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The following letter was written to a newspaper in Idaho. It is in response to a letter in the free forum of that newspaper concerning the bonfire tragedy. The response to the original letter was not published, however. So he wrote this letter to the editor.
The man that wrote it is a dedicated Aggie, a grad student, he is a firefighter, is employed on campus and is the coordinator of the Aggie Ribbons Program.
I think he covered the Spirit of Aggieland well..both on campus and that of the surrounding community. But this mail won't be published either...not in that Idaho paper, at least. The writer said "The editor responded, saying that he needed less than 250 words to fit"....Well..Mr Editor..This is MANY more than 250 words...but well worth the time to read..because even if you are not an Aggie...perhaps after reading this you can see inside an Aggie's Heart...and know that the Aggie Twelfth Man Spirit is Alive and Well...even in Idaho. IF you are in Idaho reading this..PLEASE state that when you sign the guestbook. (everyone please sign the guestbook..:)

Lets show Idaho how many Texas Aggies and Texas Aggies at heart DO Understand.

Mr. Fisher:

No, I don't agree with a free speech-related curtain-pulling
excuse for bad choices in what you publish.  But you, and only you have to 
decide what you stand for, though I see little honor in defending bad taste 
and inconsideration.  Like you admitted, it was your choice, and in my 
opinion, it's a poor choice and poor reflection of what the term integrity 
means.  In my opinion, it's a poor reflection on you, and as you are a 
highly recognized representative of your area and state, on all others that 
support you as a readership.

So you obviously think you are defending free speech or something?  No, 
countless hundreds of thousands that have given their lives in times of war 
gave us free speech for people like yourself to interpret and twist to the 
interest of your readership.  You don't defend free speech, you take 
advantage of it's emotion-inciting qualities to sensationalize and shock.  
Ultimately, you hide behind a 250 word limit and senseless need for my 
personal address (that I could obviously lie about) in order to discount my 
reply.

Aggie Spirit: From the outside in, you can't understand it.  From the inside 
out, you can't explain it.  That is why others do not understand.  There's 
no way I could explain the feelings and thoughts of an Aggie in 250 words.

But that is as far as I will complain to you, as I do not know you nor why 
you make the choices you do.  It is my understanding that you are entitled 
to do as you wish, given that we live in a free country.
I would be willing to give my life to defend your right to publish what you 
wish.

Give me about 25,000 words and I'll try to tell you how about 250,000 Aggies 
feel.

Just why did your and my families give up their young men in WWI, WWII, 
Korea, and Vietnam?  Because of what they believed in. Of what I believe in. 
  They gave even when they didn't believe nor agree.  They gave for the goal 
of a common good for all.

THIS IS THE VERY SAME REASON TEXAS A&M LOST 12 STUDENTS TO BONFIRE.

I can tell you, kids here don't walk on the grass at the Memorial Student 
Center on campus.  They remove their hats when they enter the building.  
They know and understand what freedoms they have and what they are worth.  
There's a reason that Patton said "Give me an army of West Point Graduates 
and I'll win a battle.  Give me a handful of Texas Aggies and I'll win a 
war."

Aggies are the bulk of ROTC graduates in the military today.  Aggies fly the 
Space Shuttle. Aggies find ship-wrecked remains in the deepest of seas.  And 
Aggies have flown their F-14s (inverted) over the Texas Clipper in the 
middle of the Atlantic Ocean to honor the Aggies on deck they don't even 
know, just because they know they are on hand.

One day, mark my words....there will be an Aggie in the White House.

If he'd have lived through November 18th and 19th, it could have someday 
been Timothy Kerlee.  There will be an Aggie President for the same reasons 
that 17 year-old Aggie Tim Kerlee directed rescuers to help others that were 
not injured nearly as badly as he was.  To keep from injuring themselves in 
their haste to help the injured amidst the still-unstable logs.  Tim Kerlee 
had been an Aggie for only about three months, but he gave all in the 
never-ending protection of Aggie tradition.

Timmy, we will never forget your bravery in the face of loss, pain, and 
defeat.  You are the biggest 12th Man of all, and your memory is forever 
etched on the hearts of millions who do understand why you did what you did. 
  I never knew you, but I will think of you every day for the rest of my 
life.

Bonfire. If we could ask Cadet Kerlee, I believe that he'd do it all again.  
I know that 10,000 other Aggies would show up to help...day or night, rain 
or shine.  Many of those injured have said that they'd be the first on 
Stack.  I know this because there were 1,000's of Aggies at the site 
following the collapse, and for more than 24 hours straight, they were, to a 
man, STANDING.  Standing, as the 12th Man always does, throughout the entire 
football game, ready and willing to contribute, if only called upon.  That 
is Aggie tradition, and it doesn't bend nor break in the face of adversity.

