain coats started yelling out the names which were required to be written inside each coat. When they found the cadet in question, he would raise his hand and yell “Over here. I’m Reed.” Then the cadet with the raincoat would ball it up and throw it through the air. It never got all the way in one throw so for some time early in the game, raincoats were constantly flying through the air and landing on us. When one hit you, you would look at the name and yell it out then throw it again toward that cadet. I got my raincoat, but predictably, many cadets did not. The Academy had to reimburse them for new ones. During the early part of the game, the TV cameras kept focusing on the flying raincoat show in the cadet section.
CHEER FOR THE TEAM
The Navy midshipmen were big on yelling for the crowd. In my early years at West Point, they outnumbered us 4,400 to 2,500. John F. Kennedy had noticed that when he was president and had to switch sides at half time. He asked why the smaller Navy service had so much more midshipmen. Not getting an answer that made any sense, he approved enlarging West Point. The larger student body meant Navy could out-yell us on paper.
The middies would go through their whole repertoire of cheers along with miscellaneous spur-of-the-moment taunts while the teams were still in the locker room before the game. We decided to be silent on the grounds that we cheered for the Army TEAM, not to show off to the crowd. So, before the game, 1966 I think, the middies did their routine and we were totally silent. Finally, they did a taunting, sing-song cheer of “We can’t hear you Army” over and over.
Still, we remained silent. Then the word spread through our cadet section that the team was about to appear. We all took a deep breath. When they came out of the tunnel, we let out a spontaneous scream, no choreography, that stunned the middies and everyone else in the stadium. We were extremely loud for the rest of the game.
Every graduate of each school could provide you with this many stories and more.
John T. Reed
USMA ’68
www.johntreed.com
925-820-6292
342 Bryan Drive
Alamo, CA 94507

6/28/07 from USA Weekend to Reed:
Thanks for sending! That was fun to read.

I was wondering and wanted your thoughts on this, just to drive home a larger theme we’re seeking:

While the Game represented a lot of fun, lighthearted moments to you (such as the glove/sock story), you also graduated at a time that was pretty serious for this nation, especially if you were in the service academies. Did the prospect of serving in Vietnam for your country — that the Game represented possibly a last grasp of the innocence of youth — enter into your mind set and recollections of the game? When you served (I’m assuming you went to Vietnam) did memories of the game grow fonder, within the context of a war like that?

Best, USA Weekend

6/29/07 from Reed to USA Weekend
Sort of. For one thing, the Army-Navy game is not the only thing that happens to cadets. After our last game, we had Christmas leave, many dances, getting our new cars, the build-up to graduation, two months summer leave after graduation. I was a bartender at a singles bar on the Jersey Shore that summer.

Additional schooling after West Point
Then I had a solid year of additional schooling: Ranger, Signal Officer Basic, Airborne, Radio Officer, Satellite Officer School, then I was a platoon leader in the 82nd Airborne division. Vietnam and the sixties were like a cloud hovering in the background and occasionally reminding us of its looming presence. In the spring of our senior year, the Tet Offensive occurred and Martin Luther King was shot. Bobby Kennedy was shot on our graduation day.  

Armed Forces Day Parade 1968
We marched in the Armed Forces Day Parade down Fifth Avenue in NYC every May. During my senior year, the color guard for the upcoming Armed Forces Day practiced in the central area of barracks where I lived. Normally, there were three flag bearers (US, Army, and USMA) plus two riflemen outside them and five riflemen behind them. For the 1968 Armed Forces Day parade, they beefed that color guard up to about twenty guys in four ranks and they practiced by the hour executing maneuvers to protect the flags from hippies or anti-war protesters trying to steal them. They had no lethal force, They were just marching quickly into a position where they surrounded the flags. I assume they did not expect to save the flags from a determined mob. They just wanted to look like they made a respectable effort to defend them.

