Tarmac Online

By Aidan McGirr ’28

Beginning in the early 1970s, Chaminade sponsored a series of cross-country trips referred to as “USA Study Tours.” These trips lasted as long as fifty days and crisscrossed the country. Participants traveled from coast to coast in vans and experienced the breathtaking natural beauty of such places as the Grand Canyon and Yellowstone National Park, as well as sites of historical and cultural significance like the Gettysburg Battlefield and Alcatraz Island. Along the way, the groups camped in state and national parks—sometimes in tents, sometimes under the open sky.

In the Bicentennial year of 1976, four Marianist Brothers—David Bruner, Gary Eck, Robert Fachet, and Mario Pariante—led a group of eighteen rising juniors and seniors on that summer’s trip. In the days before the internet and cell phones, everyone who went on this trip needed a high degree of resilience and adaptability. Students were responsible for cooking, van maintenance, camp setup, and navigation (before GPS devices, this was no mean feat).

Over the course of fifty days, the students and moderators lived in cramped quarters, spending hours at a time in a van without air conditioning and going up to three days without showering. Since there were no mobile devices, parents and friends back home were out of touch for long stretches. Even so, the participants had the trip of a lifetime. In addition to seeing the wonders of the USA, they forged bonds of friendship that endure to this day.

That memorable trip was fifty years ago. This July, thirteen of the eighteen student participants and Bro. David met at Chaminade to celebrate their anniversary with Mass, dinner, and reminiscence. The alumni shared their preserved photo albums and the postcards they had sent home to their families.

Among the alumni who gathered was Bro. Ryszard Decowski ’77. He recalled the trip as having a formative impact on his life. “As a teenager, it was the most memorable thing I had ever done,” he said. “You would see in the fifty days more than most Americans would see in a lifetime.”

What made it so memorable for Bro. Rysz and the others was the distance covered, the conditions overcome, and, most importantly, the enduring friendships that resulted. Along the way, these suburban boys experienced the great outdoors and wildlife such as moose, deer, and bears. Notable locations included Mammoth Cave, the St. Louis Arch, the Rocky Mountains, Yosemite National Park, Crater Lake, and the Grand Canyon. Of course, doing it all in the Bicentennial year made it particularly memorable.

Fifty years on, the vans are long gone and the maps have been replaced by satellites. But as the nation marks its 250th year, the men who crossed it in its 200th can still name every campground and finish one another’s stories. They set out to see America. What they found, it turns out, was one another.