You must understand why someone from Texas cares why you would print a 
letter from a woman who obviously knows nothing about what it means to be an 
Aggie.  It must be bliss to be so perfectly ignorant.  Not in a derogatory 
sense, but in a literal sense.  Truly having no clue.
Ignorance is refusing to consider the truth and the facts.  Being 
ill-informed and still openly opinionated.

You don't really have to be an Aggie to be graced by Aggie Spirit.
Ladies from the local grocery stores stayed in the bakeries all night, 
volunteering their time to bake cookies and donuts for those at the site.  
The Aggie football team showed up, as willing as the rest of us, to help 
move logs or anything that might be needed.  Thousands of others, including 
me, held down the corners of our world, as the foundations shook right 
beneath us.  There were still the normal MVA accident, the cancer patient 
who needed to go to the hospital, and the nice old man down the road who 
lost his long battle with heart disease the night that the Stack fell.

And the night wore on.  Dozens of girls lined up along tables, making 
sandwiches by the hundreds.  Restaurants from near and far brought hot 
dishes for cold rescuers.  And they also fed the 1,000's standing there 
ready to help.  "You have to eat" was heard over and over.
People by the 1,000's brought coats, sweatshirts, and jackets for kids who 
would not go home.  A friend of mine was approached by a news team and 
asked..."Sir, did you know any of the Aggies who have been killed?"  He said 
softly..."Yes, all of them".  The reporter was shocked and asked "ALL OF 
THEM?....HOW?"  My friend said "They were FAMILY."  Later, he pinned a note 
on his shirt that said "Prayer Partner", which was also an "official" 
hugger, as many needed hugging.

Then another long day.  Texas A&M EMS personnel, some seeing more tragedy 
than they will see in an entire career, went home to friends and room-mates 
and cried.  They had been stronger than they even knew how to be, but enough 
was enough.  Firefighters welcomed active shifts back to their stations, 
patting them on the backs, letting them know they were there in case anyone 
needed to cry.  And they did.  The emergency personnel knew that they were 
home, but they also knew that those that they had seen dead had probably had 
homework to finish, a waiting room-mate that had not gone to Stack that 
night because of an impending exam, and even maybe a first date Friday night 
with someone new they met at the Bonfire Site last Saturday.

Those heros of the night now live with their well-made decisions to help 
those that could be helped, and to let those go that they could not.  I know 
these people, because I am a firefighter and medic.  I know, because I am 
one of them, and I am very proud of them, each and every one.  I have had to 
make those same decisions before.  I have lost people that I was working 
with, because there was nothing to work with.  Even young people with their 
whole life in front of them.

Then the final night, the final body recovery, and the end of the shocking 
story of the collapse and rescue effort.  Thousands now stood in line at the 
local Red Cross to give blood.  There was much more than was needed for the 
Aggies, but it was all used.  People were turned away and told to come back 
tomorrow.  And they did.  By the hundreds.

At least one family in Dallas received organs for a loved one whose  were 
failing and in doing so, realized that Aggie Spirit now lives in the 
recipient.  On the final night, there were still 1,000's at the site, 
including me.  Hundreds gathered on a hill to the southeast of the site and 
cried as two Aggie bagpipers played Amazing Grace....how sweet the sound.  
And then, a lone Corpsman, playing Taps towards the site.  And then the 
University Spokeswoman who had been there all that time, wandered through 
the crowd, tears in her tired eyes, wearing a blanket to stay warm, 
personally thanking the kids for being there - saying that she would not 
have had the strength to carry out her job without the support of the 12th 
Man.

And for nearly three weeks now, the recovery of a family.  The tons of 
shirts, caps, towels, clothes, banners, posters, candles, Bibles, drawings, 
poems, Bonfire pots, ribbons, notes, crosses, wooden memorial ribbons, 
pictures, and anything else you could imagine a person would cherish.  
Senior boots and saber.  A Yell Leader's perfectly white, starched shirt.  
And the most singular symbolic treasure of the graduated or soon to be 
graduating Aggie....the Aggie Ring.  First one, with a note that the student 
had just received it and did not yet feel worthy of wearing it.  Then six.  
Then twelve.  Then twenty.  Finally, 34 Aggie Rings glistened at the foot of 
the main flagpole of campus.  I took mine from my finger and held it there, 
praying for the families of the lost Aggies and thanking God for the 
blessing of being a member of the Aggie family.

