Institute Report. June 2016

              ‘I Don’t Think I Could Ever Repay What I Owe to VMI’
More than 300 Cross the Stage at May 16 Commencement Ceremony
By Mary Price
Exhorted to continue their pursuit of
lives of service and honor, more than 300
members of the Virginia Military Institute
Class of 2016 received degrees in the com-mencement
exercise May 16.
Of this year’s graduates, approximately
54 percent have already commissioned in
the armed services or will do so by the end
of the summer. Nearly a quarter of those
graduating earned either Institute Honors,
which requires completing a cross-disci-plinary
honors curriculum and writing
an honors thesis, or the designation of
distinguished graduate, which is awarded
to those with a grade-point average of 3.5
or higher.
This year’s keynote speaker, U.S. Sen.
Tim Kaine, visited the Institute for the sev-enth
time and addressed a VMI graduating
class for the second time. In his remarks,
the Virginia senator expressed his concern
that the nation has been at war against ISIS
since 2014 without congressional authori-zation
– a situation that he feels should not
be possible, as the U.S. Constitution gives
Congress, and not the president, specific
power to declare war.
Also addressing the graduates was
valedictorian Zachary Heard, a mechanical
engineering major from Boca Raton, Fla.,
who plans to commission in the U.S. Army
this summer. Heard gave an emotional
‘Really Technical, Really Fast’
Cadets Tackle Worldwide Food Waste for a First in Infrastructure Challenge
By Mary Price
What do you get when you combine four civil engineering
majors, an international studies major, and a massive glob-al
problem?
Well, one possible outcome is a positive learning experience for
all involved, plus a workable solution to the problem, and that’s
exactly what happened when five VMI cadets took the top spot
among four teams at the Collegiate Infrastructure Challenge, held
in early April in Charleston, S.C.
Now in its second year, the Collegiate Infrastructure Challenge
is part of the Critical Infrastructure Symposium, sponsored
by the Society of American Military Engineers. The compe-tition
is designed to get college students thinking about what
Lt. Col. Steven Hart, instructor in the Department of Civil
and Environmental Engineering, calls “wicked problems”
Marine Corps cadets take their oath during the Joint Commissioning Ceremony in Cameron
Hall May 15. For more on commissioning, see page 9 – VMI Photo by Kelly Nye.
See Infrastructure Challenge, page 6
See Commencement, page 15
Institute Report Virginia Military Institute
Volume XLIV, Number VIII, June 2016
’66 Shatters Reunion Giving Record
By Scott Belliveau ’83, VMI Foundation
On April 23, the Class of 1966 presented the
Institute with the proceeds of its 50th Reunion
Campaign: a record-setting $40,000,019.66.
With this gift, the Class of 1966 set a
new record for 50th reunion campaigns
and almost doubled the previous record
– $20,086,063.63 – set by the Class of 1963.
Seven families of deceased Brother Rats and
219 members of the class made a gift or com-mitment
during this campaign.
“This resulted from the terrific effort of
the 28 members of the Reunion Campaign
Committee,” said committee chairman
Richard K. Hines V ’66. “It was their work
that made this happen, and, of course, the
transformational size of the gift was made
possible by the heartfelt and incredible gen-erosity
not only of the class in general but of
anonymous donors who enabled us to raise
the giving bar to a historic level – a level we are thrilled to set because it means that others
will now be impelled to beat it. What a great result for VMI!”
Gen. J.H. Binford Peay III ’62, VMI superintendent, praised the Class of 1966 for its generos-ity
and vision. “With this magnificent gift, the Class of 1966 has done much to ensure that fu-ture
generations of cadets will receive a thorough full-spectrum education that will prepare
them to be active, effective, and honorable citizen-soldiers,” he said. “This gift is transforma-tive,
and history will treat it so. I thank every one of the Brother Rats of this class for their
dedication to the Institute and for helping to prepare VMI for a brilliant future.”
Edgar J.T. “Turner” Perrow Jr. ’96 (far left), pres‑ident
of the VMI Alumni Association, and VMI’s
superintendent, Gen. J.H. Binford Peay III, ac‑cepted
the Class of 1966’s gift on behalf of the
VMI alumni agencies and the Institute. Making
the presentation were (from left) Randolph W.
Urmston, historian; L. Clark Reifsnider, vice
president; Richard K. Hines V, chairman of the
Class of 1966 Reunion Campaign Committee
and member of the VMI Board of Visitors;
and Marshall C. Taylor, president. – VMI Alumni
Association Photo by Micalyn Miller.
A Special Presentation
Olga Dunaevskaya, native teaching assistant in Washington and Lee University’s German and
Russian Department, presents Col. Keith Gibson ’77, executive director of the VMI Museum System,
with a copy of an article, “Moses Esekiel: The First Jewish Cadet in the United States,” she wrote for
the Russian publication, Lekhaim. The article focuses on the famed sculptor Moses Ezekiel, who
was wounded in the Battle of New Market and graduated from VMI in 1866. Dunaevskaya visited the
VMI Museum May 5. – VMI Photo by H. Lockwood McLaughlin.
2 VMI Institute Report
Institute Report
Volume XLIV, Number VIII, May 2016
The Institute Report, VMI’s monthly
newsletter, publishes eight issues
during each academic year. Inquiries,
suggestions, news items, and address
changes should be directed to Editor,
Institute Report, VMI Communications
and Marketing, Lexington, VA
24450‑0304; (540) 464‑7207; or
VMIReport@vmi.edu. © 2016 Virginia
Military Institute.
Office of Communications and Marketing
Director Col. Stewart MacInnis
Editor Maj. Sherri Tombarge
Assistant Editor John Robertson IV
Graphic Artist Robbin Youngblood
Contributors Scott Belliveau ’83
Chris Floyd
Stephen Hanes
H. Lockwood McLaughlin
Kelly Nye
Mary Price
The Virginia Military Institute is committed to
providing an environment that emphasizes
the dignity and worth of every member of its
community and that is free from harassment and
discrimination based on race, sex, color, national
origin, religion, age, veteran status, sexual orien‑tation,
pregnancy, genetic information, against
otherwise qualified persons with disabilities, or
based on any other status protected by law. Every
VMI staff member, faculty member and cadet has
the right to work and study in an environment free
from discrimination and should be treated with
dignity and respect. VMI complaint and grievance
procedures provide employees and cadets with
the means for resolving complaints when this
Statement has been violated. VMI is an Equal
Opportunity Employer. Anyone having questions
concerning discrimination or the application
of Title IX regulations should contact Title IX
Coordinator, 212 Carroll Hall, VMI, Lexington, Va.
24450, (540) 464‑7072. Any cadet or prospective
cadet having questions about disability services
for students should contact the Director of
the Center for Cadet Counseling and Disability
Services, 448 Institute Hill, 2nd floor, Post Infirmary,
Lexington, Va. 24450, (540) 464‑7667. For em‑ployment-
related disability services, contact
the Employee Disability Services Coordinator in
the VMI Human Resources Office, Lexington, Va.
24450, (540) 464‑7322.
June 2016
Beyond ‘Do What You Love’
Boxing Coach, Kierkegaard Scholar Challenges Cadets to Explore Their Chosen Paths
By Mary Price
It’s not every day that a philosopher, a box-ing
coach, and an author all visit VMI simul-taneously,
and it’s even rarer that all three
are the same person. But that’s just what
happened when Gordon Marino, professor of
philosophy at St. Olaf College in Northfield,
Minn., visited VMI in mid-April.
Marino, who taught philosophy and
coached boxing at VMI in the early 1990s, not
only spoke on his primary research interest,
the 19th-century Danish philosopher Søren
Kierkegaard, but also talked with members
of the boxing team, sharing tips from Mike
Tyson, Oscar De La Hoya, and other boxing
legends he’s worked with.
