I like this because, well, just because. It was my privilege to serve with kids like Dan Bolger (he made Lieutenant General). He was the only kid I knew who graduated from the Citadel with a 4.0 (none of Ted Turner's three kids who graduated from there had that high a GPA, not even Beau) and unfortunately I only got to see Gen Mark Clark when he was older and confined to a wheelchair as at that time Bolger was only the second 4.0 graduate. I'd see so many company grade officers who didn't get very much further (LTC or COL) arrive about the same time the the drill sergeants got there but guys like Bolger were always there to greet the First Sergeant. Instead of heading to the Club like the rest of us, Bolger was taking flying lessons or scuba lessons in the evenings. The Army saw fit to send him to college to get his masters and Phd and then sent him straight to Hudson High as an instructor.
Mark Berry was the same type of officer. What I remember most about him was the fact that he'd arrive at P.T. at a pretty early hour after he'd left the gym for his morning lifting. As a young Lieutenant, what stuck in my mind was that Mark left West Point as their all time leading receiver. Don't know if he still has that record or not and don't really care. General Bill Carpenter was the same type of individual. Most of you would know him as that Company Commander who called napalm in on his own company in Viet Nam. I remember him as the Lonesome End and used to go up the Yaak to the Dirty Shame just to listen to him.
Because our school produced Dennis Erickson who was famous when he was younger for the hours he kept but for a different reason...and his innovative offensive mind, I'd like to see MSU play the school that y'all know brought us the Wing-T (and that former Oregon Coach who surfaced in that place a couple hundred miles to our west tweaked it a bit along with Chris Ault who brought us the pistol at Nevada) so maybe we can have our ROTC Detachment use a full charge in the cannon after each touchdown again. I mean, whether you like it or not, we are a Land Grant Institution and y'all know the hours farmers and ranchers keep as do the Officers ROTC produces.
I like a coach bringing back a work ethic to our school. This is kind of like all the high schools in Georgia who begin their summer practices at 5:00 or 5:30 in the morning. I doubt very many kids could keep Carson Wentz, Zach Zenner or Tom Brady's schedule and take care of their bodies as they do. Dang it, I said it again. We really have more in common with the Dakota schools than the folks to our west...