We are sorry to hear of Jack's passing.

I am so sorry for your loss. My friendship was when we were little kids. We lived in Colonial Village outside of Niagara Falls and enjoyed the rural life. I was not surprised when he went into Forestry. Jack loved to tell the story that when we were kids, we would take the bus to town (yes, 10 years old unescorted back then) and learned to swim at the YMCA. Also at that time you did not wear swim suits at the Y. So Jack would tell people we used to swim naked together. What a hoot. Rest well my buddy.

I was saddened to read about Jack’s death. During the planning of the 50th Class of 66 Reunion, I had a pleasant phone call with Jack, and we caught up on some of our life events of the intervening 5 decades. I recall his descriptions of toiling in the trucking industry and his pride in his children and grandchildren. I don’t remember talking about our military experiences where it turns out we had similar paths. I too was in Army ROTC and attended basic training at Ft Benning in the fall of 1970. I had hoped to be assigned to Air Defense Artillery like Jack was, but ended up in the infantry. I applaud Jack for attending jump school. I decided not to apply because it was in January and it gets cold in Georgia in January. Who jumps out of a perfectly good plane, anyway. Please extend my condolences to the Belmont family. Jack was a good man.

I will always remember Jackie for his love and kindness to his younger cousins. He will be greatly missed. Much love to his lovely wife and family.