Tonight I pulled an old classic off the bookshelf in the trophy room: Hunting Trophy Deer, by John Wootters.

It has been a while now since Wootters wrote anything. The last time I spoke with him on the phone he was returning from a birding trip with his wife. That was a while ago.

Cracking open that book takes me back to the summer of 1978, when I was a yearling (sophmore) at West Point. Just holding it in my hands takes me back to a summer Saturday, lying in my bunk at Camp Buckner, where we spent the summer between between our freshman and sophmore academic years. I dreamed then of hunting far away lands as well as shooting the trophy bucks of which Wootters wrote.

Over thirty years have passed. All of my dreams have come true; I have hunted just about everything I dreamed of. I don't lust for another elephant or lion. And yet, I still lust for a huge whitetail buck of which Wootters wrote about back in the mid 70s when he was about as old as I am now.

It is a great read and changed my outlook on deer and deer hunting for good.

AZ, if you have an extra copy of that you'd be willing to part with, I'd be happy to compensate you appropriately!

friar

Friar:

I don't. I do like to collect books on hunting, shooting, fishing, etc. I have gotten quite a few at old book stores. I picked some up at Amzaon as well.

My copy still has the original dust jacket on it, with a piece of tape on it to stop a tear. I wondered the other night what year that tape went on the jacket. It is now yellow.

Time flies...

There are some used copies on the 'Net. I have the original and what I believe is a revised version, both in paperback. Do not have the hardback.

AnotherAZWriter:

I was on the faculty at West Point from 78-81. Two of my three sons were born in the hospital there on post.

I shot a nice deer on Academy property the fall of '78. Hunting was very good there in those days.

458WM:

Wow, I graduated in 81. That was quite a year - hostages came back from Iran, I got to march in Reagan's inauguration, Bob Hope came and did a show with VP George Bush, Reagan delivered the commencement address at our graduation, etc.

I shot 4 deer during my years there. I mentioned it in a story I wrote for the 25th anniversary issue of Petersen's HUNITNG titled, "My Life with Petersen's HUNTING."

I am glad West Point required four years of humanities - I don't think I could write today if that were not true. I also thank the "Army Effective Writing Program" for ensuring I not only loathed, but feared the use of the passive voice. I get really tired of rewriting my sales manager's proposals...

I shot you a PM.

I remember all those events--I was in Michie (sp?) Stadium for the Bob Hope show, saw Reagan at graduation--he brought Nancy & James Cagney with him--it was Reagan's first public appearnce after the assassination attempt.

Bill Cosby did a show at Eisenhower Hall.

The Marine hostages from Iran visited the post schools. My oldest son was in 1st grade, and I have photos of his class with some of the Marines.

I also remember Omar Bradley being wheeled around Academy grounds at graduation. As I recall, he died while I was assigned there.

I was in the English Department at USMA. I'm sure the Academy would deny it, but we had a remedial writing program for plebes which several of us taught. Lotsa football players in my classes.

The first class of women graduated while I was there, and I sponsored a female cadet (whose name I don't remember) in the 3rd class sponsorship program, where cadets were supposedly shown how military families operated. Mostly the kids got free meals at tailgate parties.

People don't realize how huge the WP installation is--100's of acres for training, and a great outdoor wildlife program. Upstate New York is a beautiful part of the country, especially to someone who had never been north of South Carolina--I grew up in Texas, went to A&M, and infiltrated the WP faculty along with other "non-grads," as we were called--and there was even a female officer in the Department!

Returned your PM.

quote:

Originally posted by 458WM:

I also remember Omar Bradley being wheeled around Academy grounds at graduation. As I recall, he died while I was assigned there.

He did die during those years. I remember when we did the "Pass in Review" parades on the Plain the general officers would always have those metal flags/guidons. As you passed, you would hit the general officer flags. First the one stars, then the two stars, followed by the three stars, and then the four stars. Only once did I ever see a five star flag. It was, of course, Bradley...a frail old man in wheelchair.

When he died the cadets from El Paso Texas participated in his funeral. One of my E1 classmates, Heidi Brown, attended. My class was the second with females. Heidi is now a one star general stationed in Iraq.