The Man in White

Bobby Smith grew up in North Texas. He had planned to go to Rice Institute since the seventh grade. It was the number one school in Texas and in those days everyone attending was on a tuition scholarship. Even so, Bobby’s mother, a devout Baptist was opposed. She wanted him to stay home and attend Midwestern University, just on the outskirts of town. “Rice is full of heathens and Jews,” she said. Even so, Bobby was accepted into Rice and got a NROTC scholarship to boot.
High school though was not his entire life. Bobby fell in love with Julie Wilson, the prettiest girl in the high school and the sister to the city’s most famous football family. Despite intense efforts, Bobby left for college a virgin.
At Rice, he became friends with Gordon James, another NROTC midshipman, who was a client of the boarding house where they both lived and ate their meals. Gordon was a charismatic guy who liked to discuss all he knew about sex with anyone who would listen. Bobby Smith was eager to listen to what he called Sex Ed 101.
At the end of school, 1953, Gordon headed for his second summer of NROTC training and Bobby his first. While being transferred in a Navy cargo plane from Corpus Christi, Texas to Norfolk, VA, Gordon was killed along with 40 NROTC students and the plane’s crew. Bobby got the news while he was walking guard duty for the USS Missouri while they were in Panama for a four day port visit. This was the first of many navy flight accidents that Bobby Smith would experience in the next several years.
This is a true story but the names have been changed to protect the privacy.