As the University of Texas Student Body President said, "Aggieland is a 
special place filled with special people."  Aggies care about each other.  
Once a month, in silence, Silver Taps are offered for Aggies who have died 
during the last month.  Hundreds gather on campus and lights are all blacked 
out to show their respect.  A week ago tonight, I was there, as the crowd 
swelled to several thousand as we said goodbye to our friends.  Three 
volleys from 21 guns, and three times the Taps, echoing from the entrance of 
the Academic Building...the sad but proud parents at the foot of the statue 
of statesman and gentleman, former Governor of Texas and President of Texas 
A&M, Lawrence Sullivan (Sul) Ross.  I will not forget.

Every April, nearly a million Aggies world-wide stop for one day and honor 
Muster, where they remember their Aggie friends who have died in the 
previous year's time.  Events are held all over the world, and I'll bet more 
than one of them is in Idaho.

Here in Aggieland, 15,000 people will pack the Reed Arena in silence as the 
names are called, to be answered "Here" in whispers from friends from more 
than one part of the Arena.  Many of those whispers are from classmates with 
graduation years ending in '21, '31 or '41, who, though they might have had 
to be assisted to their seat, would not have missed honoring old friends for 
their life.  Another 1,000 or more will not make it in the doors and will 
have to watch on TV from the Memorial Student Center, the Rudder Theater, or 
from G. Rollie White Colliseum.  Aggies care about their own in a manner not 
easily understood by outsiders.

People are memorialized for death in the pursuit of what they believe in.  
If Bonfire is such a ridulous event, then why do the people who understand 
what it's living breathing Spirit is all about show up nearly 80,000 strong 
to hold a candle for those who gave their lives the week before.  Eighty 
thousand people didn't come to play with Lincoln Logs, M(s). Morris, and I 
don't think that 80,000 people can be that wrong. You just don't understand, 
and I cannot explain it to you, so let's just leave it at that.

Eighty thousand people.  Why did people who came ASAP from as far away as 
Canada leave a case of candles at the site with a note to burn one for them, 
for they had to get back to families and jobs.  Why did they come at all?  
Because they care, and they understand what Aggie Spirit is all about.  
Because a kid who doesn't even know them needed a hug and a shoulder to cry 
on.  Needed to see an old Ag, so they could be comforted by looking into the 
face of the past, with all it's comforting solidity.  Weathered faces 
representing hundreds of thousands of Former Students who were, you guessed 
it, STANDING at the fence surrounding the site, willing to help if needed.

They didn't fly in to suck up a free thrown-together sandwich and gawk at 
the sight of the Bonfire collapse just to entertain their sense of freedom.  
They didn't need freedom of speech, as there was nothing really to say.  
They stood in silence, with tears on their faces, remembering Bonfires of 
old, and 30 or 40, or even 50 or 60 year old memories of reaching down to 
help a friend up for a stint in the swings on the late shift.  They 
remembered waiting their turn to take the "Go Home" line down, knowing that 
there were at least 12 that didn't make it home, and they never will.  But 
they will burn in our hearts forever.

Aggies understand and believe in Bonfire.  It is a living, breathing thing.  
It will not end.  It will change, but it will not end.

Do me a favor, Mr. Fisher.  Print what you want of this.  But please print 
one last thing for your readers that do care.  John Comstock is the last 
Aggie still in the hospital, and remains in intensive care.  It is not 
expected that he will make it home in time for Christmas.  By all reports, 
he has now lost one of his legs.  I was told by a friend who got to visit 
that John will not live without a miracle.

For your readers who may care, would you please select whatever you'd like 
to print, but include an address for John at the College Station Medical 
Center?  He needs the prayers and support of everyone.  The address is 
either physically, 1604 Rock Prairie Road, College Station, Texas, 77842 or 
for box, P.O. Box 10000, College Station, Texas, 77842.  I like to send 
electronic cards, and was frustrated in not being able to find an email 
address for John, but then found john_comstock@hotmail.com.

Thank you for indulging me the opportunity to try once again, to explain 
what Aggie Spirit is.  I continue to heal as I try.  God loves the Texas 
Aggies, and I know there's at least one Aggie there somewhere. They are 
everywhere.

J.P. Bach 

ALL GAVE SOME, SOME GAVE ALL!

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**Note: I didn't create the images used in this background.**
If you are the creator of either of the images,
e-mail me and I will give you the credit you deserve. Thanks......Sunnye

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