Marino attended an Institute Honors
forum, where he and approximately 10
cadets discussed a New York Times com-mentary
that Marino had written in 2014,
“A Life Beyond ‘Do What You Love’: How
Today’s Gospel of Self-Fulfillment Severs the
Traditional Link Between Work and Duty.”
As many of those attending were 1st Class
cadets, with the world beyond VMI beckon-ing
in just a few short weeks, the question
of whether to follow a passion or take a job
that would best serve society sparked a
healthy discussion.
Mackenzie Harrmann ’16 explored what
can happen when individuals let others tell
them where their strengths lie.
“The more you get into stuff, the more peo-ple
tell you you’re good at it,” she noted.
“I think life should be about doing what
you love,” said Connor Loken ’17. He added
that if he’d listened to others about what he
should do, he wouldn’t have chosen to come
to VMI and major in applied mathematics.
As the cadets dove into the topic, Marino
listened and offered additional points to
consider, asking at one point, “Why don’t we
talk about the people we want to be instead of
what we want to do?”
The consensus of the cadets was that doing
is a more tangible concept than being, so it
is all too easy to let a major or profession be-come
an identity – and this is not necessarily
a good thing.
“My favorite compliment is, ‘Oh, I didn’t
expect that of you,’” said Loken.
It was this type of spirited discussion that
Maj. Steven Knepper and Dr. Duncan Richter,
both faculty members in the Department of
English, Rhetoric, and Humanistic Studies,
were hoping for when they invited Marino
back to VMI.
“[Marino] is one of a kind,” said Knepper,
acknowledging his accomplishments as a
Kierkegaard scholar, a boxing coach, and a
published author on both topics. “He’s a great
fit for VMI. He’s in the spirit of how we do
things around here.”
Knepper explained that Marino was one
of several speakers coming to post this year,
all of whom hold humanities degrees and
have careers in fields that might not occur to
cadets pondering their career choices after
VMI. Previous speakers this academic year
have included Marcia Childress, professor
of medical humanities at the University of
Virginia, and Talmadge Stanley, director of
Emory & Henry College’s Appalachian Center
for Community Service.
“One of the things we’re trying to do is give
[the cadets] a sense that there are a number
of different things you can do with a human-ities
degree,” said Knepper.
The honors forum cadets, meanwhile,
appreciated Marino’s willingness to explore
the larger questions of life.
“It was very informative and a very good
discussion,” said John Cima ’17.
“It’s an important question for us to ask
ourselves … doing what we need to do versus
doing what want to do, because it’s a question
we all need to answer pretty soon com-ing
up.”
Harrmann, who commissioned May 15 in
the U.S. Army, was likewise glad Marino had
given her a chance to wrestle with questions
of purpose and meaning.
“The idea of thinking about who we want
to be as people versus what we want to be
is also something that we don’t concern
ourselves with here as much,” she comment-ed.
“As a general rule, the path we’ve chosen,
we’ve partially chosen because it’s who we
want to be. We are defined in our society
here on our careers, and we choose our ca-reers
partially on who we want to be. I don’t
think you can separate the two.”
The cadets weren’t the only ones grateful
that Marino had chosen to come to VMI.
Marino himself said being back in Lexington
recalled happy memories, as he remembered
the interactions he’d had with cadets and the
close working relationship he’d enjoyed with
Col. Gordon Calkins Jr., now emeritus pro-fessor
of physical education. “He was a great
mentor to me,” said Marino of Calkins.
“This place feels more like home to me
than anyplace else, and I didn’t expect that
when I came here.”
Gordon Marino offers boxing coach Larry Hinojosa some tips as assistant coach Joe Schafer and team
members look on. – VMI Photo by H. Lockwood McLaughlin.
June 2016 3
Collections Tell Story of 1860s Weapons Technology
New Firearms Exhibit to Be Dedicated at New Market Museum this Month
By Mary Price
A new exhibit at the VMI-owned Virginia Museum of the Civil
War will give visitors a much broader perspective on the types of
weapons available to soldiers in the Civil War.
Now set to be dedicated in June, the Kaminsky Gallery of Civil War
Firearms will showcase a wide variety of firearms, from the famous
but rare Lemat revolver to the Merrill carbine, a weapon with a
unique connection to VMI.
The 55-piece firearm collection was donated to VMI in 2014 by
Martin Kaminksy, law partner of Joseph Reeder, a member of the
VMI Board of Visitors. Now, with a renovation complete at the mu-seum,
located at the New Market Battlefield State Historical Park, an
exhibit space has been created that will house not only the Kaminsky
collection, but also more than 100 additional firearms that the muse-um
hasn’t had space to display before.
“When [the Kaminsky collection] came to us, it was so phenom-enal,”
noted Maj. Troy Marshall, site director at the park. “What
[Kaminsky] had, we didn’t have, and what we had, he didn’t have.”
The Kaminsky collection shares a “real synergy” with items
already owned by VMI, explained Col. Keith Gibson ’77, executive di-rector
of the VMI Museum System. He admitted that when he’d been
asked to look at the Kaminsky pieces, he wasn’t sure that they’d fit
with items already in the Institute’s position – but a trip to Kaminky’s
Long Island, N.Y., home resulted in a happy surprise.
“I was amazed when I compared Mr. Kaminsky’s collection with
the existing VMI collection, how incredibly well they dovetailed,
they complemented each other,” said Gibson. “There were very few
overlapping pieces. It became clear that the two collections together
could tell a very detailed and comprehensive story of military weap-ons
technology in the 1860s.”
Technology was advancing at a rapid pace in the 1850s and 1860s.
Gibson explained that while the traditional soldier’s weapon – a
muzzle-loading, single-shot longarm – was still the army-issued
weapon of choice for both the Union and the Confederacy, individual
soldiers and regiments had a wide variety of firearms from which
to choose, including many of the carbines and handguns in the
Kaminsky collection.
Those include the Lemat revolver, which Gibson described as a
“very potent cavalry weapon” that combined the accuracy of a re-volving
pistol with the firepower of a shotgun.
“We were delighted to add one of those to the collection,”
he commented.
Likewise, the Merrill carbine fills a niche and even complements
an item already in the Institute’s possession. Gibson explained that
the rusted-out barrel of a Merrill carbine was excavated at the New
Market battlefield some years ago, and now the two pieces, the battle-field
relic and Kaminksy’s entire weapon, will be exhibited together.
And in a way, the Merrill is at home at VMI. Gibson explained
that Robert Rodes, a member of the VMI Class of 1848, helped to field
test the weapon at VMI for inventor James Merrill. Success came
to both parties, as Rodes went on to become a major general in the
Confederate Army, and Merrill gained a contract to supply the Union
army with his newly invented firearm.
A dedication of the new exhibit is planned sometime this month.
Class Gifts
The Class of 2016 presents two gifts to the Institute, the class gift of
$16,000 and one from their parents, $50,832. Twenty-two percent of
the class contributed to the gift, which, with the parent gift, will be
used to establish the unrestricted Class of 2016 Endowment. Making
the presentation are Scott A. Beasley, president of the Class of 2016;
Carter L. Chatwood, Honor Court vice president and treasurer of
the Class of 2016; and Patrick R. Eberhart, regimental commander.
Accepting the gifts are John J. Wranek III ’85, VMI Foundation vice
president of annual and reunion giving, and (not pictured) Gen. J.H.
Binford Peay III ’62, VMI superintendent. The presentation took place
during the Change of Command ceremony May 14, held in Marshall
Hall due to inclement weather. – VMI Photo by Kelly Nye.
