Mary and I had the privilege of visiting West Point last week to attend the ring ceremony for our grandson. (He doesn’t want us to use his name; humility is part of the character of the Cadets.) They receive their class rings at the beginning of their last year.
Families of late graduates often donate their West Point rings to the school which then melts the gold into the vat for making the new rings. This was described in the beautiful ceremony. Pictured below is the class of more than 11 hundred. The ceremony began and ended with a prayer. I was so proud and humbled to be there that I proved over and over again what my dad’s doctor told him years ago. When Dad was told he had cancer and again when the cancer was cured (That’s a story for another day.) his eyes filled with tears. That’s when Doctor said, “The trouble with the Irish is their kidneys are attached to their eyes.” Like father, like son.
I want to tell you all about the campus; that the Non-denominational chapel has a pipe organ with 23,000 pipes and stained glass windows of every saint I ever heard of and many I didn’t; that the 200 year old buildings are so beautiful; that the hills are more verdant than any artist could paint; that the mess hall staff feeds 4400 students three sit down meals every day; that they can take prayer out of our high schools, but they’ll never get God out of West Point, but mostly I want you all to rest well at night knowing that the men and women from West Point Military Academy will keep us free! God bless them all!