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Men of the class of 1963, spouses, honored widows, family
members and friends, were gathered together to remember our classmates
of the class of 1963 here at West Point who have gone before
us. And as we do so, I call to your
remembrance that song that we learned so early in our tenure
here at the Academy, the Corps. Listen again to the tremendous
words of that song. And as you listen, you may hear
in your own thinking and in your own mind the tune, the song,
the cadet chorus as they sang. The Corps, bareheaded, saluted,
with eyes up thanking our God that we of the Corps are treading
where they of the Corps have trod. They are here in ghostly
assemblage, the men of the Corps, long dead, and our hearts are
standing attention while we wait for their passing tread. We sons
of today, we salute you, you sons of an earlier day. We follow
close order behind you where they have pointed the way. The long gray line of us stretches
through the years of a century told. and the last man feels
to his marrow the grip of your far-off hold. Grip hands with
us now, though we see not. Grip hands with us, strengthen
our hearts as the long line stiffens and straightens with the thrill
that your presence imparts. Grip hands, though it be from
the shadows, while we swear as you did of your or living or
dying to honor the Corps and the Corps and the Corps. When we first learned those words
as plebes and when we first sang those words, whether as the Corps
of Cadets or in the Cadet Chorus, Those words carried with them
a certain sense of sentimentality. But now, now since we've tasted
of war, since we've had the smell of gun smoke and powder and cannon
fire in our nostrils, and now since we've had the acrid smell
and putrid smell of burning flesh, and now since we're much closer
to the end of our journey than the beginning. These words carry
with them a different weight and a different somber note as
it were. We remember our classmates and
that ghostly assemblage with which we now grip hands. When I began as a plebe at the
U.S. Military Academy, I wasn't a
great light in the Corps, and never was a great light in the
Corps. One of the reasons I came to
the Academy was through the influence of a high school buddy, Robert
Laird Ord III. He was a football player and
actually got his appointment through the football program
here at the Academy. And he was a bright light. He
played on the first team varsity and when he was a first classman,
a firstie, he was the commander of the second regiment. And those
of you who were a part of the second regiment may remember
him. He was a class of 1962. It's
amazing the things that we remember from those years long ago. One of the men who has passed
since our last gathering together at our 50th reunion was John
Morgan, my roommate. One of the things I remember
about John was his sitting in the hallway at Lights Out with
his knees pulled up to his chest, Bible in hand, and reading. I reminded him of this at our
50th reunion five years ago, and he said to me, Denny, that's
the way I got through the four years here, reading my Bible. One of the other things I remember
fondly is marching to chapel Chapel was required in those
days and the band would play familiar hymns in 4-4 time as
we marched to Chapel. I also remember very well, after
graduation, waiting, waiting while the rest of you, my classmates,
were home on leave, and I was here with a group of others waiting
for the Academic Affairs Committee to meet to give us the thumbs
up or the thumbs down as far as our remaining here at the
Academy. I had flunked Freshman English
or Plebe English. This was the second time I failed
English. I had been a freshman at the
University of Delaware before getting an appointment here at
West Point. and I failed English there too,
but my grades in math and science were sufficient that I was put
on probation and they kept me here. I went out for football
as a plebe. Why? To get on the training tables. And I also went out for wrestling,
also to get on the training tables. But because of the likes of Al
Ruchatz and Mike Natvig on the wrestling team, I spent more
of my time on my back in wrestling practice than in any other position. And so it was that we came to
the end of our tenure here at the Academy. My first assignment
was in the 1st Cavalry Division as a signal officer in the 13th
Signal Battalion, and we were stationed at the division headquarters
in South Korea, north of Seoul. One morning I was tasked with
giving a class to my company and at the end of that class
I said to the class, you know, if there's a problem or a difficulty
that you have, a good person to talk to would be the chaplain
and you can seek advice from him. And so I dismissed the company
from the class and the first sergeant march the company away
to the company area. And I took my own advice. and
I walked across the street from the theater to the chaplain's
office. I had gotten acquainted with
the chaplain because I had the habit of going to chapel, as
was the custom when we were at West Point, and so I'd been to
chapel and I knew the division chaplain and I even participated
in some of the worship services that he conducted. When I got
in to see the chaplain, and sat down before him, he looked at
me and said, Lieutenant Prudhoe, why are you here? And I said,
I don't have the vaguest notion. The very next words out of his
mouth were, have you ever accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and
Savior? I thought to myself, Denny, probably
wouldn't be a good idea to lie to the chaplain. And Chaplain
Boyd, that was his name, Chaplain Boyd took a New Testament out
of his desk drawer, a New Testament something like this one I'm holding,
and he opened that New Testament and read to me various passages
of scripture. We just read from Ephesians chapter
2, verse 1 says, and you were dead in your trespasses and sins.
