The Corps of Cadets was segregated from the rest of the campus. We wore uniforms every day. All weekend. And, you lived by military discipline. It was very regimented. High standards were required. And I took to it.

Between your junior and senior years, Army cadets go to summer camp. And in 1970, when I went to summer camp, it was Fort Sill, Oklahoma, which was the backside of the moon as far as I'm concerned. You are mixed in with all the other cadets from all the other schools and universities in the district. But, you, you go through essentially what is, amounts to basic training. And in so doing, you also switch leadership positions periodically so that they can evaluate your leadership style. And your leadership ability. And sadly, when I came back from there, I went over to check how I had done in the Trigon in the military science department.And my instructor did not recommend me for a regular Army commission.

So, the sergeant who looked at my record, looked at it and swore, swore a bunch of words that I had, don't think I'd ever heard. I thought I'd heard them all. And he said, let me go talk to the Deputy Commandant. And so he came back and he said, Deputy Commandant says, you keep your nose clean, you keep your grades up, then, the Commandant of Cadets has a distinguished military graduate designation for five students that he can award.

So my senior year, when everybody else was kicked, I was working my head off. I ran two drill meets. I ran a senior drill meet for the, the cadets and I ran a junior drill meet for high school units, high school drill, drill teams. And I, I was at least intelligent enough to know to bring the Commandant of Cadets out, Captain Colonel Jim McCoy, to open it and to see us do it. Because when, after that happened, I was passing through the military science department and the Deputy Commandant, yelled for me to come into his office. And he, I reported to him, and he says, he threw me Distinguished Military Graduate tab, and said, “You made it. Commandant says you're going to be a DMG. You’re going to apply for a regular commission. You want a ceremony?” And I looked at it and I said, sir, I just had my ceremony.