I take it that you were a Spider-D member and class of 69?

Correct.

Do you remember Jim Robinson '66 ??

He is a good friend of mine from Clarendon, our families go way back. He wrote a book about his days cowboying/ranching in the Panhandle. It is short, but a great read.

I have met several Spider-D guys over the years and the stories Spiders can tell are truly "Old Army". I am hoping that Jim decides to write another book about his days at AMC.

Yes, Jim was a senior my fish year. I've emailed him, but he has MS and his wife, Tessie, usually answers. He and his senior ol' Lady, the late Tom Dismukes, were good guys. I was on the opposite hall end from them. I got caught in the dorm one day by Dismukes because I had a typewriter. I typed all his papers (of course, I stuck in an appropriate number of typos & misspelled words). Jim's brother, Jack, was in '69 but in Animal A, A-1, and lives in Amarilo. I has on the hall end by the late Dr. Tom Hargrove.

[This message has been edited by Spider69 (edited 10/24/2011 1:10p).]

Was Hargrove the one who ended up in Columbia, as a rice consultant/kidnap victim? If so, I read his book. Good read.

I also know Kent Mills. His story about how Spider-D was disbanded is a classic. He was the XO at Christmas when the unit returned and found out about their new assignments.

But my favorite story is when the outfit stole every Batt on campus before anyone got a copy.

There's an Aggie Urban Legend out there that says someone from the Corps (and possibly Spider-D?) was a prisoner of the North Vietnamese.

Said it wasn't anything new to him, having survived his pissheads while a fish.

Kent Mills lived on the same street and went to Jr. High & High School at Richardson before I moved to our ranch. He was a year behind me in '70. Man was I surprised to see him as a fish in Spider D my p-head year.

Yes, Tom Hargrove was captive in Columbia. His brother, Raford, was in '70 in Spider D. I don't honestly know how Raford lived through that year. BTW, the movie "Proof of Life" was based on Tom's Columbia captivity and eventual release.

Only Panhandle Spiders in my era were Jim Robinson '66 Clarendon; Jon Jarvis '68 Stinnett; Glenn Keim, DVM, '69 Spearman; Bill Purvines '69 Panhandle. Also, Jack Robinson '69 was Animal A. There were other Panhandle Ags in that era, but my Aggielands are in storage and my brain cells just hold so much.

I & a few others in '69 started our black crapper cord honor at the 1968 Rice Corps Trip parade pass by. Also, the Spider flag, by design, is larger than the Gen. Moore flag.


[This message has been edited by Spider69 (edited 10/25/2011 6:11a).]

When I saw "Proof of Life" I wondered if there was some correlation. But I was under the impression that his captivity was longer than a year.

When I asked Jim about it, he said that Tom was ok, he was probably teaching the revolutionaries how to grow rice.

What was the black crapper cord??

Since the Spiders only excelled in intramurals and water fights, with our outstanding marching & academics we usually were last in Gen. Moore. So black was the opposite of white to recognize our achievements.

That is hilarious.

Had you ever heard the story about the Spiders taking every Batt on campus as it was being distributed? I have heard this story twice, but it has been a long time, I cannot remember the reason they were mad at the Batt.

Hadn't heard the Batt story/fable, but it could have been possible. Once in 1968, we had a fish that played the bagpipes. So we marched him out front playing his bagpipes. We could of also had our dog mascot out leading, too, my gray matter gets fuzzy. We didn't take the military stuff that seriously. But the Spider military record in VN was fairly remarkable. I know my class started out with 47 fish; two were killed in a car wreck in 1965; 17 came back or stayed in at mid term; 17 graduated from A&M.

Jim told me the story about the Batts. I will have to ask him about it next time I am up there.

Kent told me several stories. Though my fuzzy gray matter cannot remember them.

Though I do remember how they were disbanded. After Christmas break everyone came back to notices of reassignments to new outfits tacked to their doors. He said that there was not one Spider assigned to an outfit with another Spider. Everyone went to a new Company. He hated it at the time, but now I think he is proud that there was only ONE way to break up the Spiders.