Night-and-day difference between when we entered and when we graduated
When my Class of 1968 entered West Point, we were generally hailed as conquering heroes by our schools, parents, and peers. In 1964, World War II had just ended 19 years before, a West Pointer (Eisenhower) had not long ago left the White House, and his successor, John F. Kennedy, went to the Army-Navy Game every year and ceremoniously changed sides at half time. The 1963 Heisman Trophy winner, Staubach, played in the games during that period. There was no Super Bowl. The Army-Navy game was the biggest game in the U.S. with 100,000 sold-out crowd. [The 1960s was the golden era of the Army-Navy Game in terms of attendance. It averaged 101,000 that decade, higher than before or since.]

Back then, getting into West Point was roughly the equivalent of today being accepted to Harvard, being a Navy Seal, and an astronaut. [When I got accepted to West Point, our assistant principal announced it to a whole-school assembly and I was given an ovation by the student body when they heard the announcement. 90-some % of my high school classmates also got accepted to various colleges, but no other acceptances were announced to the student body.]

Dates lying about visiting West Point
But by the time we graduated from West Point, our peers ridiculed us, urged us to quit West Point and the Army. Our dates at West Point often admitted to us that they had lied to their college friends about where they had gone for the weekend, saying they were going home to see their parents or some such. Hair styles became quite long. We wanted to fit in, but not gonna happen at a military college that requires weekly haircuts in that era.

No Vietnam until Christmas 1968
As of the Army-Navy Game in the Fall of 1967, Vietnam was still a ways off for us. We knew our first classmate was not likely to get there until Christmas 1968 at the earliest because of post-West Point schooling and mandatory four months in a U.S. unit before Vietnam. There was some concern among the glory hounds that we would miss the war.

Guys who got married right after West Point (we were not allowed to get married until graduation day) felt obligated to choose Europe for their first assignment. Indications were that would delay your going to Vietnam for a year or two. They felt they owed it to their new bride to spend that much time with her before they got themselves killed. If that sounds melodramatic, note that 21 of my classmates’ names are on the Vietnam Memorial wall. That’s not a high percentage out of 706 graduates, but statistics are cold comfort to the widows.

As it turned out, the guys who went to Germany or anywhere other than the U.S. after graduation generally did not ever get to Vietnam. Those of us who chose U.S. assignments knew it meant we would be in Vietnam five months after arriving at those U.S. assignments and that’s exactly what happened in almost every case. I was in Vietnam from Thanksgiving 1969 to September 8, 1970. While I was in Vietnam, we invaded Laos and Cambodia and, when I got back from leading a patrol once, I read that National Guardsmen at Kent State had killed a bunch of college students. My main focus on the patrol was on making sure everyone had their rifle safety on. I was astonished that the Kent State guys not only took their safeties off but fired their weapons on a college campus. Crazy times.

Last time?
As the departure for Vietnam drew near, you started to think about everything as maybe being the last time you would get to do that, the last time you would get to see that, the last time you might get to taste that. Certainly we knew the 1967 Army-Navy game was our last as cadets, but as departure for Vietnam drew near, we wondered if we would ever attend another as alumni.

In Vietnam, we followed the Army team in the media. We hoped that we would be able to survive Vietnam for lots of reasons including attending future Army-Navy games—although I must say I have only attended one since graduation. It poured rain that day which was more than my date seemed interested in so, for her sake, we left at half time. I later moved to California which makes the game rather inconvenient.

In Ranger School in the Fall of 1968, my classmates once asked the Ranger instructors how the Army football team did that Saturday. The instructors, who were not West Point graduates, lived normal lives in homes and apartments. We were out in the woods with no access to news for two months. A Ranger instructor officer chewed us out saying he couldn’t believe we were asking about football when guys were dying in Vietnam. Idiot! Douglas MacArthur, a West Point grad (‘03) and manager of the football team there, once cabled the Army football coach during World War II saying they had stopped the war to cheer the Army’s victory over Navy. Life goes on. Eat, drink, and cheer your team on for tomorrow…

‘Innocence of youth’
We did a bunch more “grasping at the innocence of youth” as you put it between the Army-Navy Game in November 1967 and departure for Vietnam a year or two later, but the war was, indeed, a growing background fact in our lives from the Gulf of Tonkin, which occurred after we entered West Point, throughout our cadet days.