Maj. Troy Marshall inspects a .52-caliber Spencer carbine, one of the pieces
in the Kaminsky collection. – Photo courtesy of Maj. Troy Marshall.
4 VMI Institute Report
Commitment and Camaraderie
Running Coach (and Deputy Commandant) Leads Cadets to Pursue Passion, Excellence
By Mary Price
It’s been said that good managers never ask their employees to
do anything they themselves wouldn’t do. If the same can be said of
running coaches, Col. L.E. Hurlbut is taking that advice seriously,
as she runs alongside the cadets in the VMI Running Club, leading
by example.
And judging from the results VMI runners have brought home
this year, Hurlbut’s example has been an exceptional one.
Josh Orr ’18 has qualified for the Boston Marathon, and Hurlbut has
high hopes that other cadets will qualify this fall. Alex Warren ’18,
soon-to-be cadet in charge of the Running Club, likewise has a major
event to look forward to, as he’s been chosen via lottery to participate
in the Marine Corps Marathon, to be held in Arlington, Va., Oct. 30.
Orr has been running since high school, but he’d never entered a
marathon until last fall, when he entered the Anthem Marathon in
Richmond, Va. There, he found a new passion.
“After my first marathon, I sort of developed this urge to keep
doing really long-distance runs,” Orr explained. “I wanted to get my
time down as much as I could.”
In the spring, at the Tobacco Road Marathon in Raleigh, N.C.,
Orr qualified for Boston, finishing the race with a time of 3:03:42.
To run at the Boston Marathon, the most prestigious event in the
country, runners must meet a qualifying time based upon their age
and gender.
“It’ll be a pretty interesting race,” said Orr. “I’ve never run any-thing
that big.”
A native of Findlay, Ohio, Orr said that the hills of Lexington have
provided him with an extra training edge, and when he returns
home to the Buckeye State, he finds he can travel much faster on
flat ground.
“I’ve tried to seek out as many uphill runs as I can,” Orr noted.
Warren, who came to VMI from Dallas, Texas, agreed that the
hills provide a training ground that’s hard to find in his home state.
“It’s definitely a change,” he said. “There’s a few hills in Texas, but not
many. Here, I can’t run more than a quarter mile without going down
or up a hill.”
For both cadets, running has provided a needed outlet, both phys-ically
and socially. Running Club is a “more relaxed environment,”
said Warren, who added that he enjoys the mix of cadets from all
classes and majors. This year, there have been approximately 30 com-petitive
runners in the club, although many recreational runners
take part as well.
“Running is an individual sport that you can do with a large group
of people,” said Orr. “It has the ability for you to see and do some pret-ty
interesting things. You can go places running that you wouldn’t be
able to go in a vehicle.”
The cadets aren’t the only ones who feel that way. “Doing things
with the cadets is my passion at VMI,” said Hurlbut, who is deputy
commandant for support in addition to her duties as Running Club
coach. “The beauty of it is, since [running is] an individual sport, I
can participate with them.”
And she’s not just out for a leisurely jog. At almost 62, the retired
Air Force colonel and grandmother has set her sights on a new goal:
completing her first marathon. She’s aiming to do so at the Air Force
Marathon, to be held at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio
Sept. 17.
“It’s taken me a long time to get to the full marathon,” said Hurlbut.
“It was never really an objective, but as you get older, you start work-ing
on your bucket list, and it’s on my bucket list now.”
Hurlbut has not been a lifelong runner. In fact, she didn’t even
enter her first race until she was over 50, and even then only because
her daughter, Katie Bopp ’08, had entered the Air Force Marathon
herself and invited her mother along, saying, “Mom, why don’t you
come do the half-marathon?”
“I’d been doing Jacob’s Ladder [a popular local running route] with
the cadets as part of our matriculation training,” Hurlbut explained.
“That’s about six miles, or a little over six and a half miles. If I can do
six and a half, I can do 13, right?”
That day in September 2007, Bopp qualified for the Boston
Marathon and Hurlbut completed her first half-marathon. She’s been
running ever since, but her level of commitment intensified two
years ago, when she took over as coach of the Running Club.
“Running Club is fun,” said Hurlbut. “It’s a great activity, and
it keeps you healthy. It’s a great social network. … I think every
Running Club trip we take, everyone enjoys it and we have a
good time.”
Hurlbut also enjoys the chance to step out of the uniform, if
only for day or two, and experience a different relationship with
the cadets.
“On the road, I’m coach. I’m not the deputy commandant. It’s a
whole different relationship I have with the Running Club.”
Michaela Wright ’16, Joshua Orr ’18, and Col. L.E. Hurlbut pause for the cam‑era
after one of this year’s races. – Photo courtesy of Col. L.E. Hurlbut.
June 2016 5
– problems with no easy solutions and ones that governments often
avoid tackling.
“We give [the college students] an incredibly difficult problem
and we say, ‘You have 24 hours to come up with a viable solution,’”
explained Hart. “Then we turn them loose and see what they come
up with.”
At this year’s Collegiate Infrastructure Challenge, given a choice
of three such problems, the VMI team decided to take on the issue of
food waste. The problem was prompted by a recent article in National
Geographic magazine that said each year enough edible food is wast-ed
worldwide to feed 2 billion people.
Very quickly, 1st Class cadets Sarah McGinnis, Hunter Daniels, Nick
Meier, Ian Westbrook, and Elliot Hough found a way to repurpose
all of the bruised apples, forked carrots, and otherwise cosmetically
damaged fruits and vegetables that won’t sell in a grocery store. The
cadets decided that those items should be processed into a dried bar
called a “nutricake” that could be used for humanitarian aid, as well
as a food source for people experiencing a natural disaster or other
emergency situation.
“Within about 30 seconds we had the idea for nutricakes, and we
just ran with it from there,” said Daniels, one of the four civil engi-neering
majors on the team.
As they worked on the problem, Daniels and the other civil engi-neering
majors used a problem-analyzing mnemonic they’d been
taught in Hart’s class, Infrastructure: Foundation of Civilizations,
called “Grizzly Bears Don’t Use Water Closets.” In this phrase, “G”
stands for generation, “B” stands for bulk transmission, “D” stands
for distribution, “U” stands for use, “W” stands for waste, and “C”
stands for coordination and control.
“We broke the problem down, and we focused on the steps where
we lost the most food or had the most inefficiency,” explained Daniels.
“The model helped us figure out where the waste was com-ing
from,” added Hough, the international studies major, who is
Daniels’ roommate.
Hough said that working with a group of engineers took a bit of
getting used to. “As an international studies major, I focus a lot on
broad issues and concepts, and they got really technical, really fast,”
he noted.
But as he hung with the group and the process, Hough found that
problem solving in civil engineering isn’t all that different from
problem solving in the social sciences.
“It didn’t take long for me to get into the whole process of how we
were going about it,” Hough said. “I realized very quickly that it’s
not that different from the problems I try to solve in international
studies, my major; it’s just a different flavor.”
Hart noted that Hough was brought on board precisely because he
was a non-engineer.
“I sent [the four civil engineering majors] out to find somebody
who didn’t look like them,” Hart explained.
If the problem had been strictly an engineering problem, no such
input would have been necessary. But that wasn’t the case, the retired
Army officer explained.
“They’re not engineering problems,” said Hart. “They’re just
problems. If everyone on the team looks the same, you really don’t get
very good solutions. These are multidisciplinary problems. You have
to have a team that thinks multidisciplinary.”
In the end, Hart said he was pleased not only to see the cadets win
the competition, besting The Citadel, the U.S. Military Academy,
and the U.S. Air Force Academy, but also develop what he called a
“well-rounded” solution to the problem at hand.
“[Their solution] was really good,” Hart said. “Theirs worked
because they clearly conveyed that they had thought about all of the
dimensions of the problem.”
