In their final year at the U.S. Naval Academy 50 years ago, a group of young men in the 23rd Company almost got kicked out for drinking.
They managed to graduate with their class in the tumultuous year of 1969 and went on to serve in the military on nuclear submarines, destroyers, and fighter jets. One of the company’s 27 members became a brigadier general and commanding officer of Marine One for two U.S. presidents, and another a missionary in Russia. Two bought a sailboat, christened it “Wind” and took off for the South Pacific. Four died, including one who helped others escape the north tower of the World Trade Center on 9/11 but didn’t make it out himself.