Death From Above

Thanks to everyone who shared their thoughts and ideas regarding the WP-ORG CEO’s BLOG. Thanks as well to all who have taken the time to comment. Please feel free to share your thoughts, comments, and suggestions.

And now…

Ayah-Bone, Sah-gent!

It was a proud day in my military career when I was awarded my Airborne wings. Airborne is just an interesting concept until the moment you stand in the door of a flying aircraft and step out into nothing. But doing so, and completing the course, qualifies you as a member of the club one German officer in WWII referred to as, “Those Devils in Baggy Pants”.

Two years after being awarded my wings I received my dream assignment and shared Assistant Branch Chief duties of Jump Branch at Fort Benning’s Airborne School with Jesse McCorvey, ‘74. Along with CPT Al Hennigan and a crack team of NCOs, it was our duty to make sure the Airborne students accomplished five jumps without incident on their way to becoming “Jump Qualified”.

Morning PT, Night Jumps, C140s, C130s, C121s, jumpmastering, practice with my .44 magnum using spent smoke grenades as targets on Fryar Drop Zone between jumps, the I-Bar after hours…ah, it was the perfect job for a young Infantry officer. The memories of those days remain vivid though the time was the bygone era of the disco ’70s.

I was taking a Google ride through the Internet not long ago when I came across something that brought the memories back in a flood. The events I read about occurred in 2006, but it seemed that not much had changed on the training fields of Georgia and Alabama since those days long ago. If you’d like to get a feel for what Airborne School is all about today - and if you’d like to get it from a woman’s perspective - I recommend you give this a read.

AIR-BORNE!

~ Dempsey

Above Campus

The advent of high resolution digital cameras coupled with high quality telephoto lenses are a combination that can lead to some startling photographs. Add a distinctive perspective to the mix and you have images that are positively breath-taking.

I want to take a moment to share with you some photographs detailing the construction of the new Jefferson Hall library and learning center at West Point. The clarity and perspective of these images makes them special (they’re large, so it may take a moment or two for them to appear).

Here you’ll get an idea of the new building’s proximity to the current (old) library.

Here you can also catch a glimpse of Cullum Hall, the site of many cadet hops in days of yore.

There’s some major league equipment being used in the construction.

Looking back toward the cadet area.

Wonder if anyone has considered parking meters for the roof of Thayer Hall.

More recently, slightly farther out, and looking due west.

So that’s some of the construction currently taking place on the banks of the Hudson. The pictures were taken by Lee Ross, USMA class of 1973. As it happens, he was my squad leader when I was a plebe. Here he is, along with the vehicle he uses to get his unique images.

Lee was kind enough to take me up for a ride the last time I visited West Point, which happened to be on the occasion of the most recent R-Day. We were airborne as the class of 2011 was taking their oath at Trophy Point and Lee got this shot. You can see the festivities in the lower right of the photo.

Although we thought we were high enough to be out of earshot we found out later that the Superintendent, the Commandant, and their parties were hoping that the plane wasn’t piloted by “some nut” who was going to try to land on The Plain.

Here’s hoping that the upcoming week is a good one for everyone. Don’t forget, you may submit comments and suggestions for WP-ORG here at any time.

~ Dempsey

We’re Innovating and Improving!

We’ll be keeping you up to date with all the news about WP-ORG that’s fit to BLOG!

~ Dempsey

(Remember, you can use the comments section to leave us a suggestion.)