And perhaps even more importantly, at least one of the cadets had
realized that coming up with a 24-hour, permanent solution to the
problem was likely impossible.
“While we were working, we were discovering new problems and
new things to solve,” said Daniels. “You’re never done with the prob-lem.
… Even if we had 100 years, we’d never be able to come up with
the correct solution because there is no correct solution.”
Elliot Hough ’16 and Hunter Daniels ’16 were among the five cadets on the
VMI Collegiate Infrastructure Challenge team. – VMI Photo by Kelly Nye.
Infrastructure Challenge continued from page 1
Commandant’s Awards
Col. Bill Wanovich ’87, commandant of cadets, awards the
Superintendent’s Cup to Company C at the Commandant’s Awards
Ceremony May 16 in Jackson Memorial Hall. Company C also won the
Company Cup, while Company E won the Commandant’s Cup and
Company D won the Garnett Andrews Cup. – VMI Photo by Kelly Nye.
6 VMI Institute Report
‘One Day We’re Going to Ruin Someone’s Season’
Friends in the Pool and Out, Water Polo Team Works the Details, Sets Sights High
By Chris Floyd
Around post, the VMI water polo team is sometimes referred to
as “The Mafia.” There’s nothing nefarious about the moniker; the
members of the squad earned the nickname because of the team’s
close-knit nature.
“I think everyone thinks of our team as a family,” said Natalie
Rivas ’18, who scored 54 goals for the Keydets this year and led the
team in both assists (36) and blocks (33). “We’re all from pretty far
away places. I told my mom, ‘If I’m going to be away from home, I want
to be at this school because the team is a family.’ I need a family away
from home.”
Like Rivas, Cecilya Lundy ’17 hails from California. She recalled
that the family aspect of the water polo team was the largest contrib-uting
factor to her coming to VMI, particularly after meeting two
players whose names are all over the VMI record books.
“The first person I met on this team was Mackenzie Perkins ’15, and
I was welcomed with open arms, like a mom,” said Lundy, the team
leader in shooting percentage this past season. “Then I met Celine
Lazzaro ’15, and I was really intimidated. That was what I needed. I
realized that I was going to have people who are going to push me,
and I was going to have people who would be there to help me. We try
really hard to be like a family.”
Head coach Ryan Pryor, a four-time All-Big 10 performer at
Michigan, joined the team last year, leading the Keydets to 11 victories
in his first season. He immediately recognized the tightness of his
group, and he has worked hard to maintain that camaraderie, imple-menting
a program he calls “family news.”
“[With] family news, people share things that are going on in their
lives,” said the coach. “I think that helps people get to know each oth-er
and understand each other. We try to do a lot of team bonding.”
While “The Mafia” did not match last season’s winning percentage
this year, posting an 8-19 overall record, they are still dreaming big.
Pryor noted that his team has its sights set on reaching the Mid-
Atlantic Athletic Conference tournament, eventually competing for
a conference championship, and he is sure the team will reach that
goal in the near future, if the squad sticks to the plan.
“You dream big, but you focus small,” he said. “You can’t spend too
much time thinking about results; focus on the process. Our goal is
to give our best effort every day, just get better every day, wherever
that takes us.”
The future certainly looks bright. Only two graduated from this
year’s roster, and everyone in the program seems to be excited about
incoming players who will join the team next season.
“We took a lot of strides toward the future,” said Pryor. “We’ve got
99 percent of goals scored coming back next year. We’ve set ourselves
up well for the next couple of years and beyond.”
The players concur, as long as the family stays together.
“If our team can improve the team aspect as much as it did this
year, then I only see [us] going up from here,” said Lundy. “One day
we are going to ruin someone’s season.”
Shelby Barkley ’18 and goalie Emily Farsakian ’16 attempt to block a
shot in a match March 1 against George Washington. – Photo courtesy of
Athletic Communications.
Subscribe to the Institute Report online – www.vmi.edu/InstituteReport
Thrower Named Most Outstanding at SoCon Championships
Jordan White ’16 was named the Most
Outstanding Athlete, and Greg Henderson ’17
won two events as VMI scored a runner-up
finish at the Southern Conference Outdoor
Track and Field Championships May 13 in
Cullowhee, N.C.
White placed first in the hammer throw,
second in the discus, and third in the shot put
to earn the honor as the top male performer
at the meet. Meanwhile, Henderson took
the top spot in both the 100-meter and the
200-meter dashes. He also anchored the
4x100 relay team that sprinted to a sec-ond-
place showing.
VMI had three other athletes win events at
the meet. Joel Hoisington ’16 was the winner
in the shot put.
Avery Martin ’16 broke the tape in the 800,
while Davon Guerrier ’18 was first in the
110 hurdles.
The Keydet women matched their best-ev-er
showing at a conference meet, finish-ing
fifth.
Julia Logan ’18 posted VMI’s top finish,
placing third in the high jump.
Yaa Agyepong-Wiafe ’18 placed fourth
in the 100 hurdles, setting a new school
record for the third time this season, while
Kennedy Smith ’18 placed fourth in the
triple jump.
June 2016 7
Athletics
VMI Army DMGs and Navy Nukes Tops in Nation
By Kelly Nye
There’s a lot of pride coming out of
Kilbourne Hall these days. Fifty of the Army
ROTC cadets graduating this spring are dis-tinguished
military graduates, the most from
any school in the nation. And Naval ROTC
tied with Virginia Tech for first in the nation
in number of cadets selected for the Navy
Nuclear Propulsion Program, at 11.
The Army ranks ROTC cadets in its Order
of Merit List based 50 percent on academics,
35 percent on leadership skills, and 15 percent
on physical fitness. Cadets who score in the
top 20 percent nationally are distinguished
military graduates.
“Being listed a DMG is one of the few things
you get to carry with you in your active duty
career,” explained Capt. Eric Kupper, Army
ROTC assistant professor of military science.
It also means those cadets were more likely
to get their first branch choice when they
commissioned May 15.
Patrick Murray ’16 scored in the top 17 per-cent
in the nation. Murray was an interna-tional
studies major, and, within the Corps of
Cadets, the Company A representative in the
Officer of the Guard Association.
“This past year we were able to prove that
we have the best program out there,” Murray
said. “I think it serves as an incentive for
people to come here.”
Murray and the other 29 cadets commis-sioning
into the infantry from VMI will
go to Fort Benning for the Basic Officer
Leadership Course, then to their first active
duty stations.
Kupper attributes the success to the quali-ty
of the ROTC program at VMI.
“Much of the program is geared toward
character development based on ethical and
moral decision making, which VMI is very
good at helping facilitate,” he said.
As for Naval ROTC, most units commission
one or two students a year into the Navy
Nuclear Propulsion Program; VMI had a
quota of four, so 11 selected is an impressive
number. Entry into the academically rigor-ous
program involves a technical interview
with questions on nuclear theory, calculus,
differential equations, thermodynamics, and
other topics. The last step in the process is
meeting with a four-star admiral in the Navy
who then assesses the candidate’s character
and leadership abilities.
“If you had an intellectual special forces,
… that would be the nukes,” said Lt. Bryan
Glock, Naval ROTC instructor. “Becoming
a nuke is mentally demanding and at times
emotionally demanding because of the re-sponsibility
they put on people.”
But the rewards are high. Not only are
Navy nukes well compensated, but, with
their level of training and knowledge, they
become an asset to any company in the field.
Having taken his oath, 2nd Lt. Patrick Murray ’16 has his pin-on ceremony in Marshall Hall. – VMI Photo by
Stephen Hanes.
Ensign Ethan Zebron ’16 flashes a smile after his ceremony. – VMI Photo by Kelly Nye.
