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.