re: Tonight, Texas A&M's campus will darken for Silver Taps

quote:

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"Dear Mom and Dad,

Right now it's 11:00 and call to quarters is over. I should be in bed but there is something I have to tell you both first. I'm sitting here at my desk with tears in my eyes and thinking more about life itself than I ever have before.

I'm not crying because of what I'm going through . . . but rather because I've experienced tonight what A&M is all about. Mother and Dad, we're one big family here and I now know what it means to be an Aggie. Tonight was Silver Taps.

In case you don't know what this is, I'm going to tell you and when you've got to listen. Anytime a student here loses his life . . .no matter how . . . on an assigned date soon afterwards, we have what is called Silver Taps. Everyone gathers infront of the Academic Building, in front of which is a flag pole on which the Silver Taps notice is posted.

No one says a word from the time we leave the dorms until the next morning. All is quiet and all the lights on campus are turned off. Even the lights on Coke machines in the dorms are covered.
At 10:30 p.m., when everyone is in place in front of the Academic Building, a firing team fires a twenty-one gun salute in honor of those who died. The buglers play "Silver Taps" and it's over.

Tonight I experienced one of the most solemn feelings I've ever had and feel so good inside. Mom, Dad, it was like God Himself was there with us. I guess you're wishing I would grow up and stop carrying on like this about Silver Taps...but, it was so...I can't even tell you how it was, there is nothing else like it.

Be Careful and I love you both, D.C."
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(Three weeks later, the next Silver Taps honored three A&M students killed in a car-truck accident near Roanoke in Denton County on November 9.

One of them was Don Coward.)

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