Certainly, our perception of being West Point cadets changed about as dramatically as it could have between our first day, July 1st, 1964, when none of us had ever heard of Vietnam—a time of the Beatles, Beach Boys, and a Happy Days sort of life—to June 5, 1968 when our graduation day was overshadowed by Robert Kennedy’s assassination and the by then serious war in Vietnam. We cadets were like the soldiers you see in the old World War II movies. Trying harder to enjoy the good times, resigned to our fates of going to Vietnam, and putting it out of our minds as much as we could prior to reporting to Travis Air Force Base to “ship” out to Vietnam.

Class of the Gulf of Tonkin
The media called the Class of 2005 the “Class of 9/11.” The Class of 1968 was the “Class of the Gulf of Tonkin.” It ultimately changed our lives more in the summer of 1964 than the 9/11 attacks changed the lives of the Class of 2005 in September of 2001. [Unlike the Class of 2005, who were well aware of the events of 9/11, we in the Class of the Gulf of Tonkin knew nothing about that incident when it happened. We were not allowed to have access to radios or TV until the following year and we were not allowed to have newspapers during the summer of 1964 and would not have had time to read them if we did.]

Travel on civilian planes and trains during Vietnam
The whipsaw we experienced is perhaps best illustrated by travel for military personnel. When we entered West Point in 1964, we had to wear our uniforms when we traveled in order to get a standard half-fare deal on planes and trains. [All fares were regulated and therefore the same back then.]

When we came back from Vietnam, the de-briefers at Travis Air Force Base told us to take our uniforms off for traveling on civilian planes and trains to avoid getting spit on or otherwise harassed. The airlines and trains had changed their policy because of the Vietnam war and the antagonism directed toward us in the military. Because of the war and reaction to it, you only had to show your military ID card to get the half-fare deal.

I think I speak for all of my classmates when I say how envious we were of the soldiers who fought in Desert Storm or even now in Iraq and Afghanistan. They have been treated relatively well. During Vietnam, the anti-war people hated us military personnel as much as the administration’s policies. Since Vietnam, perhaps because of Vietnam, Americans seem to have figured out the difference between the war and the warrior.

Fourth of July 2006
We were a bunch of tough guys. We ignored the bad feelings people directed at us. Or so we thought. Last summer, I was on the sidewalk at our local Fourth of July parade. When a contingent of Vietnam vets marched by, the crowd —composed largely of our Vietnam-draft-dodging Baby Boomer peers—gave them a standing ovation that was sincere and seemed part apology. I am not a touchy-feely, emotional guy, but it brought tears to my eyes. I guess we tough-guy Vietnam veterans need recognition and gratitude for what we did and risked more than we knew or were willing to admit.
John T. Reed
925-820-6292

6/29/07 from USA Weekend to Reed:
Very good thoughts indeed. Thanks. I’ll be back in touch.

Best, USA Weekend

7/23/07 from USA Weekend to Reed
Hi there. Thanks for your patience. I’ve gotten more than 400 responses, and now I’m down to the last ten that I want to use for our print version of the cover story. There are so many that were really, really good, and we hope, via a partnership with Army/Navy Times, which our parent company owns, that we can run those that didn’t make the final cut here in those publications.

For now, however, that’s not relevant to our discussion because your story is at this point one of the ten. It’s a really good story, and, in the end, it provides the kind of balance and eclectic mix that I’m looking to convey here to make for an overall, extremely compelling, poignant and, at times, funny/moving read.

Take a look at what I’ve done so far. I’m going to have to keep cutting because the cover package is about twice as long as it can possibly run. If I altered any of what you wrote, it was likely for clarity and appropriateness and that sort of thing. I’m hardly perfect, so please do weigh in on changes that you feel must be made.

We have some time. But I’m going on vacation for two weeks starting Aug 1 and I wanted to get through this part of the process now before I leave. When I get back, there will be more to do. But not a lot.

Again, thanks so much for your wonderful story!

