THE WALL OF FACES

Capt. William Black is buried at the U. S. Military Academy Post Cemetery at West Point.

Captain William Ray Black, Served with Company A, 2nd Battalion, 12th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division, United States Army Vietnam.

The “Friends of Rocky Versace” remember one of Bob Walters' USMA 1964 classmates - a brother Airborne-Ranger - Captain William Ray Black, on what would’ve been his 79th birthday - 17 April 2021.

Do not stand at my grave and weep
I am not there; I do not sleep.
I am a thousand winds that blow,
I am the diamond glints on snow,
I am the sun on ripened grain,
I am the gentle autumn rain.
When you awaken in the morning's hush
I am the swift uplifting rush
Of quiet birds in circled flight.
I am the soft stars that shine at night.
Do not stand at my grave and cry,
I am not there; I did not die.

I never had the chance to meet Bill Black. He was my mother’s cousin. She was from Dyer, TN. My aunt Gillie Baker knew the Black family very well as she was a cousin of the Thompson’s. I was 17 when Bill was killed. His loss had a profound effect upon me as I too received a nomination to West Point. I chose the Nuclear Power program in the Navy and served 1970-1976. Bill and I come from a long line of veterans going back to the Revolutionary War.
Bill, thank you.