That Time of Year

It’s almost that day of the year that I always remember so fondly for the remaining 364. A house filled with the aroma of cooking, pies baking in the oven, the sounds of life and animated conversation punctuated by frequent laughter.

It seems these days that no traditional holiday can be celebrated without some group acting insulted. Well, I’ve never felt the need to apologize for being thankful.

This year I look forward to the traditional turkey and stuffing and other culinary delights preceding the mandatory nap in front of the TV.

I have much for which to be thankful and if you’re reading this or having it read to you, so do you.

To those deployed far from home, we’re thinking of you. We’ll throw an extra log on the fire for you. We’re waiting for you; we’ll see you when your duty is done.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone.

~ Dempsey

Fair Weather Friends

I watched the jousting of the Knights - Scarlet vs. Black, Rutgers vs. Army - the other night. Not many of Army’s games outside of Army/Navy are televised in my area so when I get the chance to catch a game I make it a point to watch.

The pageantry, the excitement, the cadets in the stands acting out their nervous anticipation, all were familiar to me. Not so familiar was the large structure at one end of the field; the Kimsey Center’s offices overlook one end zone and provide a bird’s eye view of the action in living room comfort. The silhouettes of several onlookers were visible in the windows.

The events after the opening kickoff went poorly for Army and are now the stuff of memory and history. Unfortunately, the disappointment on the field was matched by failure in the stands. The cadets, conspicuous in their gray raincoats, stayed huddled together and were on their feet for the duration of the game. The remainder of the stands, however, emptied faster than an SUV’s gas tank. Even the silhouettes in the creature comfort offices quickly disappeared.

The message to the athletes struggling on the field was clear: Call us when you start winning. And besides, its cold out here and it’s raining.

Sparse stands are symptomatic of a wide margin loss and nobody I know enjoys inclement weather. But this was the United States Military Academy. This was West Point, where the term character takes on a deeper, almost solemn, meaning.

The cadets showed up. Some of them knocked heads on the field, others demonstrated vocal and animated support from the stands. But when it counted, the remainder of the corps’ support ran like the weather’s rivulets off the stadium steps.

Whenever I’m privileged to see the Black Knights play, particularly if it’s a home game, I get the itch to somehow be a part of it. This game was no different. I envied those who were afforded the opportunity to get their posteriors wet on those cold bleachers. I wouldn’t think for a minute that this sentiment isn’t shared by many others and especially by our troops who are deployed far from home, some in hostile lands.

Regardless of the score, the real losers weren’t down on the field Friday night.

~ Dempsey

A Fiancée’s View

The discussions which ensue on the various lists WP-ORG hosts can be contentious, riotous, inane, thought provoking, and often informative. While researching some information from one of the more provocative posts from The West Point Forum (a closed discussion list, open only to USMA graduates) I came across an interesting letter on the Internet; interesting from a standpoint of content when viewed against the background of the author (”I’m liberal”) and the on-line magazine in which the letter is published.

Let me provide a few notes up front on some of the points the author makes:

“Cadets have to iron lines into their uniform shirts to make it look like the shirt just came out of the package.”

Iron? When did they issue irons to the Corps? Our uniforms (mid 1970s) came back pressed and starched from the cleaners. The Tactical Department would certainly have seen the issue of irons for what it would have been: another weapon kept in the barracks.

“[Cadets] have massive pillow fights“

They do? Now when did this start? Must have been when they let the girls in. We might have knocked each other around some in the boxing ring (and sometimes in the rooms), but fights with pillows…? They have irons available!

“Sometimes it’s hard to imagine how they can dress themselves in the morning“

Well, sometimes they didn’t. On more than one occasion as a beanhead (Plebe) I took my raincoat off in the mess hall only to discover to my horror that I’d forgotten the epaulets to my shirt. Another meal without getting to eat…

“Jewish Warrior Weekend“

This was a new one on me so I made an inquiry and received this explanation from the Commandant’s office:

“The weekend is an invitational/fellowship opportunity for Jewish cadets in other Academies and Jewish students from other universities. They come to the Academy and attend services, get a tour of WP and the Jewish Chapel, attend the football game, and have some discussions/lectures/sermons. [This year's] event is 16-18 Nov 07. Starts Friday with the arrival of participants and dinner and an evening speaker. All events are held on West Point main campus.”

“Cadets love violent video games, a good war movie, and their guns, but they’ve also been known to send around a picture of an adorable kitten so they can all indulge their mushier sides.”

In order: OK, yes, oh yes, and…what!? Again, must be something that started when the girls showed up. Or, the kitten belongs to the cadet’s OAO (One And Only) and the cadet is trying hard to remain in good standing.