8 VMI Institute Report
Newly Commissioned Officers Look Forward to New Responsibilities
Andrew Starnes ’16 had to fight back the tears when he received his
pin and his first salute as a second lieutenant in the United States Army
following VMI’s Joint Commissioning Ceremony May 15.
Facing Starnes was his grandfather, a Korean War veteran, smiling
broadly and standing tall as he delivered that salute. It was almost too
much for the VMI 1st Class cadet to take.
“It kind of hit me when my grandpa gave me my first-ever salute,”
Starnes said. “I kind of got a little emotional there. Listening to his stories
when I was kid, I … wanted to follow in his footsteps. This feels like a
dream right now.”
Starnes, who will report to Fort Sill, Okla., after leaving VMI, summed
up the feelings of most of the 149 cadets who took the commissioning
oath in Cameron Hall. The group, with a few more who will commission
after summer training, represents 54 percent of the Class of 2016.
There was a mixture of emotions, to be sure, ranging from pride to ex‑citement
to relief. At the same time, however,
those who took the oath were well aware of
the responsibilities they had accepted.
“Four years of hard work are finally going to
come to an end,” said Richard Dromerhauser
’16, one of the U.S. Navy’s newest ensigns, who
will report to Panama City, Fla., to begin train‑ing
at dive school, “but it’s just the beginning.”
Scott Hayman ’16 took the oath for the
U.S. Marine Corps and will report to the Basic
School in Quantico with the rest of his fellow
second lieutenants after graduation from VMI.
He will take with him that sense of high‑er
purpose.
“This is an awesome feeling, knowing the
hard work we’ve put in,” Hayman said. “It’s a
feeling of responsibility, too.”
That sense of responsibility was not lost on
Domenick Stumpo ’16 either. Stumpo, now an
officer in the United States Air Force, will begin
his training as a pilot at Vance Air Force Base in
Texas in April 2017, and while he noted that he
was well aware of the amount of responsibility
that he now shoulders, Stumpo recognized
that he need look no further than the stage at
Cameron Hall for a model to follow.
Delivering the oaths in the joint ceremony were four distinguished
speakers: Adm. Michelle Howard, vice chief of naval operations and the
first African-American woman to command a ship in the U.S. Navy when
she took charge of the USS Rushmore in 1999; Lt. Gen. Joseph Anderson,
U.S. Army deputy chief of staff; U.S. Marine Corps Brig. Gen. Stephen
Neary ’88, deputy commanding general with the Marine Corps Combat
Development Command; and Air Force Maj. Gen. J. Marcus Hicks ’86,
chief of staff in the U.S. Special Operations Command at MacDill Air
Force Base in Florida.
Individual pin-on ceremonies followed the joint ceremony, driven
indoors – to Cameron, Jackson Memorial, and Marshall halls – by cool
and windy weather.
To see more photos, visit VMINews.tumblr.com, post date May 15, or
www.flickr.com/VMIPhotos.
––By Chris Floyd
Family members assist during 2nd Lt. Domenick Stumpo’s pin-on ceremony. – VMI Photo by H.
Lockwood McLaughlin.
“I would not be entering such a rigorous
program unless I saw the benefits of it,”
said Ethan J. Zebron ’16 one of the 11. “By
challenging myself with the Navy Nuclear
Program, I am strengthening my technical
knowledge of how I think and increasing my
capacity to learn. Also, I firmly believe that
[by] surrounding yourself with like-minded,
motivated individuals you become an even
better thinker and doer.”
Zebron, a civil engineering major, was
the Naval ROTC Navy company commander
and also the Company H commander within
the Corps of Cadets. He will attend an eight-week
Basic Division Officers Course in San
Diego, Calif., where he will learn information
pertaining to his first ship, stationed in Pearl
Harbor, Hawaii.
“The VMI NROTC program has prepared
me by providing the tools to pass the nuclear
power interview, allowing for leadership
opportunities throughout my four years,
and teaching me the basic knowledge to be a
successful officer in the U.S. Navy,” he said.
As Glock explained, producing
Navy nukes is one of the main goals for
Naval ROTC.
“We can make aviators, we can make
surface warfare officers, we can even find
SEALs from athletes in other parts of the
country: those are all things we can get
outside of ROTC. But making people nukes,
finding people who are confident and capable
of doing that job, is very hard. That is why
being able to commission this many nukes is
such a big deal.”
June 2016 9
cadet families, with
a secondary focus on
others interested in
VMI. One page will,
for example, be dedi-cated
to information
of interest to families
of current cadets,
providing links to
pages on events,
visiting, emergency
information, and
student accounting.
Procedures for
sending packages to
cadets and a link for
feedback on the website are also accessible on this page. The site will
highlight events and faculty and cadet achievements, and is format-ted
to display correctly on any device.
Photo and Video Store Closing
The online VMI Photo Store and VMI Video Store will close per-manently
June 1. Photos of special events, including graduation week
events, will be available for free download from the Institute’s new
Flickr account, www.flickr.com/VMIPhotos. Sometime this summer,
videos focusing on the Class of 2016 and the academic year 2015-16
will be available on DVD for sale in the VMI Museum Shop and for
viewing free at www.youtube.com/VMIWeb. A documentary on the
VMI parade will also be available at the museum shop.
Campaign Raises More Than $278 Million
As of April 30, the Institute’s comprehensive fundraising effort,
An Uncommon Purpose: A Glorious Past, A Brilliant Future: The
Campaign for VMI, had received more than $278 million in gifts and
commitments since its launch in November 2014. The number of do-nors
has now surpassed 14,000. Funds raised by this campaign will be
used to ensure that VMI can hold its educational standards high while
pursuing its traditional mission of graduating citizen-soldiers. To
track the campaign’s progress, visit www.vmi.edu/campaign/progress.
Cadets Attend Officer Women Leadership Symposium
Six cadets attended the Officer Women Leadership Symposium
April 22-26 in Arlington, Va. This annual symposium provides an
opportunity for military women of the past, present, and future to
share their experiences. This year’s event, “Empowered by Change
for a Stronger Tomorrow,” was hosted by Academy Women, a group
that supports female military officers from all branches of the
service. Those attending were Makayla Diamond ’18, Kailey Dixon
’18, Ellana Avery ’17, Rachel Tanner ’17, Gloria Welch ’17, and Reagan
Goulla ’18. Accompanying the cadets to the symposium was Col. L.E.
Hurlbut, deputy commandant for support.
Boxing Club Takes Third in Nation
VMI’s club boxing team placed third at a recent national cham-pionship,
while three members won individual championships
and four earned All-America honors. Dylan Ceglowski ’19 won the
132-pound class, and Jeremiah Sokol ’18 took first place at 201 pounds.
Evan Thompson ’16 rounded out VMI’s list of champions in the
heavyweight division. All three of those boxers earned All-America
distinctions, and they were joined by Jon Winalski ’16, who was
named an All-American at 178. This event, the national champion-ship
of the U.S. Intercollegiate Boxing Association, was held April
7-9 at California State University, Northridge. Next year’s champi-onships
may be held in Lexington, as VMI has put in a bid to host
that competition.
Advertising Cadets Place Second in Contest
Cadets in adjunct professor of economics and business Bruce
MacDonald’s advertising class placed second out of 12 schools in
an intercollegiate contest sponsored by the American Advertising
Foundation. This year, the competitors were asked to create the
best marketing plan for Snapple, the bottled tea and juice product.
The competition consisted of a written plan on marketing and a
virtual presentation before four judges. The cadets’ plan included
taking “selfies” with the product and Natural Bridge, the well-known
Rockbridge County landmark, in the background. Visit vminews.
tumblr.com, post date May 5, to see photos.