Also, if there are any ALL CAP questions below, or those marked with XX, please address. Best, den:

“There were so many fond memories that came out of the Army-Navy game for me. For our last game as seniors in 1967, my classmate and friend and I stayed at my mom’s house in Philadelphia before the game. Then we went to visit my uncle. After leaving to go to the game, my uncle discovered that my friend had left his black leather gloves behind. This was part of the uniform, and you could not be without them. My uncle raced to the stadium and convinced the police to let him in the stadium. When he finally found my friend, he gave him the gloves. But not before observing my friend’s ‘back-up’ plan: He was intending to wear black socks on his hands instead of his feet! He figured no one would notice.
“There wasn’t much more time for lighter moments like that. Vietnam was like a cloud hovering in the background. After our last Army-Navy game as cadets, the Tet Offensive occurred and Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was shot and killed. Then, on our graduation day, Sen. Robert Kennedy was shot to death. When we entered West Point four years before, we were hailed as conquering heroes. By the time we graduated, we were ridiculed. Our peers from high school were now in college, urging us to quit West Point. For the Army-Navy game, our dates admitted to us that they lied to their friends about where they were going that weekend. Back then, during that 1967, we wondered whether we’d ever make it back to watch the game as alumni. We wanted to enjoy the good times, in the moment. We ignored the bad feelings that people directed at us. In Vietnam, I served from Thanksgiving 1969 to Sept. 8, 1970, and we invaded Laos and Cambodia. There are 21 of my classmates’ names on the Vietnam Memorial Wall. Today, I’m appreciative that Americans have learned not to blame the warrior for the war. Last summer, I was on the sidewalk for our local Fourth of July parade. A contingent of Vietnam vets marched by and the crowd — many of whom I knew were protesters back then — gave them a standing ovation. It brought tears to my eyes. Maybe we tough veterans need gratitude after all, more than we’re willing to admit.”

John Reed
XX, XX TOWN WHERE YOU LIVE? STATE?
Army, Class of 1968

7/23/07 From Reed to USA Weekend
In the Philadelphia area, not Philadelphia. My mom’s house was in Westmont, NJ.
After we cadets left for the game. As you have it, the phrase “after leaving” seems to refer to my uncle. He did not leave.
We were not in the stadium. We were formed up in the rail yards a half mile or so away from the stadium. He mainly needed the gloves for our nationally televised parade march into the stadium.
My friend was not “intending” to wear black socks on his hands. He already was wearing them when my uncle arrived with the gloves.
We were hailed as conquering heroes by the friends and relatives who sent us off to West Point. There was no hailing at West Point. On the contrary. We were brand new plebes. We just got yelled at 24/7.
I am not aware of any date saying she lied about going to the Army-Navy game. It was Thanksgiving weekend back then. No one needed to explain to anyone where they would be that weekend. It was when they left their college on a normal weekend to go spend a weekend with us at West Point that they felt they needed to lie to their college roommates and friends where they were going for the weekend.
I made the changes in bold below.
Thanks,
John T. Reed

“There were so many fond memories that came out of the Army-Navy game for me. For our last game as seniors in 1967, my classmate and friend and I stayed at my mom’s house in the Philadelphia area before the game. On game morning, we went to visit my uncle. After we left to go to the game, my uncle discovered that my friend had left his black leather gloves behind. They were part of the uniform and you could not be without them for the march-in parade. My uncle raced to Philadelphia and convinced the police to let him into the cadet marshalling area near the stadium. When he finally found my friend, he gave him the gloves. But not before observing my friend’s ‘back-up’ plan: He was wearing his black socks on his hands instead of his feet! He figured no one would be able to see his bare ankles under the long cadet trousers.
“There wasn’t much more time for lighter moments like that. Vietnam was like a cloud hovering in the background. After our last Army-Navy game as cadets, the Tet Offensive occurred and Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was shot and killed. On our graduation day, Sen. Robert Kennedy was assassinated. When we entered West Point four years before, we were sent off by our friends and relatives as conquering heroes. By the time we graduated, we were ridiculed. Our peers from high school were now in college, urging us to quit West Point. Our dates often admitted to us that they lied to their friends about where they were going on weekends when they came to West Point. Back then, during 1967, we wondered whether we’d survive Vietnam to ever watch the game as alumni. We wanted to enjoy the good times, in the moment. We ignored the bad feelings that people directed at us. I was in Vietnam from Thanksgiving, 1969 to Sept. 8, 1970. Our invasions of Laos and Cambodia occurred during my tour. 21 of my classmates’ names are on the Vietnam Memorial Wall. Today, I’m appreciative that Americans have learned to differentiate the warrior from the war. Last summer, I was on the sidewalk for our local Fourth of July parade. A contingent of Vietnam vets marched by and the crowd — many of whom I knew were protesters back then — gave them a standing ovation. It brought tears to my eyes. Maybe we tough veterans need gratitude after all, more than we’re willing to admit.”

