« Previous · Home · Next »
Secretary Gates at VMI
By John
Despite the sacrifices, the hard work, the calumnies to which a person can be exposed, what drew George C. Marshall, and countless others from this institution and from every corner of this country, is a willingness to serve a cause higher than their own comfort, their own convenience, and their own self-interest. If you scratch deeply enough, you will find that most of those who serve, no matter how outwardly tough or jaded or egotistical, are, in their heart of hearts, romantics and idealists. And optimists. We actually believe we can make the lives of others better, that we can make a contribution to the life of the greatest country in the history of the world.We see this idealism in northeastern Afghanistan, near the mountains of the Hindu Kush. There, Colonel Jonathan Ives commands about a thousand NATO troops. Their name? Task Force Cincinnatus – what else would a 1980 graduate of VMI call a task force?
The Afghans find this name pretty odd. They ask about it. And this gives this army reservist a chance to reach out. He says: “I relate to them that I’m a citizen-soldier and I come forward to serve and then go back . . . to being a civilian among all the people of the United States.” And he said it strikes a chord – especially with the mujahideen [who defeated] the Russians and then again . . . stood up as part of the Northern Alliance. These men take up arms when they must but put them down when they can.
Gates nailed it. Kind of. I thought the speech overall was a bit weak... the Secretary --a brilliant and highly regarded man-- drew too heavily on quotes throughout the address. Which is okay if you're addressing the VFW or Rotary Club. The Class of 2008, however, gets only one commencement address in their lifetime. They brought in Secretary Gates to hear what he had to say, not a chorus of his favorite quips from the history books.
"I hate quotations. Tell me what you know." Ralph Waldo Emerson
Anyway, I shouldn't be a negative nancy as we celebrate what is a happy event: the welcoming of a new class of VMI men into our brotherhood. Congratulations Class of 08!
By the way, 120 Cadets took the Oath on Friday. A nice write up on those who answered the call below the fold.
Sixty-one cadets were commissioned into the U.S. Army, 26 into the Marine Corps, 11 into the Navy and 27 into the Air Force May 15 during VMI ROTC’s Class of 2008 Commissioning Ceremonies at Cameron Hall and Memorial Garden.After the pin-on ceremony in Memorial Garden, Air Force 2nd Lt. Thomas Cunningham reflected on the past four years, saying he never saw himself coming to VMI as a youngster. Growing up in a nonmilitary family in Groveport, Ohio, Cunningham watched from his backyard as Blue Angels out of Rickenbacker Air National Guard Base swooped out of the sky. He knew then that he would someday attend the U.S. Air Force Academy.
A wrestling scholarship, however, drew Cunningham to VMI, and he’s never looked back.
“The greatest thing about this place is everyone’s so close,” he said. “I’m going to miss my friends. …This place has done a lot for me. I just hope I can give back.”
Cunningham’s first station will be in Georgia, but he expects to attend flight school in Colorado and learn to fly those jets in Texas, all within the next two years.
New Army 2nd Lt. Peter Brookes Jr. also sought to do something “a little different.”
At least five members of his family, including his father, retired Cmdr. Peter Brookes, were in the Navy. The younger Peter Brookes, however, opted for the field artillery and will head to Fort Sill, Okla., for training.
“I’m ready,” he said. “It’s been a long four years.”
Cadet 2nd Battalion Commander and now Ensign Allan Fortier also reflected on the time it took to graduate from VMI.
“I saw my dyke commission three years ago. … I never thought this day would come,” he said, adding, “It’s pretty amazing.”
Fortier said members of his family were in the U.S. Marine Corps, Navy and Coast Guard, so it seemed natural for him to commission.
“I want to serve my country,” he said, “and fly jets, too.”
Fortier will be heading to Pensacola, Fla., for flight school.
All were admonished to serve earlier that morning during the formal Commissioning Ceremony in Cameron Hall by Army Lt. Gen. Robert L. Van Antwerp, Marine Corps Lt. Gen. Joseph F. Weber, Navy Rear Adm. Charles E. Smith and Air Force Lt. Gen. Daniel J. Darnell, who each addressed the commissioning cadets and then administered the Commissioning Oath.
TrackBack
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://op-for.com/mt/mt-tb.cgi/1730
Comments
Skippy,
The NROTC dept has always commissioned about twice as many Marines as it has Naval officers. Poor recruiting would be my guess - the Navy contingent in the dept does a poor job of teaching cadets about the Navy, at least they did during my time. Still, 26 Marines is a bumper crop for the department - I'm impressed.
The recruiting pitch for Marine option when I was a pre-strain will always stick out in my mind. The other 3 services talked about the benefits that you get from a scholarship, etc. The Marines got up there and played a video set to Bob Seger's "Like A Rock". It was a montage of Rats getting thrashed. One image I remember in particular were 3 Rats sprawled on the stoop doing "Iron Crosses" (6-inches with your arms straight out to your sides, hands also off the deck). Hell, by the time I was a Rat that was considered unauthorized Ratline activity. But here was the Marine department, standing up there and saying, "Yes, you are going to get kicked in the nuts." It was one of the things that motivated me to stick with the Marine program. The Navy, on the other hand, had next to nothing going for them. The NROTC program is decidedly less fun than Army ROTC, and the Navy side doesn't present cadets with many incentives to put up with the Navy program. The Marines just recruit all the masochistic nut jobs in the Corps of Cadets and call it good.
120?? What happened to the rest of them?
Congrats and welcome aboard to the self-selecting few!
Slab - (and LTCOL P may be able to help my hazy memory) I want to say that we had something like 33 ENS commissioned in the Navy and 12 Marine 2LTs. I believe the situation was reversed back in '89 and I am sorry to hear that the Navy side is not educating the cadets about the opportunities. Not to mention the success rate as far as getting to command our class has enjoyed both in the Navy(2 DDG COs, 2 Helo Squadron COs, and 1 SSN CO as previously chronicled here--that being said, I don't know about how previous classes have done) and the Marines (4 Battalion commanders, I think). I also think that we only commissioned about half our class (around 110 out of 220 or so...I don't have the exact number in front of me, with the majority the Army/NG/Army Reserve).
I don't remember any specific recruiting pitch (we are talking 23 years ago), but I had a pretty good idea what I was going to do before I ever started.
OK, '89 matriculated 353 and graduated 260 (that's per the 1989 Class Register). In addition to the numbers I already quoted for Navy/Marine Corps commissionings, I want to say we commissioned 11 Air Force 2LTs and 60 or so guys in the Army/Army Reserve/NG.
One additional point to note about the late '80s: 89 was I think the last year group accessed with the 600 ship Navy in mind. After that, we started decommissioning ships and did not require as many officers. I mean think about it. We had something like 95 SSNs in 89 and a whole mess of SSBNs. Now we are down to 52 SSNs, 14 SSBNs, and 4 SSGNs. The skimmer side is even worse. Consequently, you don't need as many officers.
All that being said, I would hope that at VMI there could be more active recruiting for the Navy. Kind of sad actually...
Post a comment
Potential comment conditions listed here. Oh, and you may use basic HTML for formatting.
Only 11 went Navy but 26 went Marine? I know that VMI is a Marine oriented NROTC unit-but that sure seems a low number to me. I would have thought it would be higher (e.g. USAF numbers).
Are people getting talked out of going Navy? Or is the Navy not recruiting hard enough?