LTC Frederick R. Stimus

[Note: Photo: LTC Frederick R. Stimus, CAL ARNG,
Commandant of Cadets] Talk about a guy right out of central casting. If ever a man was born to play the lead in a movie as commandant of cadets at a military school, LTC F. R. Stimus was it -- period. During the two years I was there, he gave an Academy Award winning performance worthy of Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role. He had extraordinary charisma, swagger, and bravado. His mere presence made you take notice. He showed no fear. There will never ever be another like him. I don't know of a cadet during my tenure that didn't respect him. Directly and indirectly through his assistant commandants, he had his eye on every single one of us. [Note: One Sunday, I signed out for Sunday pass and took my junior school brother with me. Of course I had to arrrange everything in advance. Our goal was to hike all the way to the top of the mountain facing the school. Other cadets had done so and I thought it'd be great if Steve and I gave it a try. At the very least we'd work off some tension and get some great fresh air and sunshine. With T-shirt tucked into fatigue pants, boots and caps on, we headed out. As we struggled through the brush and worked our way up the mountain, we'd stop and rest. Even though we may have wanted to turn back, we didn't. Finally, when we got to the top and intersected the road that took off down the other side, to our surprise guess who was standing there at a turn-out with his binoculars scanning the lake. You got it -- LTC Stimus. We thought we accidently ran in to him never thinking that he might have been keeping an eye on us all the time. Who knows, maybe he was just making sure we were safe or he might have thought we were going AWOL. He asked if we wanted a ride back down. We declined and headed back down the mountain to the school. Talk about having a guardian angel with you -- we did.] I remember him standing behind the M-1 rifle cleaning building overlooking cadet corps in formation down by the gymnasium and providing information updates or clarifications of rules and regulations. At most every formation you could see him out of the corner of you eye watching and mentally taking notes. His mere presence in the mess hall kept everybody in line. When you saluted him, he looked you in the eye and saluted back. He scanned every aspect of your nature from your uniform to your attitude as represented by the expression on your face. [Note: My first job as a Registered Technologist was at Santa Monica Hospital in the summer of 1972. One weekend my brother Steve drove down from Santa Barbara and on the spur of the moment we decided to make a quick drive down to ENMS. We hadn't been there since the day we left the end of the spring 1965 semester. It was quite a nostalgic trip for us. When we got there, we walked on campus and found LTC Stimus in the dirt field directly behind the pool area. He had on only a T-Shirt, khaki trousers, and old tennis shoes. It caught us by surprise because if we hadn't know who he was, we might have thought he was just another itinerant worker -- kitchen help taking a break. We went directly up to him and shook his hand and asked him if he remember us. He studied us and then said he had seen so many boys through ENMS that he had trouble keeping them all in his head and apologized for not remembering. After some small talk, Steve and I left wishing we hadn't come because seeing LTC Stimus this way distorted the commanding image we had of him. The next time I would be at ENMS was in 2002 at the reunion where I learned that LTC Stimus was dead and buried in a nearby cemetary. On his head stone I learned he had served as a Master Sergeant in the US Air Force during WWII and Korea and that he was born November 21, 1909 and died February 8, 1993. He was 84.]