Jim Kaiser

Jim is a very special case of me wasting opportunities. He was always special to me in the NROTC Unit. He was one of my squad leaders on the drill team, and we spent a good deal of our free time practicing precision drill. Jim was a strong man and had little trouble handling the fairly heavy Springfield rifles that we used on the team. We would practice trick rifle for hours and it wouldn1t be long before that ordinary rifle seemed to me to have the heft of a cannon. But Jim would keep on working, perfecting the drills.

Jim was a man you could rely on - as a squad leader on the drill team or, more importantly, as a friend. I missed him after I graduated and was commissioned into the Marine Corps. As I recall, the following year Jim graduated with a commission in the Navy.

About ten years later, Vietnam and the Marine Corps behind me, I was working in Rochester, NY. I received a call from Jim. He had a job in Corning, not far from Rochester. He dropped by my office and we reminisced for a while. I think he came over to my house and visited with my wife and me. And then he was gone.

I was too stupid to stay in touch with him. Here was a person who I felt was a good friend, who sought me out after several years, and I had not the common sense to restore our old friendship.