“[Cadets] have engineering and math requirements that would reduce many students to tears.”

I shouldn’t have read that sentence, now the nightmares will come back.

“There are a lot of amazing soldiers stationed at West Point, working both in the cadet chain of command and as professors, who work hard to make the system run smoothly and to make sure no cadets are getting lost in that system.”

The above is a sentence that should be committed to memory by every parent who drops their candidate off on R-Day.

Now then, with my notes out of the way, here is Emily Haney-Caron’s What West Point Doesn’t Tell You.

~ Dempsey

Volunteer Spotlight: Bill MacLean

WP-ORG is proud of its volunteers, they do the heavy lifting and without them we wouldn’t exist. Here WP-ORG CFO, Jack Price, ‘64, introduces Bill MacLean.

~ Dempsey

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There is a reason we start honoring the work of our volunteers with Bill MacLean, who has been working with us now, for almost a decade. He has served us in many different functions, primarily because he just can’t say “NO!”, has prodigious skill sets, the tenacity of a dam-building beaver, and the interpersonal strengths to herd cats on our backbone moderator net, populated with a cohort of contentious grads.

Unless you have been spun up to full duty status as a newly minted moderator, you’ve probably never heard of/from Bill. If he’s helped you navigate these shoals, he’s probably in the same mental compartment as your first drill sergeant, or beast barracks squad leader.

Bill is also the Chief Engineer on the WP-ORG fund drive steam engine. He measures performance in excruciating detail and reports real time data in colorful charts that show present and historical performance. That data allows us to continue improvement in what is already a world class non-profit funding operation.

But, as important as the things that Bill has done, are the things he has yet to do. Somewhere ahead is a crisis which will require a volunteer. Bill is the guy in the little glass box you break with the red hammer when trouble comes.

Bill is ‘67 graduate MIT (EECS). He worked many years in software and hardware development, marketing, and business development in the CAD/CAM/CAE turn-key systems business. Bill and his wife of 31 years, Pat, reside at Lexington, Mass. Bill is retired from business, devotes ~800-1,000 volunteer hours per year to WP-ORG. Pat is director of a pre-school at Lexington.

Their older son, Daniel (Colgate ‘99), is legislative director for a Calif. congressman at the Capitol; on staff since 1999. Their younger son, Bob (USMA ‘02), is commander, B Co 1/507th PIR (Airborne School) at Ft. Benning. In prior assignments he was Platoon Leader and staff officer in four deployments, Afghanistan and Iraq, with 173rd Airborne and 3/75th Rangers. Their daughter, Alexandra (Mary Washington ‘05) is office manager for a commercial real estate development company at McLean, Va.

At Bob’s graduation, West Point, June 1, 2002 (L-R: Bill, Bob, Dan, Alex, Pat…)

Neither Rain, Nor Snow, Nor O’Dark-Thirty

The traffic is light along Loop 1 in Austin at this time of night. Most of the city has finished watching Jay Leno and Conan O’Brien and televisions have been turned off. People are sleeping.

A policeman manning a speed trap would probably conclude that the evening’s excitement has passed, he can pack it in. But were he to do so, he would miss the engine sound growling ever louder from the stretch down south. He wouldn’t be there to have his eyes widen at a streak of white as it flies past, or to gun his own engine in pursuit of another, obviously on a mission.

Ten minutes later the white apparition would come to a stop in a parking lot in Pflugerville, north of Austin. Its driver, a determined-faced woman brandishing a ring of keys, would stride with purpose to the door of the office that waits for her in silence.

The woman is WP-ORG’s Megan Klein, her mission is to fix an ailing Linux server. The time of day is not a factor, WP-ORG systems are down and Megan is well aware that downtime is not an option. So, she performs her duty and, a short time later, her mission is complete.

Before becoming one of WP-ORG’s two systems engineers, Megan (pronounced ME’gan) worked with Smithfield in North Carolina for several years on their National Pig Development (NPD) swine farms, developing breeding stock. She holds an animal science degree from Cal Poly Pomona.

Life’s fortunes led Megan to Austin in the late ’90s where she nurtured an interest in computer technology and acquired the “White Ghost” for transportation. Several years and 182,000 miles later, she and her chariot still charge headlong into the fray together. Along the way she attracted a husband, Ken, who manages to smooth some of the bumps in the road.

A key player on the WP-ORG team, Megan is instrumental in achieving as close to a 24×7 up-time record for the organization as possible. Now, how many other 501(c)3 organizations can boast this level of availability?

Megan and The Ghost

~ Dempsey