At West Point’s graduation, Greg Ambrosia and his peers flung their hats into the air, unaware that this tradition would lead to an unexpected reconnection nearly two decades later.
Since at least 1949, the symbolic gesture of the hat toss has marked the transition of West Point graduates from cadets to military officers, with children eagerly rushing the field to snag a hat and potentially some small treasure inside.
Credit: Phil Skinner
Credit: Phil Skinner
While West Point’s historian says it’s highly unusual for these hats to find their way back to their owners, Ambrosia’s did, thanks to Heidi Hetzer, 67, from Sandy Springs.
Cleaning her children’s old bedrooms, Hetzer recently stumbled upon two familiar West Point hats, sitting on shelves amidst Braves bobbleheads and sports trophies.
In 2005, Hetzer and her entire family had traveled 900 miles to New York to attend her nephew Erik’s graduation from the prestigious United States Military Academy, often called West Point for its New York location. At the conclusion of the ceremony, children raced out onto the field to grab a hat with the same excitement as youngsters at an Easter egg hunt.
Credit: Photo courtesy of Heidi Hertzer
Credit: Photo courtesy of Heidi Hertzer
Hetzer’s daughter Isabel took home a hat that contained candy, while son Ian came away with one with a folded, handwritten note: “Top 10 Things I learned @ West Point,” Hetzer said.
Now in the midst of her cleaning, Hetzer began thinking back to that graduation day nearly 20 years ago. She wondered what had become of Greg Ambrosia, who had a name tag in his hat and had penned the note that Hetzer immediately found so dear.
“I took a little break and googled his name,” Hetzer said. “Lo and behold, all this stuff started popping up.”
She discovered Ambrosia’s remarkable journey from a top West Point student and decorated Army officer to a devoted family man and successful entrepreneur.
Ambrosia had been awarded the Bronze Star for heroism (with a V for valor) for his part in an air assault operation in July 2007 into Watapur Valley in the Kunar Province of Afghanistan, clearing a suspected enemy-occupied area known as Tsangar. Two months later, he led a group of paratroopers that established a blocking position on a ridgeline to overwatch their company’s movement in the Watapur Valley. During the operation, his group repelled the enemy as it attempted to overtake the high ground the American forces occupied. Those efforts earned him a Silver Star.
Hetzer was in awe.
“Greg absolutely had done what he learned from college,” she said. “No. 8 on his list was: “Always put your subordinates above yourself. He did that. He basically saved his battalion or troop.”
Credit: Phil Skinner
Credit: Phil Skinner
Hetzer continued her search until she found his phone number. Within five to 10 minutes of reaching out to him, she had a callback.
“It was crazy,” Ambrosia said. “For her to be in the same city as me, I thought was the craziest part. We’re only 10 or 15 minutes away from each other.”
She’s in the Sandy Springs area, and he’s in Brookhaven.
Jennifer Voigtschild, the command historian at West Point, said the hat-toss tradition started around the end of World War II. Before that, especially with war-time shortages, grads were expected to pass their white service caps onto lowerclassmen to be reused, she said.
Voigtschild said she has “rarely” heard of a grad recovering the hat tossed at graduation.
“Maybe, two or three,” she said
When Hetzer returned the hat about a month ago, “a lot of memories came back,” Ambrosia said. He remembered all the times he’d shined the brass on it to be ready for any inspections.
In the category of “it’s a small world,” Hetzer and Ambrosia learned they had another connection. Hetzer’s nephew Erik Schefstead had been friends with one of Ambrosia’s West Point roommates, dating back to their days at Atlanta’s Marist High School. Ambrosia and Hetzer’s nephew also had several classes together at West Point while both were pursuing their degrees in civil engineering.
Ambrosia also shared with Hetzer what Google didn’t tell her. He’s a dad with two children and has a career buying well-established businesses that the owner wants to sell and has no apparent successor. And after six years in the Army, he went back to school on the G.I. Bill and earned his master’s degree in Business Administration from Harvard.
Since reclaiming his West Point hat, Ambrosia and his children have all posed for pictures wearing it. He also made a trip back home to Tennessee. His mother was anxious to see it again.
Ambrosia said he’s putting the hat in a place of honor with his West Point diploma, his Silver and Bronze Stars, and other military memorabilia.
As for the Top 10 list he’d included in his hat, Ambrosia said: “Part of me was thinking that was maybe going to inspire somebody who was thinking about going in the military or considering West Point as a career.”
He said he’s tried to put into practice and teach his kid many of those important life lessons he learned at West Point.
“I just try to live a balanced life, not get too focused on career, and just try to live in the present a little bit more,” Ambrosia said.
MORE DETAILS
Greg Ambrosia’s hat contained an inspirational note, that was picked up by Heidi Hetzer’s son when he collected his hat from the ground at West Point. Here’s what it said:
Top 10 Things I Learned @ West Point
1. The most valuable things you leave with are your friendships.
2. Don’t expect to know what you want to do with your life. Making plans is God’s way of laughing at us.
3. Live a balanced life.
4. Accept your weaknesses but work to improve them.
5. Living a spiritually based life is the best way to stay out of trouble.
6. Try for perfection but don’t always expect it to happen.
7. You must make time for your friends. Don’t give them the leftover pieces of your day.
8. Always put your subordinates before yourself.
9. Lead by example ... a cliche but true.
10. Becoming a better person is a continuous process.