John Reed
Alamo, CA
U.S. Military Academy, Class of 1968

 

7/24/07 From USA Weekend to Reed
OK, I’ve cleaned it up as so. I still need to list where you live now, city and state:

“There were so many fond memories that came out of the Army-Navy game for me. For our last game as seniors in 1967, my classmate and friend and I stayed at my mom’s house near Philadelphia before the game. Then we went to visit my uncle. After we cadets left to go to the game, my uncle discovered that my friend had left his black leather gloves behind. This was part of the uniform, and you could not be without them. My uncle raced to the stadium. When he finally found my friend outside the stadium, getting ready in formation to march inside, he gave him the gloves. But not before observing my friend’s ‘back-up’ plan: He was wearing black socks on his hands instead of his feet! He figured no one would notice.
“There wasn’t much more time for lighter moments like that. Vietnam was like a cloud hovering in the background. After our last Army-Navy game as cadets, the Tet Offensive occurred and Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was shot and killed. Then, on our graduation day, Sen. Robert Kennedy was shot to death. Our peers from high school were now in college, urging us to quit West Point. When we’d have a date weekend at West Point, our dates admitted to us that they lied to their friends about where they were. Back then, during that 1967, we wondered whether we’d ever make it back to watch the game as alumni. We wanted to enjoy the good times, in the moment. We ignored the bad feelings that people directed at us. In Vietnam, I served from Thanksgiving 1969 to Sept. 8, 1970, and we invaded Laos and Cambodia. There are 21 of my classmates’ names on the Vietnam Memorial Wall. Today, I’m appreciative that Americans have learned not to blame the warrior for the war. Last summer, I was on the sidewalk for our local Fourth of July parade. A contingent of Vietnam vets marched by and the crowd — many of whom I knew were protesters back then — gave them a standing ovation. It brought tears to my eyes. Maybe we tough veterans need gratitude after all, more than we’re willing to admit.”

John Reed
XX, XX TOWN WHERE YOU LIVE? STATE?
Army, Class of 1968

7/24/07 From Reed to USA Weekend
I added that in my email. Must have disappeared. It’s Alamo, CA.
Jack Reed


7/24/07 From USA Weekend to Reed

Great. That gives us some geographic diversity. Too many East Coasters in the mix right now, especially Pennsylvania and mid-atlantic.


Best, USA Weekend

9/10/07 From USA Weekend to Reed
Hi there, hope all is well. Right now, your story is very much in the mix here.

Also: You may, or may not, get contacted by CBS regarding the game broadcast, or possibly from CBS Morning Show for a possible feature before the game.

I really appreciate all of your help and this will be a tremendous cover package!

Best, USA Weekend

9/10/07 From Reed to USA Weekend
Really!?
Thanks,
Jack Reed

9/11/07 From USA Weekend to Reed
They COULD call. I can’t promise they will. TV networks can be fickle. But we definitely have the ear of both the game broadcast team as well as CBS Morning Show folks, whom we’ve partnered with before many times, and we all want to drum up publicity on this cover.

Best, USA Weekend

9/11/07 From Reed to USA Weekend
I know how they work. Don’t worry. I won’t be holding my breath waiting for them to call.
Jack Reed

9/11/07 USA Weekend to Reed
That’s always a good way to approach this! Have no expectations so then, if something does happen, it’s all gravy. At least that’s how I get through the day ...

Best, USA Weekend

10/31/07 From USA Weekend to Reed
I cannot believe that this cover — now many, many months in the making — is actually going to happen, that it’s actually going out the door this week, and it is not only every bit as good but even far, far better than I conceived it could be when it all began.