I knew that that was the case. He didn't have to prove that
to me. I knew that I was a sinner. And then he talked to me about
Jesus Christ. Verses 4 and 5 in Ephesians 2
read, But God, being rich in mercy because of his great love
with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions,
made us alive together with Christ. By grace you have been saved. And Chaplain Boyd talked to me
about the death of Christ and the resurrection of Christ and
how Christ died to pay the penalty due to me for my sins. and he
prayed for me. And that meeting, that encounter,
changed the trajectory of my life. I could take upon my lips
the words of the hymn that we're going to sing in just a few minutes. Amazing Grace, Amazing Grace,
how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me. I once was
lost, but now am found, was blind, but now I see. T'was grace that
taught my heart to fear, and grace my fears relieved. How
precious did that grace appear the hour I first believed. The hour I first believed. Things
changed for me and as I say the trajectory of my life was altered
completely. My next step was seminary. and I applied to go to seminary
and was accepted. The problem was, I was in the
Army, and my next assignment was at Fort Hood, Texas, and
I encountered a chaplain there who said to me, I've heard there's
a new program that the Army has approved, an excess leave program,
where a regular Army officer can go to seminary and get a
branch transfer and enter the chaplain's corps. And upon finding
a copy of that regulation and determining that I qualified,
I submitted my application. And I was one of four men in
our class, the class of 1963, that went to seminary under this
program. There was Colin Kelly, who has
been leading us in this service. There was Curry Vaughan, whom
we all know, and there was Banks Hudson. The four of us were the
first four to enter this program. After graduating from seminary,
there was a branch transfer into the chaplain's corps, and my
first assignment was a chaplain with the 6th Special Forces Group
at Fort Bragg. It was a great assignment, and
I signed up to jump out of airplanes with the fellows in the 6th group
as often as I could. You wonder now, why would a guy
jump out of a perfectly good airplane? And then it was off
to Vietnam, where I was a battalion chaplain, a chaplain in the 2nd
of the 47th Infantry. in the 9th Infantry Division
in the north edge of the delta south of Saigon. And so it was. Since that time, a lot of water
has gone under the bridge, has it not? And as we're here together
to remember our classmates, and I think of you, my classmates,
as we are here to think of our classmates who have gone before
us, I think of you, my classmates, and honor you. So many awards,
so many commendations, and so many medals. so many bronze star
medals with V devices and oak leaf clusters. so many silver
stars, and even a Congressional Medal of Honor, and many, many
Purple Hearts. And so, my dear classmates, I
salute you, even with a partially crippled hand, I salute you for
your courage, and for your wisdom, and how you have conducted yourselves. Well done, men of the class of
1963. Well done as you have completed your service in the
military and have gone on in many other pursuits to show yourself
well in the work in the civilian world. And as we think of this
work that's been accomplished, and as we prepare to hear the
reading of the names of the honored dead since our last reunion five
years ago, I call upon you, dear classmates, to think of each
of those men as you hear their names read, and to give thanks
to God for the fact that they have gone before you. And I also call you to think
of another song that if you were a part of the Corps of Cadets
today and were in the Cadet Glee Club or sang in a chorus, you
would no doubt sing along with the Corps. It's the song called,
The Mansions of the Lord. It was originally written for
the film We Were Soldiers, a 2002 film that dramatizes the Battle
of Ia Drang in November of 1965. Listen to the words of that song
now. To fallen soldiers let us sing
where no rockets fly nor bullets wing our broken brothers, let
us bring to mansions of the Lord. No more bleeding, no more fight,
no prayers pleading through the night. Just divine embrace, eternal
light in mansions of the Lord. We will stand where no mothers
cry and no children weep. We will stand and guard though
angels sleep. All through the ages safely keep
the mansions of the Lord. These words remind me of the
words of Jesus and perhaps they remind you of the words of Jesus
to his disciples. in my Father's house are many
mansions. If it were not so, I would have
told you. I go to prepare a place for you,
and if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and
take you to myself, that you may be there with me always. Yes, it is through Jesus Christ
the Lord that we come to the mansions of the Lord. And although
I congratulate you, dear classmates, for your many awards and many
medals, I also remind you of what the Apostle Paul says in
what we read earlier in Ephesians chapter 2 and verses 8 and 9. For by grace you have been saved
through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of
God, not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. Yes, entering into the mansions
of the Lord is the gift of God through faith in Jesus Christ. And so, as I leave you with these
reflections and these remarks, I again encourage you to give
thanks to God for each of our classmates who has gone before
us, 130 of them now, 30 two of them since our last meeting. And when you hear their names
read, give thanks to God for them and for their lives. And I also leave you with this
question, the question that a chaplain asked me so long ago, a question
that changed the trajectory of my life. Have you ever accepted
Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior? Let's pray. Father, thank you for our classmates
who have gone before us, 20 of them who lost their lives in
Vietnam, 32 of them who have passed since our last gathering
at our 50th reunion, And now, as we're here together at our
55th reunion, we give thanks for them. And we ask, Father,
that you work in our hearts that by faith in Jesus Christ, we
too may enter into the mansions of the Lord and grip hands with
that ghostly assemblage of the core that has gone before us. Hear us, we pray, in the good
name of Jesus Christ, who is the Lord. Amen.
Rerun: West Point Class of '63 Fifty-Fifth Reunion Memorial Address
Series West Point Reunion
Since messages are prepared for specific times and places, the practice sessions are never quite the same as the real thing. Nevertheless, because several folks have asked, here is a recording of a rerun giving the content actually presented at my 55th class memorial service including the personal testimony of my conversion.
| Sermon ID | 53181324386 |
| Duration | 20:31 |
| Date | |
| Category | Special Meeting |
| Bible Text | Ephesians 2:1-10 |
| Language | English |
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