Hellfire over Texas: Memories of A&M

In the fall of 1971, journalism major Erik Friedl '73 began documenting scenes on 16mm film (shooting ECO 7252 and EF 7242 on the Bolex H-16) in and around Texas A&M University for a class assignment. Much of the footage centered around traditional Aggie lore, the A&M football team, Midnight Yell at Kyle Field and the building of the annual bonfire in November. Selected scenes were later used by the Trigon in a promotional film for the Texas A&M Corps of Cadets. This video is dedicated to the memory of the 12 Texas A&M students who lost their lives and the 27 who were injured the night the bonfire stack under construction tragically collapsed-November 18, 1999.

[@Oldag75]

I was in the Corps at that time, and it was great to see Yell Leaders Jake Betty and Hank Paine again. And Corps Commander Ron Krnavek '73 was there too.
Note how two of the guys we saw having their 2LT bars put on, upon commissioning, had already graduated from Airborne School and Ranger School. Talk about getting the rough tough real stuff out of the way, before even starting in the Army!
And the Bonfire at that time was a slanted cone formation. The later Bonfire that collapsed was "wedding cake," a nice looking but obviously dangerous/fatal configuration.
We also saw a fish cadet whipping out -- introducing himself -- to an upperclassman. Numerous Ags have told me that they were extremely shy when they joined the Corps. The requirement for fish to introduce themselves to upperclassmen, those guys roundly reported, totally cured them of all shyness -- timidity about meeting others -- within about a week. They never again had any qualms about meeting/greeting new acquaintances.

[@aiglon27]

Good eye, Oldag75! Thank you for the memories and for sharing your own experience and astute observations from that era. By the way, that was Ken Walters '74 whipping out to Roger Graves '71, both in Seagram Seven.

[@Oldag75]

@@aiglon27 A-Battery here... the original Second Brigade outfit, A-2. The outfit got dissolved later, and the Band took over the old A-Battery title, with the outfit sign and everything else.

[@aiglon27]

@@Oldag75 Your memory bank doesn't fail you!

[@caddothegreat]

Seeing that drill team clip reminded me of when I was on a drill team

[@guionhall7950]

We used to think the "Ol' Army" ended in 1963. Today, we see that era extended into the 70's. Texas A&M campus has lost much history since this film was made...never to be recovered.