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<em>Robert F. “Bob” Degen</em> was born on 3 Apr 1936 in Buffalo, NY, the son of Frank and Evelyn Degen, and lived in Buffalo until the day he reported to New Cadet Barracks on 6 Jul 1954. While attending Buffalo Technical High School, Bob had three inter­ests: baseball, engineering, and girls. On an outing to the Buffalo Motorboat Club with some friends, he met his wife-to-be, Sylvia Scott, who stuck with him through high school, a year of college, four years at USMA, and twelve and a half years of marriage.</p>
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Bob’s boyhood dream was to attend West Point and become an Army officer, but upon graduation from high school, an appointment had not materialized, so he enrolled in engi­neering studies at the University of Buffalo. A year later, he received his appointment as a third alternate to USMA. The determination it took for Bob to get his appointment and take the oath with us on 6 Jul 1954 was the same determination Bob displayed through his entire life and military career.</p>
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Bob was always soft-spoken, and as an 18-year-old New Cadet, his voice was still changing. The constant requirement to “pop off” the mandatory Plebe poop earned him the endearing nickname of “Squeaks” among the upperclassmen of Company <em>Delta Dos. </em>He soon found his command voice, however, and the nickname, fortunately, did not follow him for very long (except from his closest and dearest friends, but no one else dared use it in Bob’s presence).</p>
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He had always been interested in athletics and physical fitness, and his slim, muscular build ideally suited him for the pursuit of gymnastics as a cadet. Through sheer de­termination and hard work, he made the Varsity Gymnastics squad as a rope climber his Yearling year. (Plebes were not eligible for varsity squads at the time.) His nemesis was a one-legged, All-American rope climber at Penn State, who consistently beat all the competition. For two seasons Bob’s times continued to improve, and by the end of Second Class year he had recorded a dual­-meet win over the highly-reputed Penn State All-American. It was a high point in Bob’s athletic career. His real love, however, was the high bar—perhaps the most dangerous and challenging apparatus. Once again, through determination and hard work, he mastered the technique and programs of the high bar, including the most difficult—a double-som­ersault with full-twist dismount. His First Class year he was elected co-captain of Varsity Gymnastics by his teammates.</p>
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Upon graduation, Bob was commissioned in the Signal Corps, and he and Sylvia were married in the Cadet Catholic Chapel on 7 Jun 1958. Following the Officer Basic Course at Ft. Monmouth, NJ, the newlyweds served three years in Germany, where their first two children were born, Cynthia in 1959 and Matthew in 1961. In 1962, after three years of laying thousands of miles of wire all over Europe, Bob transferred to the Armor corps. Following the Officer Advanced Course, he was assigned to the 1st Armored Division at Ft. Hood, TX, but his stateside time with his family was cut short when he was sent to Viet Nam in 1964 as an “early bird” advisor.</p>
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Upon his safe return from Viet Nam, he attended the University of Wisconsin to earn a master’s degree in physical education. Typical of Bob, he chose “The Evolution of Physical Education at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point” for his master’s the­sis, a subject requiring hundreds of hours of research. Sylvia, of course, got the job of typ­ing his thesis. Then, with his master’s degree in hand, it was off to USMA to teach in the Department of Physical Education. In 1966, the couple celebrated the birth of their third child, Sandra. Bob had completed such thor­ough research for his thesis that the physical education department published it as an offi­cial history of the department. It was used for many years as part of the department’s and the Academy’s public relations program.</p>
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Following his three-year stint on the USMA faculty, Bob was selected for the Command and General Staff College at Ft. Leavenworth, followed by a second tour in Viet Nam, where he was assigned as a battal­ion executive officer in the 1st Brigade, 5th Mechanized Division, Quang Tri Province. It was in that capacity that Bob met his death on 8 Jan 1971. His body was returned to the States and is interred at West Point.</p>
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Bob died entirely too young, in the midst of a career that was gathering steam to accel­erate. All who knew Bob remember him as a quiet, easy-going man with excellent judg­ment, who was committed to the Army, his country, and his family. He sought to avoid controversy and never failed to give a fellow human being a helping hand. He and Sylvia always had a bed for a visiting friend. One of Bob’s boyhood friends from Buffalo, Jud Strunk, wrote and recorded a song in tribute to Bob, “Next Door Neighbor’s Kid.” His widow Sylvia, who passed away in September 2006, said simply, “He was my best friend. I miss him every day.” Bob’s name can be found on the Viet Nam War Memorial in Washington, DC.</p>
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Well done, Bob. Be thou at peace.</p>
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<em>D-2 roommate and classmate, Donald R. Williams</em></p>