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                         March 19, 2004

Ring melt ceremony bonds past wit the future

Story and photos by Spc. Eric S. Bartelt
Features Editor

Steve Rasmussen stood earnestly, his voice cracking with emotion describing his father’s love for the U. S. Military Academy and his privilege to witness something that meant so much to his father with the hope it will mean the same to its new owner.

His father, James Asa Rasmussen, USMA class of 1945, who died October 26, had a last wish of contributing his class ring to the Class Ring Memorial Program. His ring was included among the 12 present at the ring ceremony conducted at the Pease & Curren Refinery in Warwick , R.I. , March 8.

In four years, the program started by Ron Turner, (USMA 1958), has gathered 80 rings that are melted, then processed into a gold bar, and then the shavings are mixed into each new class ring.

“Here’s the ability to take something tangible, a ring worn by a graduate, and carry it on to the rings of the new graduates,” said Tony Ferraiuolo, Association of Graduates Class Support Program director. “It’s a material bonding of the Long Gray Line.”

Along with Ferraiuolo, two cadets from the Class of 2005, who will wear these rings starting in August, class president James Freeze and ring and crest committee chair Anne Hsieh, were present to take part in the ceremony.

The solemn ceremony honored the 13 graduates (12 rings, one ring was shared by two graduates) with the reciting of their biographies by Pease & Curren vice president of sales Keith Edwards, (USMA 1985), with select individuals placing a ring into a kiln after the biography was announced.

After the ceremonial transfer of the rings, the kiln was placed into a gas-fired melting furnace at 2,300 degrees and melted into a gold bar that will be later shaved down for placement into the new rings for the Class of 2005.

The origin of the class ring started at West Point in 1835, and the bringing together of generations through the ring melting has been symbolic to many who’ve witnessed the process.

“When I watched the rings being melted, I thought of the legend of the phoenix -- a bird that rises from the ashes,” Rasmussen said. “An image occurred to me that the spirits of those that had given their lives to the service of our country were going to be reborn in the lives of those who are going to serve today.”

Rasmussen was happy to do this for his father knowing that his father had given so much to uphold the values of Duty, Honor, Country and wants future generations to make this program a tradition at West Point .

“My father was proud to be a cadet, proud to serve in the Army for 20 years, and proud of the traditions that West Point is all about,” Rasmussen said. “This ceremony was an opportunity for me to come and be a part of something he loved and hopefully make a tradition grow that is going to embody the values that he held so deeply.”

The eventual recipients of these old rings also know of the sacrifices that these graduates made in their lifetimes and plan to honor their memories by respecting their ring and their place in the Long Gray Line.

“This is symbolic of the strength and continuity of the Long Gray Line and the people who’ve paved the way for us,” Hsieh said. “I’m excited to share this with my class and having these rings on our fingers will be a good reminder of what we represent and what we’re supposed to do.”

Freeze added, “We have the Long Gray Line, and with the passing of the gold, it’s now the Long Gray and Gold Line. The academy teaches so much about values and I think it’s the pinnacle to the values and moral pillar of the Army, so I hope to be able to uphold that and being able to embody Duty, Honor, Country through the rings.”

History is marked in this year’s group of ring bearers from service in World War I, World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War to all the important graduates they walked the Plain with during their years at the academy.

“ West Point is steeped in tradition, and I really believe that in the modern age that this is probably the most significant tradition that we started here,” Ferraiuolo said. “I think this program will have a long standing impact among graduates, it will allow them to always feel their memory will live in someone else through the ring.”

This year’s 12 rings previously belonged to an unknown graduate from the Class of 1906, 1st Lt. George Rodolphus Hays Jr. (1929), Col. Duff Walker Sudduth and Col. William J. Given (1933, they also shared the same ring), Maj. Oliver Prescott Robinson Jr. (1934), Col. Howard N. Smalley (1937), Capt. Charles Calvert Benedict and Maj. Robert Lee Rooker (Jan. 1943, June 1943), Lt. Col. John G. Williams (1944), Lt. Col. Rasmussen and Theodore Fadden Adair (1945), 1st Lt. James Robinson Pierce Jr. (1950), and Col. Marshall Nichols Carter (1962).