The pub date is 11/25, all intended to promote the 12/1 game. We’ll include a TV info box as part of the package.

Thanks so much to everyone for putting up with me and my tendency to be a pest at times, especially as we were trying to get it off the ground at first and hitting some roadblocks. Once the stories started flowing in, I was amazed at the diversity of life experiences, geographies, age, etc., that were arriving into my in box every day — hundreds of wonderful stories every single day. Those that will not be used in our print version will be considered for publication in Army Times/Navy Times, both print and online (www.armytimes.com and www.navytimes.com). Army/Navy Times is also published by Gannett, and working with us as a partner on this one.

Betty (representing Mr. Staubach), Pat, Ken, Melanie, Ben, Rob, John, J.W. And Darryl: Your wonderful stories have touched my editor and me very much and, when appropriate, gave us a good laugh. At this point, they are very much in the ‘final mix’ for the WEEKEND cover spread and I can’t tell you how appreciative I am for opening up a part of your lives to share something that I know all of our readers will benefit by reading.

At this point, all that’s left is the final stages of fact checking, which I need to hand off to our highly valued, independent fact checker, Elena. If she contacts you this week, please promptly reply, as she has many, many points of accuracy to verify, and fact checking is a challenging job to be performed under tight deadlines even under the best of circumstances.

All of you, of course, are welcome to email me with requests for either extra copies, or PDF versions of the cover/spread or glossy versions of cover/spread, or either of the above, after it runs on Dec. 1.

CBS folks: If you need PDFs or copies before that for any publicity/promotional needs whatsoever, just ask.

Again, thanks, thanks, thanks. My editor and I love the fact that we are closing the year on one of our highest notes of the year here.

Best, USA Weekend

11/21/07 From USA Weekend to Reed
... Here’s what’s coming out this weekend. It will be posted online at www.usaweekend.com on Friday, but no harm in giving all of you a sneak peek at everything. Besides, the PDF presentation looks sharper than the actual print product.

Best, USA Weekend

And here, finally, is what USA Weekend actually published from me in the magazine on 11/25/07:

Never Out of Uniform !
When we were seniors, my classmate and I stayed at my mom’s house near Philadelphia and then visited my uncle just before the game. After we left, my uncle discovered that my friend had left his black leather gloves behind. The gloves were part of the uniform, and you could not be seen without them. My uncle raced to the stadium. When he found my friend outside the stadium, getting ready in formation to march inside, he gave him the gloves. But not before observing my friend’s “backup” plan: He was wearing black socks on his hands instead of on his feet! He had figured that no one would ever notice.
John Reed
Alamo, Calif.
Army Class of 1968

Final note
One final note: USA Weekend did not, but might have, asked about my plans for the Army-Navy Game in Baltimore this year.

I’ll miss it. Won’t be there in person or watching on TV. Why not?

A friend of mine who has a graduate engineering degree from Stanford asked if my wife and I would like to attend the Big Game (Stanford-Cal) on December 1, 2007 with him and his wife. They met when they were both graduate students there. His wife graduated from Cal as an undergrad. I said we would. That’s the same day as the Army-Navy Game.

I coached one of the Stanford players, Ryan Whalen, when he was a high school freshman. I also coached Quinn Tedford, the son of the Cal head coach Jeff Tedford when he was a high school freshman and spent some time with Jeff at Cal as a result. Some of my youngest son’s high school teammates are on the Cal team. Stanford has a nice, one-year-old stadium, all of which is near where I live.

How do I know the guy we’re going to the Big Game with? We were college classmates.

My magician classmates who wore socks for gloves at the 1967 Army-Navy Game lives in the Baltimore area, the location of the 2007 Army-Navy Game, but he, too, will not be watching the game. He has a magic show that day.

I hope the cadets and midshipmen at the Army-Navy Game in Baltimore have a good time watching a competitive game (good luck with that, Army) and that they all get lucky afterward before they have to get back on the damn train at 1 AM and return to “their little green cells” at West Point where they will have “another week in which to excel.”

I appreciate informed, well-thought-out constructive criticism and suggestions.

John T. Reed