Honoring my father's memory, accepting my daughter's gift

Feeling glum about the future of America?

Attend the Army-Navy game. You’ll be inspired.

Doubtful about the discipline and ability of our armed forces?

Attend the Army-Navy game. Those doubts will be erased.

Constantly complaining about how the young people of today don’t match up to the standards of the past?

Attend the Army/Navy game. You’ll be singing a different tune.

I had grown up watching the Army-Navy games on TV on December Saturday afternoons. For my Old Man, it was a “don’t miss” event.

He was a World War II veteran of the Army Air Corps. Even though the Air Corps morphed into the Air Force a couple of years after the war ended, the Old Man’s allegiance was to the Army.

He even pulled for the Army in 1961 and 1962, the years when the games were attended by the young President the Old Man loved so dearly, Naval veteran and war hero, John Kennedy.

Partly because the games are usually exciting contests between evenly matched teams and partly to honor the memory of my father, I can’t think of a time when I’ve missed watching the game over the past 60 years.

But seeing the game in person, with all of its pomp and pageantry? Never thought I’d have the chance.

But this year, I did.

A Wonderful Opportunity

My daughter Prairie is a lieutenant with the Chapel Hill Police Department. Another officer in the department has a relative on the Navy coaching staff. Bingo, presto, poppo … Prairie and her Old Man had tickets to the 2025 game at M&T Bank Stadium in downtown Baltimore.

Attending the game meant traveling 421 miles by car from Drexel to Arlington, Va., on Friday; traveling 419 miles by car from Alexandria, Va., to Drexel on Sunday; and negotiating both downtown Baltimore and the maze of interstate highways which surround it on Saturday before and after the game.

Luckily, I only had to drive from Drexel to Chapel Hill and back. My 37-year-old daughter, who stayed perfectly calm in traffic that would have made me weep, did all the rest.

As I learned on the long drive north, the Army-Navy game is more than just a clash of two football teams. Instead, it is an all-day spectacle that begins hours before kickoff and continues into the night.

Some Highlights:

The precision formation march onto the field of more than 4,000 Navy Academy midshipmen prior to the game, all in perfect step, all in perfect form.

The matching of that perfection by the more than 4,000 cadets from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.

The absolute joy and pride on parents’ faces as they spotted their son or daughter entering the field. Their cheers were louder and more spirited than any elicited by the football game that followed.

Looking to the skies and seeing three military helicopters in close formation overhead and then being told that the middle chopper was Marine One, carrying the President of the United States from the White House to the game.

Later, as gametime neared, an ear-splitting flyover by four naval jets followed quickly by four Army helicopters.

A final treat before the coin toss and kickoff — the parachuting onto the field by members of the Army Golden Knights and the Navy Leap Frogs.

Nearly 71,000 fans were in place when the game began around 3:15 p.m. with the temperature a chill but bearable 42 degrees. (It was especially bearable for me because Prairie had given me an early Christmas present — a heated vest that performed perfectly to keep my core warm during the nine hours we spent outside in the raw and damp Maryland air.)

The game that followed was a classic. Navy was quarterbacked by Blake Horvath; Army by Cale Hellums. In a game that featured far more running plays than pass attempts, each quarterback gained more than 100 rushing yards.

Even though Navy was favored by the oddsmakers, a determined Army squad led going into the fourth quarter. The game truly could have gone either way, but Navy pulled out a late 17-16 victory.

A Show of True Class

The Navy fans surrounding me celebrated as if the midshipmen had won the college football playoffs, the Super Bowl, and the World Series all at one time. And yet a few minutes later, they grew as quiet as softly falling snow.

For in the east end zone, the Army team and most of the cadets had gathered for the singing of Army’s alma mater — the solemn notes of which echoed throughout the stadium, concluding with these words:

And when our work is done

Our course on earth is run

May it be said, “Well done”

”Be thou at peace”

E’er may that line of gray

Increase from day to day

Live, serve, and die, we pray

West Point, for thee”

There may have been dry eyes in the stadium, but they did not include mine.

After the cadets finished their Alma Mater, the midshipmen, who had been waiting respectfully, began to sing their own which concluded with these words:

Four years together by the Bay

Where Severn joins the tide

Then by the Service called away

We’re scattered far and wide

But still when two or three shall meet

And old tales be retold

From low to highest in the Fleet

We’ll pledge the Blue and Gold.

As Prairie and I walked out of the towering stadium and into the chill December night, I thanked her for inviting me to be part of such a special day, a day filled with a thousand exceptional memories.

Odds are mighty good that I’ll never be so blessed as to attend another Army-Navy game.

But I’ll tell the world that I was mighty proud to have been a part of this one.