Ethics Team Members Compete at Naval Academy
For the second year in a row, members of VMI’s Ethics Team
competed at the Military Ethics Case Competition, held in mid-April
at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md. The Ethics Team, a
program of the Center for Leadership and Ethics, debuted at VMI last
year, with 10 to 12 cadets involved. Four of them – Rori Stubbs ’17, Tom
Nanartowich ’16, Reagan Goulla ’18, and Tyler Dejoe ’18 – represented
VMI at the Naval Academy competition. Advisers are Dr. Duncan
Richter and Maj. Ethan Stoneman, both faculty members in the
Department of English, Rhetoric and Humanistic Studies.
Biology Professor Honored by Alma Mater
Col. Wade Bell, professor of biology, recently received the
Accomplished Alumnus Award from the University of Vermont
for his career achievements in research and education. Bell, whose
research specialty is cellular processes in unicellular microorgan-isms,
was recognized for his contributions to scholarship in this
field. He was presented with the award during the College of Arts and
Sciences Honors Day, held May 20 in Burlington, Vt. At the presen-tation,
Bell addressed an audience of University of Vermont honors
students and their families.
New VMI Website
A new VMI website debuted June 1 at www.vmi.edu. The site
focuses primarily on prospective students, their parents, and
Subscribe to the Institute Report online – www.vmi.edu/InstituteReport
10 VMI Institute Report
Post Briefs
Naval ROTC Conducts Battalion Change of Command
Information provided by Naval ROTC
Brandon Conley ’17 took up command of the Naval ROTC battalion
in a change of command ceremony held in early May on Alumni
Memorial Field. Also taking new positions at the battalion level were
Theo Haubold ’17, executive officer, and William Thomas ’17, sergeant
major. This trio will be the driving force behind the battalion during
the 2015-16 academic year and will serve as the liaison between the
ROTC instructors and the cadets in the unit.
On the Marine Corps side, company officers are Andrew Gazzillo
’17, commanding officer; Drake Michalzuk ’17, executive officer; and
Jake Freiwald ’17, first sergeant. Company officers on the Navy side
are Emma Nobile ’17, commanding officer; Erik Stein ’17, executive
officer; and John Radtke ’18, senior chief petty officer.
Numerous cadets were also recognized at the Naval ROTC detach-ment-
level awards ceremony. Among those recognized were Amy
Hardbower ’16, who received the Military Order of Foreign Wars
of the United States, the Sergeant Clarence E. Sutton 1890 Award,
and the Major General William P. Upshur Award for earning the
highest cumulative grade point average in Naval Science classes;
and Thaddeus Kieser ’16, who received the Matthew Fontaine Maury
Award and the Lieutenant Cary D. Langhorne 1894 Award for out-standing
scholastic performance.
James Vaus ’16 received the Marine Corps League Award for
excellence in academics, physical fitness, military aptitude, and
active participation in the Semper Fi Society, presented by Tom
McCraw. Connor Culley ’16 and Augustus Sortino ’16 received the
Order of the Founders and Patriots of America Award for superior
accomplishments in military and academic endeavors, presented by
Thomas Sail. Stephen Guse ’16 and Calvin Makfinsky ’16 received the
American Veterans Award for diligence in the discharge of their du-ties
and willingness to serve God and country, presented by Anthony
Rulli. A number of others were recognized at the ceremony.
Naval ROTC cadets prepare for the battalion change of command ceremo‑ny.
– VMI Photo by John Robertson IV.
Air Force ROTC Training
Preparing for summer field training, cadets from Air Force ROTC units
at Virginia Tech, University of Virginia, and James Madison and Liberty
universities train with VMI cadets during the VMI unit’s annual Field
Training Preparation Day. Forty cadets from two other detachments
joined the VMI cadets to prepare for summer field training, comple‑tion
of which is required for entry into the U.S. Air Force Professional
Officer Course. The grueling day-long exercise included drill, formal
inspections, and flight leadership challenges, as well as room and din‑ing
facility procedures, obstacle course training, and squad tactics. –
Photo Courtesy of Air Force ROTC.
Taking First
Nate Whitmer ’17 and Kyle Harrell ’17 work on their hydroponic system
in Morgan Hall. They were among nine cadets from VMI’s Department
of Civil and Environmental Engineering who traveled earlier this se‑mester
to the Virginia Water Environment Association conference in
Richmond, where their team won first place and another cadet team
won second place. – VMI Photo by H. Lockwood McLaughlin.
June 2016 11
ROTC
Cadet EMTs Earn First Responder Certification
By Kelly Nye
VMI Emergency Medical Technicians are on the sidelines of every
game, every parade, and every physical challenge. They are ready in
the event of an emergency, and now they are better prepared to serve
the needs of the VMI community than ever before. They recently
became certified by the commonwealth of Virginia as a licensed
non-transport first responder Emergency Medical Services agency.
This qualifies them for dispatch on a 911 call.
“It grants us some legitimacy in the eyes of the state, and it also
opens up better training opportunities for cadets. It helps us orga-nize
and record our activities so we can improve ourselves more,”
said John Wainwright ’16, EMT cadet in charge.
The first step in getting this certification came with the creation of
a part-time staff position to guide the cadet-run organization. Donnie
McBrayer was hired as the assistant adviser to the EMTs after volun-teering
with them for the last three years.
“We had the mock inspection where Donnie and [Lexington Fire
Department] Chief Ty Dickerson came to inspect us to see if we were
ready to go,” explained Wainwright. “So we had them go through our
vehicle and go through our paperwork like it was the real thing. … I
think all of us cadets were just totally overwhelmed at the depth of
knowledge that you need to run an organization.”
It was that experience that led Wainwright
to request a leadership position that would
give McBrayer more avenues to guide
the squad.
“He is the perfect person for it because
he’s been volunteering, he understands how
VMI works, he understands how EMS works,
and he’s an absolute saint to have around,”
explained Wainwright.
The next steps involved a lot of paperwork.
The cadets had to fill out applications, get
signatures, and make sure each cadet had his
or her EMT and CPR certification. Several of
the cadets also have an Emergency Vehicle
Operator Course or EVOC certification. And
all of their equipment had to be up to date.
“One of the issues we started to run into
was some of the stuff we originally pur-chased
was starting to expire,” said Garrett
Manarin ’17, a cadet EMT. The group needed
new backboards, splints, and suction units. A
lot of equipment was donated by other volun-teer
agencies in the community.
Now that they have their certification, the VMI EMTs will become
part of the 911 dispatch system in Lexington and Rockbridge County.
“It will enable us to respond to 911 emergencies on post involv-ing
medical circumstances. And we would provide first aid until
Lexington Fire and Rescue could respond with an ambulance,”
explained Manarin.
The immediate response is critical. If visitors come to VMI and
witness a medical emergency, they instinctively call 911 instead of the
guard room. In the past this meant the victim could be waiting sever-al
minutes for first responders from the city of Lexington instead of
receiving assistance immediately from the VMI EMTs. Now whether
called from the guard room or from 911, the VMI EMTs will be the
first responders to all calls for assistance on post.
“For someone who goes into cardiac arrest, for every minute that
is delayed, their chance of survival decreases between 3 and 10 per-cent,”
said McBrayer. “You need to be assessed really quickly to get
the proper help.”
And, with their radios and a paging system on their cell phones,
the VMI EMTs will be ready.
Said McBrayer, “We’ll have two EMTs on call every day, seven days
a week, during the school year.”
The cadet EMTs pose with Donnie McBrayer after receiving their first responder certification. – VMI Photo
by Kelly Nye.