My Zip year, the only way we weren't busted up was Bill Carter, a Spider '69, was on Corps Staff and Student Body Predident. I think he and Walt Dabney, our CO, were at the Trigon weekly about some screwup we did.
I pretty much attempted to avoid Jim's end of the 4th stoop hall in 1965-1966.
Next time you see Jim, give him my regards for all the '69 Spiders. I keep up with several of his classmates through Mike Jackson, a '66 Spider.

The class of '69 all got together a few months back and came and got Jim. I can't remember where they went, but Tessie was really happy about it.

The first night she said that they had a great Bull Session for several hours. I only wished she would have recorded it. I am sure most of the statutes of limitation are long since expired.

I found this:

http://www.sterlingspeakers.com/hargrove.htm

I read a Dragon Lives Forever. I am going to have to get the book on his ordeal in Columbia.

Killer, you must have meant the class if '66 that met Jim.
Hargrove's Columbia book is interesting, especially if you how wierd he could be and a genius at the same time. It's mostly a chronology of his kidnapping experience and the workings to get him released. That was how I got retied to Tom through his brother, Raford, in Rotan, and my 2nd semester 1966 old' lady, frog Canfil (David Canfil from Rotan). David flunked out of TAMU, but went on to a BS from San Angelo State and a PhD in the UK. His goal was to survive as the only Spider frog, which he did.

I saw Kent's son my buddy this past weekend and asked him about the story of getting disbanded. He said his dad had not shared any details which makes me really want to hear about it now.
When we were fish Mr. Mills gifted the outfit the old Spider D sign, at least I think this is how it went, and it hung in the hall for several years don't know about now.

Spider02, that's what I know, too. Kent kept the Spider D flag & sign after the outfit was disbanded. I was still on campus then, in grad school. Kent presented it back to the 'new' Spiders after the outfit was reformed. We had a Spider D reunion sometime soon after the outfit was reformed. One of my classmates, Paul (Bird) Morris, has a grandson in Spider D as a fish '15. You might know my son, Michael '01 that was in D2. Two other classmates had sons in Spider D '98 (Griffin & Landry) that might have been seniors your fish year.

I was at Tom Hargrove's funeral last year in Rotan. Many of the '66. one '67 (Leroy Schafer), one '68 (Lee Lanning) and me from '69 were there along with three from '70 (Hargrove, Mills, & Holescher).

[This message has been edited by Spider69 (edited 10/31/2011 10:34p).]

Yes, sorry, I meant '66.

Is Kent still in Snyder??

He told me that he still had the outfit sign, I guess he said the flag too, but I did not know that. Glad the Spiders are back and he got to return the old emblems. That is redass.

Jim told me that Tom was pretty strange in a very genious kind of way. I will never forget Jim's quote, "He may be kidnapped, but I am sure he is teaching those revolutionary *******s how to grow rice."

I started reading Dragons Live Forever that night.

Kent lives at Hemleigh near Snyder.

I think my class learned about Tom's capture at our 30th reunion. We thought we should call the Columbians to give them a few fine points about a good crap out.

'69 did not know many guys in '98, we were a little busy fish year. We had fun with the Spider flag and would pull it out for a march in and maybe Corps runs.
I also recall someone from the outfit trying to contact Mr. Hargrove after the movie came out but don't think anything came of it.

We alway took it to Kyle Field for mid week yell practices after/during chow. My fish year the Corps ate in Sibsa. Always on that night was fried chicken. If you were lucky, you'd get one bite before the announcements said "tonight." Then all the fish busted tail straight to Kyle Field. If we weren't first there on the 50 yd east (only side the Corps was on), we'd catch hell. About 6-8 fish busted it back to the dorm to bring the flag over. Several fights erupted as other outfits plotted to steal our flag. No one ever got it. Seniors got the wood (bleachers) behind the P-heads there to 'haze' the fish (as if a full speed race to Kyle wasn't enough) and the S-butts. The P-heads had their hands full just getting the guideon there. Always good bull to steal other outfits guideons. By my senior year they had moved many of those yell practices to the Grove. On away games, we had a Thurs. night yell practice, too. In my day, fish (all NCAA) were not on the varsity team and played their own games in SWC.

[This message has been edited by Spider69 (edited 11/2/2011 10:50p).]