Collegiate Times

Cadet Matthew La Porte was laid to rest in Blacksburg.

Correction: This story has been modified from its original version. — "A different perspective," (CT, April 16) needs to be corrected. Joseph Aust lived in suite 2121. Haiyan Cheng's name was misspelled. The Collegiate Times regrets these errors.

A colonel salutes a fallen cadet ...

In his crisp sky-blue shirt, and sharply ironed blue pants, Col. Roszak appears the epitome of military strength and leadership. His clean jaw and tightly muscled forearms hint at years of discipline. But deep in his iron eyes, camouflaged beyond his Spartan demeanor is just a human being, with human emotions.

Roszak was sitting in his office in Brodie Hall when he saw a rush of people outside his window near Torgersen Hall. He was alerted of an emergency on campus, and helped the cadets safely escort stranded civilian students from McBryde to Brodie, the corps' main administrative building.

The corps immediately initiated a lockdown and a role call of the entire regiment, mainly to ensure every cadet was accounted for, and had returned safely back to their dorms. The count went up by the hour, but at 11:30 a.m. still tallied only 709; one short of their total. Within minutes, they had confirmed Cadet Matthew Joseph La Porte, of Dumont, N.J., and a drummer in the Highty Tighties, had a 9:05 a.m. intermediate French class in Norris Hall room 211.

"It was then that we realized the potentially grave situation we had on our hands," Roszak said. But the worst news came the very same day, almost twelve hours later.

"I can still remember it was at three minutes to midnight that Cadet Archut, the Corps Regimental Commander, called to tell me that Mrs. La Porte had just been notified by the New Jersey State Police that her son had passed away."

Later, on Thursday night, when Roszak had time to settle down, he remembers finally feeling the young man's loss. He had never personally engaged with La Porte, but even so, just to sense the disappearance of one of his corps' bright and enthusiastic cadets was ultimately more than his emotions could take.

"I just finally had a minute to where I had some time to myself," Roszak said. "I was at home, and I just held my wife, bawling. It wasn't a long cry, but it was enough."

La Porte's funeral mass was held on April 25 at St. Mary's Catholic Church in downtown Blacksburg. Hundreds packed into the church to honor La Porte, including the women's basketball team to show their appreciation to the Highty Tighties as their team's pep band, the entire sophomore class of the Highty Tighties and all the corps administration.

When the mass was finished, La Porte's flag-draped casket was carried by cadets out of church doors and into a bright spring sunshine that seemed like decades away from the snow flurry morning of the 16. As Roszak stepped into the sunlight, he was struck by a scene so intensely, that it became engraved into his memory. Lining the hill atop the cemetery where La Porte would be laid to rest, was the entire Corps of Cadets Regiment, decked in their very finest dress blues, giving the coffin of their fallen friend their final salute.

"We did what we had to do for one of our own, and I was very proud of that," Roszak said. "That in midst of all the turmoil, all the tragedy, I was proud that our cadets still stood tall, and they were there for their brother in probably the solemnest ceremony I've ever been a part of."

A year later, the four plan for the anniversary ...

This year, on April 16, Leah Palmer will come down to Tech to pay tribute to her sister with her parents. She and her family will go to a luncheon and hike hosted by Julia's major field, the biological systems engineering department.

Joseph Aust will participate in every event in appreciation for the lives of those lost on that tragic Monday.

Lisa Kaiser will be there too, with her very special group of friends from 205 Norris, who all lived through that terrible experience.

To honor La Porte, the entire Corps of Cadets will run in regimental formation to his gravesite in Blacksburg at 0600 hours. There, they will have a moment of silence.

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