Follow VMI
VMINews.tumblr.com
@VMINews or @VMILife virginia_military_institute
flickr.com/VMIPhotos
facebook.com/vmi1839
youtube.com/VMIWeb
12 VMI Institute Report
ECE Capstone Concludes Multistage Robot Project
By Mary Price
At first glance, the task assigned to cadets enrolled in System
Design Validation, the capstone course for electrical and computer
engineering, seems doable: build an autonomously moving robot that
can travel toward a set of wooden blocks when asked to do so.
Doable the task may be, but the cadets involved will tell anyone
who asks that it’s not simple. The assignment, though, is but a vehicle
for teaching lessons invaluable to a budding engineer: work smart-er,
not harder. Don’t reinvent the wheel. Listen to others. And when
something’s just plain not working, it’s best to move on and try
another tactic.
That’s what the six 1st Class cadets enrolled in this year’s electri-cal
and computer engineering capstone said they’d learned after
they built just such a robot – and had the satisfaction of seeing their
creation place in the top four out of 41 schools at the 2016 I-EEE
SoutheastCon Hardware Competition, held March 30-April 3 in
Norfolk, Va.
Cadets have been attending this competition for the past 30 years
or so and have placed in the top quarter on many occasions, but this
year marked VMI’s highest placing since the mid-1980s. This was
also the best-funded year ever, as the cadets were awarded $500 from
the Virginia Mountain Section of the I-EEE and over $2,000 in travel
funding from the VMI Center for Undergraduate Research.
Later, in mid-April, the cadets earned another accolade when they
were awarded first place in the oral presentation in engineering
category at the VMI Undergraduate Research Symposium.
This spring’s successes were the culmination of more than a year
of work for cadets Joseph LaMagna, Dillon Blackburn-Jones, Dominic
Romeo, Devon Florendo, Daniel Wanamaker, and Matt Hodapp.
They’d begun accruing the necessary knowledge as early as their 4th
Class year, but the robot project had kicked into high gear in March
2015, when the instructions for the next year’s competition were
released. At that point, the six were enrolled in Col. Dave Livingston’s
microelectronics course, where they learned about the circuitry
necessary to control a robot.
In the fall of 2015, while enrolled in Senior Design I, the cadets built
their robot – and rebuilt it, as they found out what worked, what
didn’t, and what could and should work better. That left the systems
validation course, taught each year in the spring, for refining their
creation and tweaking its performance in the weeks leading up to
the competition.
“Year after year, this [robot] thing has gotten more complicated,”
explained Col. Dan Barr ’74, professor of electrical and computer
engineering, who teaches systems validation. “It involves radio
waves. It involves microprocesssors. It involves power. It in-volves
mechanical.”
And with that degree of complexity came the need for outside
assistance. With the help of mechanical engineering majors Cody
Damewood ’16 and Zach Heard ’16, the cadets were able to use the
Department of Mechanical Engineering’s 3-D printer to fabricate
plastic parts for the robot’s chassis. Rick Amenell, electronics tech-nician
for the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering,
earned kudos from the cadets for his assistance with the 3-D printer
and also for ordering specialized parts that were hard to find.
“In order to learn how to use it and print out stuff, we had to learn
how to use a specific program called SolidWorks, which basically lets
you design a 3-D part,” explained LaMagna, who served as project
manager. “It was an interesting, good experience – a new tool in the
toolbox, so to speak.”
Romeo, who served as technical and software lead on the project,
also said he’d learned new skills. “This was my big job, as the soft-ware
lead, to develop the first-level of software so they could come
in with the sensors and stuff,” said Romeo. “I had to do the research
to figure out what software libraries were needed to support the
sensors and the motors.”
In the end, Romeo wound up using the computer programming
languages C and C++ to control an Arduino Mega microcontroller
board and thus tell the robot what to do and when to do it.
In the final weeks before the competition, Romeo found his
patience and skills challenged when he and others realized that the
robot’s sensors weren’t working properly. The new sensors didn’t get
installed until the week before the competition.
“That was the best thing we learned – when it’s not going to work,
move on, try to find something else, and don’t waste your time,”
said Romeo.
Hodapp also recalled flexibility as key to the project’s success.
Halfway through the semester last fall, he explained, the group had
to do a complete redesign, as the original wasn’t sturdy enough.
“We had to adapt a lot of different things,” said Hodapp, who serves
as president of the VMI chapter of I-EEE. “You can have a plan, but
adaptation is key when you’re doing a huge project like this.”
It’s lessons such as these that the project is designed to teach, said
Barr. He explained that the systems validation course is crucial to
the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering’s continued
accreditation by ABET, an industry group that accredits post-second-ary
programs in applied science and engineering. ABET’s standards,
Barr noted, are driven by industry demands.
“This process, of sending [the cadets] through this teamwork exer-cise,
where they use all of the skills in the curriculum, readies them
to better make a transition to the working world.”
Cadets Joseph LaMagna ’16 (left) and Dominic Romeo ’16 show the robot
to VMI Board of Visitors members Conrad M. Hall ’65 (left) and Bruce C.
Gottwald Jr. ’81. – VMI Photo by H. Lockwood McLaughlin.
June 2016 13
Scholarship Sets Cadet on Road to Medical School
By Chris Floyd
Hayden Alford ’16 came to VMI on a football scholarship. He’s leav-ing
with one of another type.
Alford, a chemistry major, was recently awarded the Southern
Conference’s Dave Hart Postgraduate Scholarship, a $2,000 grant
given to 10 of the league’s athletes who plan on pursuing their educa-tion
at the graduate level. Alford will use his as he sets his sights on
medical school.
“I’m just grateful to be nominated,” said Alford, who plans to attend
the Quillen College of Medicine at East Tennessee State University.
“Just the fact that I got it, I was pretty shocked.”
Alford may have been surprised that he received the scholar-ship,
but others at VMI certainly were not. The Tennessee native is
a distinguished graduate, with a 3.93 grade point average. During
his time at VMI, Alford was a member of the Phi Eta Sigma National
Freshman Honor Society and the Gamma Sigma Epsilon National
Chemistry Honor Society. He also was the recipient of the Ritchey
Third Class Award, given to the top organic chemistry student at
VMI, and the James Lewis Howe Award as the top chemistry student
in his class.
“Hayden is a man who has the ability to perform under pressure,”
said VMI head football coach Scott Wachenheim. “Hayden’s poise
and concern for others will serve him well in medical school and the
medical profession. He will earn the respect of his fellow students
and professors and, therefore, quickly rise to a leadership position.”
On the football field, Alford served as the backup quarterback and
punter. He appeared in just two games under center this past season,
but he averaged nearly 40 yards per kick, helping VMI go from 112th
nationally in yards per punt return to 35th in the country this season.
While he may not boast the gaudiest of statistics, Alford knows
that if not for football and VMI, he would not be where he is today.
“If I could express one thing, it’s how thankful I am for the oppor-tunity
to play football here,” he said. “Without that scholarship, I nev-er
would have been here. It has literally opened so many doors. I’ve
made so many connections here. For that, I’m extremely grateful.”
Coming out of high school, the last college on Alford’s mind was
VMI. In fact, he had never heard of the Institute until former football
coach Sparky Woods made a recruiting visit. Alford decided to make
an official visit to Lexington, staying in barracks and observing a
real sweat party, and though he began leaning toward VMI at that
point, he received an extra little push from his mother.
“I was looking at a couple of other places,” said Alford, “and my
mom told me one day, ‘Hayden, your granddad went to VMI.’ I guess I
had a connection.”
As it turns out, that connection was tenuous at best. A few weeks
into his first semester, Alford got a call from his mother and received
news he was not expecting.
“I get two months into the Rat Line, and my mom calls me,” he said.
“She said, ‘Oh, yeah, I found out your granddad went to VPI.’
“But I wouldn’t change it,” Alford continued. “It hasn’t always been
the most fun here, but hopefully it will all be worth it.”
