Friends Of The Jesuits

From 1966 to 1970, I attended Xavier High School at 30 West 16th Street in Manhattan, a few blocks north of Greenwich Village and oddly enough not that for from the main office of Forbes.  Each day, as I rode the bus and subway to make my way from Fairview NJ, I wore one of three military uniforms, one of which was a close enough approximation of a US Army uniform to prompt a lady who saw me on the Orange and Black Bus if I was “going back”.  I was 17.  It was plausible.  The military science faculty was made up of older retired sergeants and an active duty officer and some younger active duty sergeants.  The latter were just back from tours in Vietnam.  We were required to salute, among others, any faculty member we encountered on the street.

 Young Jesuit scholastics and priests whose uptown friends were under observation by the FBI were embarrassed and asked us to stop.  

By the time I was a senior the Regiment had become a bizarre parody of a military struggling with an unpopular war.  A friend of mine told me that all the Cadet First Sergeants of the eight regular companies were taking bribes to mark kids present at drill.  None of that with the Regimental Supply Corps, where I was keeping the roster.

Link (here) to Forbes Magazine the piece is by Peter J Reilly