So, can I contribute to this discussion? You Bet! First, I am steeped in West Point. My dad graduated in 1939. From Ft. Sam Houston, TX, he was moved to England to help plan for the Normandy Invasion. Mom was pregnant when he left, so one of the stories in our home was that when he returned (I was 4) and Mom told me he was my daddy, I said “no, my daddy was a picture of him on the mantel”! We lived at West Point for 2 tours. The last one was when dad was the first department head of the new Military Psychology & Leadership Department, the class of 1961 was the first to attend those classes.

During that tour, in January of 1961, while I was a senior at Highland Falls high school, I had a blind date with Mick Maus. I must have made a really good impression as he traveled back that summer during graduation leave for a week before going to Airborne School. He spent the time while I worked at the Thayer Hotel, working out in the gym getting ready for Airborne. I am still surprised that Mom & Dad let me travel to Ft. Benning during Airborne to visit him, staying with Bob & Sally Potts. Bob was Mick’s room mate for a couple of years. Mick went into Ranger School then and I started college at Rider College, now Rider University. Not missing a chance, he did visit again after Ranger and at Christmas and again before taking the USS United States to Europe.

Most will remember that the Berlin Wall went up in 1961 and Mick went to Germany in 1962. Fortuitously for us, my father was transferred to Germany in 1963 to head up the US Army Schools in Europe in Oberammergau. Because of nepotism, I needed to find a job out of southern Germany and worked then for the Air Force at Rhein Main AFB as a legal secretary. Mick was in Gelnhausen with a self-propelled 155 artillery unit and would pick me up on Friday evenings, rescuing me from the Air Force Zoomies at work. We made such dear friends with the young officers and their wives there. We still visit with them. We were married then in April of 1964 in Oberammergau (known as the abduction of the child bride). We say that Jesus and his apostles attended the wedding and can show the pictures from the reception as proof. Oberammergau is the scene of the Passion Play every 10 years and the actors stay in “the look” that goes with their part in the play.

When Mick elected to resign from the Army I was upset. It was the only life I had really known. All has worked out wonderfully, however. We have stayed closely associated with West Point. Our son, Michael, graduated in 1987 along with Mick’s brother’s son. Mick’s sister’s son graduated in 1991. A grandson, Caleb Kilpatrick, graduated in 2019 and a grandniece, Nicole Maus in 2020.

Civilian life has been an adventure. As Mick progressed thru the ranks, we moved often and enjoyed most environs. We are now in the 9th home we have built and I won’t mention apartments, flats and duplexes. Family, church, golf & travel have filled any vacant times. With classmates, we have made the Danube Cruise, the Russian River Cruise, the Elbe River Cruise, the China cruise/trip, the New Zealand-Australia trip/cruise and the photographic safari to South Africa, Zimbabwe & Botswana. We are looking forward to the Mississippi River Cruise and the Mediterranean cruise.