In addition to his many honors, Alford has volunteered his time
in Rockbridge County at the local SPCA. When he returned to
Tennessee, he spent time shadowing doctors at a local hospital and
served as a quarterback mentor for his former high school coach.
It always seems to come back to football.
“Football teaches you so much: discipline, time management,
teamwork, how to be accountable for something much bigger than
yourself, which I think parallels very well with medicine,” said
Alford. “That shaped who I am today probably more than anything
else I’ve done.”
While football was important in his development, the fact that
he attended VMI isn’t lost on Alford. He is sure that had he been
anywhere else, he would not be as prepared for the future as he is
right now.
“VMI has prepared me for the real world better than any other
school. The structure, the routine, the little things you don’t get at
any other school prepared me better,” he said. “I look at a lot of people
I graduated high school with, [and] I feel like I’m head and shoulders
above them.”
Hayden Alford ’16 punts the ball during a home game last fall. – Photo courtesy
of VMI Athletic Communications.
Taps – Stacey Nadeau
Stacey Nadeau, an employee of the Virginia Museum of the Civil
War in New Market, died April 25. Miss Nadeau had worked at New
Market since 2003, first in a part-time capacity and since 2006 as a
full-time employee. She died following a lengthy illness. She was 45
years old.
As the supervisor for historical interpretation, Miss Nadeau co‑ordinated
programming that introduced the story of the Battle of
New Market, the VMI cadets who fought in the battle, and life on a
19th-century farmstead to thousands of students, travelers, and cadets.
In 2014, she authored Mother Bushong’s Sponge Cake, a cookbook
based on 19th-century recipes from the family that occupied the site of
the 1864 Battle of New Market.
Among Miss Nadeau’s survivors are her parents, Frank and
Peggy Nadeau.
14 VMI Institute Report
farewell not only to his Brother Rats but to
the entire VMI community, noting, “The
people at VMI make it the phenomenal insti-tution
that it is.”
Before the ceremony, two other members
of the VMI Class of 2016 expressed gratitude
for all that the Institute had given them.
Growing up in Keene, N.H., Army 2nd Lt.
Matt Tonkinson didn’t know any VMI alumni
personally, nor did he come from a military
family. But the path his life was to take was
strongly influenced by the legacy of one of
VMI’s most famous alumni, Keene native
Jonathan Daniels ’61, who gave his life so that
of a young African-American girl might be
saved during the struggle for civil rights in
Alabama in 1965.
As a young child, Tonkinson attended
Jonathan M. Daniels (elementary) School,
where he learned the story of Daniels’ life. “If
I hadn’t known where Jonathan Daniels went
to school, I wouldn’t have known that VMI is
a big military college with a great academic
program and such,” explained Tonkinson.
During his cadetship, Tonkinson took
full advantage of VMI’s academic offer-ings.
He graduated with Institute Honors,
earning a bachelor of science in psychology
and a minor in national security. He’s now
serving with the Army Medical Service
Corps and hopes to someday become a clini-cal
psychologist.
Away from academics, Tonkinson played
the trumpet with Band Company and the bass
drum with the Pipe Band. During his 1st Class
year, he served as editor in chief of The Cadet,
VMI’s cadet-run newspaper.
All of those responsibilities, he admitted,
led to some late nights, but they also led to
some life lessons.
“That’s one thing that VMI teaches
really well, how to manage your time,” said
Tonkinson. “You learn that even when you
have a lot of things on your plate, you have
the ability to get them all done.”
Also getting a lot done was Army 2nd Lt.
Jarod Krug, an international studies major
who earned a minor in German.
As the son of one alumnus, Patrick Krug
’91, and the nephew of another, Andrew Krug
’92, Army 2nd Lt. Jarod Krug had been coming
to reunions and other special events at VMI
from his hometown of Loretto, Pa., for as long
as he could remember. A family photograph
even shows a young Jarod, age 4 or 5, with a
grin on his face as he peers over one of the
lecterns in Jackson Memorial Hall.
When the time came to choose a college,
VMI “was really the only place I wanted
to go,” said Krug. He explained that from
the time he’d been a small child, he’d seen
cadets and wondered if he, too, could wear
the uniform and live up to the Institute’s
strict standards.
“I never would have been happy if I hadn’t
been able to answer that question,” he noted.
After coming to VMI on a four-year Army
scholarship, Krug found that both the ROTC
and the Institute itself could open doors he’d
never thought possible. At the start of his 3rd
Class year, Krug had never left the continen-tal
United States, except for a brief trip to the
Canadian Niagara Falls. As of graduation,
he’d been to more than 16 foreign countries.
Those travel experiences included a
semester spent abroad at Albert Ludwig
University of Freiburg in Germany. No
sooner was Krug home from Germany than
he departed for Guyana, where he partici-pated
in jungle warfare training through
Army ROTC.
“It was a huge transition for me,” recalled
Krug. “There I was on the champagne
and crepes circuit in Germany with these
diplomats and everything. Just coming back
from that to VMI would have been a system
shock to me. But there I was eating frog legs
in Guyana.”
Krug expressed great appreciation for
all of the opportunities VMI and the Army
ROTC had provided, especially in the area
of travel.
“The mindset here is that if someone else
can do it, I can do it too,” he said. “And even
if it hasn’t been done before, I can do that,
because I’ve somehow been prepared for it.
… As much as I’d like to give back to this place
someday, I don’t think I could ever repay
what I owe to VMI.”
To see more photos, visit VMINews.tumblr.
com, post date May 16, or www.flickr.com/
VMIPhotos.
Jarod Krug receives congratulations and his diploma from VMI superintendent Gen. J.H. Binford Peay III
’62. – VMI Photo by Kelly Nye.
Matthew Tonkinson accepts his diploma on the
Cameron Hall stage. – VMI Photo by Kelly Nye.
Commencement continued from page 1
June 2016 15
VMI Foundation Makes Ring Figure Gift to 3rd Class
By Scott Belliveau ’83, VMI Foundation
The VMI Foundation presented the Class of 2018 with a fac-simile
check representing the support of alumni and friends
for the class’s upcoming Ring Figure. John J. Wranek III ’85,
the VMI Foundation’s vice president of annual and reunion
giving, made the presentation April 14 to the class officers, Joey
Brown, president; Henry Wiswall, vice president; and Ben
Washechek, historian.
Besides remarks from Wranek, the 3rd Class also heard from
Eric Hunter ’08, who works as the VMI Alumni Association’s
placement officer. Hunter urged the cadets to develop an appreci-ation
for the many relationships that they will form during their
years in barracks and to do everything possible to maintain and
strengthen them after graduation.
Given through the VMI Foundation’s Barracks Program, the gift
of $40,418 combines $2,018, to be placed in the Class of 2018 fund
that will support its preparations for Ring Figure, with a $100
credit toward the cost of the ring for each member of the Class
of 2018.
“Alumni and friends help every cadet every day they are in
barracks through their generous support of the Institute,” said
Wranek. “Through this donation, the VMI Foundation is not only
directly helping the Class of 2018 properly commemorate this
milestone in its history, but also reminding the cadets of the fact
that there is nothing they will do as cadets that is not touched by
the generosity of the VMI family.”
Accepting the VMI Foundation’s gift in support of their Ring Figure are
the three leaders of the Class of 2018 (from left), Joey Brown, president;
Ben Washechek, historian; and Henry Wiswall, vice president. – Photo cour-tesy
of the VMI Foundation.
Virginia Military Institute
Communications & Marketing Office
Lexington, VA 24450-0304
NON-PROFIT
ORGANIZATION
U.S. POSTAGE
PAID
PERMIT NO. 14
LEXINGTON, VA
24450-0304
16 VMI Institute Report June 2016