This is my favorite family story. It all started on the day my father, Marius Fuselier, Jr., graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis in Maryland. On this day newly commissioned officers celebrate their new positions by throwing their Midshipmen covers into the air as part of the US Naval Academy graduation, and commissioning ceremony. So, along with all the other graduates Marius tossed his hat high into the air only to have the hat lost in the crowd, lost forever...or so he thought!

Many years went by. The Louisiana boy married, started a family, and eventually took a job up north in Pittsfield Massachusetts. The year Alan Shepard flew into space an article was written in the town newspaper about this historic flight. It mentioned that three local men had graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy at the same time as Shepard. My father was one of these three men. The mother of one of the other men had read the same article and a memory suddenly came back to her. She called my parents to tell them her story.

This woman had attended the 1944 graduation to witness her son become a commissioned officer. Her son along with the rest of the class tossed his cap high into the air only to be lost somewhere in the crowd. It so happened that this mother caught a cap, and kept it as a keepsake. Inside the cap had the name of it's original owner...Marius Fuselier, Jr. She had caught my fathers cap. It took many years, and many miles, but eventually my father's cap came HOME.