Rings link Citadel classes 60 years apart

Sixty years ago, cadet Melvyn Sandler picked up his 1949 Citadel Class ring while the Korean War loomed on the horizon.

Classmate James DeVane got his ring at the same time, but as a much older veteran student. He'd already seen fighting in World War II and served 105 days as a German prisoner of war.

This week, The Citadel's Class of 2009 will get their rings — complete with melted bits of the coveted 10 karat gold bands DeVane and Sandler earned long ago.

Quietly during the past few years The Citadel has offered its graduates a different way to give back, creating a "Band of Gold" program in which class rings awarded to previous cadets are returned and re-melted in with a new crop of castings

So far, 18 graduates have taken part, but the rings DeVane and Sandler donated are the first to be recycled, symbolically linking the Class of '49 with the Class of '09.

This first ring recycling comes in time for the school's 381 members of the Class of '09 to receive their rings in ceremony Friday.

Read more in tomorrow's editions of The Post and Courier.