VMI Cadet. February 16, 1973

              She Pallet
VOLUME LXIV Virginia Military Institute/ Lexington, Virginia, February 16, 1973 NUMBER 17
Three Areas Cited
Caldwell Discusses Board Priorities
"Cadets have to become
involved in shaping and in
becoming responsible for the
future of thelnstitute.Too many
Cadets go through their four
years at VMI unaware of the
fact that what they enjoy, and
in some cases what they do not
enjoy, must be preserved for
the cadets of the future.
However, one must keep in
mind that VMI cannot remain
static. It must adapt to meet the
changing needs of a changing
corps while simultaneously
adhereing to the traditional
concept of the VMI man; a
citizen soldier endowed with the
attributes of honor and in-tegrity."
This statement was made by
the new Corps representative to
The VMI Board of Visitors,
Donald Caldwell, during an
interview with a member of the
CADET Staff. In regard to what
he felt was the purpose of the
new position, he stated that it
should not be the function of the
representative to merely go to
the Board with a series of
requests for the Corps. The
representative should offer
constructive criticism on how to
malce VMI a better school.
Cadet Caldwell organized his
remarks on priorities at VMI
into the three facets of the
school; Academics, Military,
and Athletics.
Academics
He regards Academics as the
facet of the school which should
always receive the most at-
Vietnam Ace To
Speak At Dining-In
The U. S, Air Force's first
Vietnam ace and first U. S.
crewman to destroy five MIG-21
aircraft in Southeast Asia, Capt.
Richard S. Ritchie, will visit the
Virginia Military Institute on
Feb. 23.
Capt. Ritchie, a 1964 graduate
of the Air Force Academy, will
be the principal speaker at the
Air Force ROTC detachment's
seventh annual Dining-In
ceremony. He is a veteran of 147
combat missions over North
Vietnam. On August 28,1972, he
destroyed his fifth MIG-21
aircraft, becoming the first Air
Force Ace of the Vietnam War.
Capt. Ritchie has been
awarded the Air Force Cross,
the Silver Star with three oak
leaf clusters, the Distinguished
Flying Cross with eight oak leaf
clusters, and the Air Medal with
twelve oak leaf clusters.
On November 11, 1972, Capt.
Ritchie was awarded the
Jabara Award for Airmanship
by Lt. Gen. Albert P. Clark,
Superintendent of the USAF
Academy. Accepting the award,
Capt. Ritchie said, "I wish to
leave you with a few thoughts
regarding war. We have been
criticized by some for our
participating in this war. We've
even been called war mongers.
Part of my response to these
people is that nobody despises
war more than those of us who
are close to it, and nobody
appreciates life and freedom
more than those of us who face
the loss of it each day in the
combat arena."
Among the honored guests at
the VMI Dining-In will be Brig.
Gen. James M. Fogle, com-mander
of the 20th North
American-Continental Air
Defense Command, with
headquarters at Fort Lee, Va.
Gen. Fogle will present the Air
Force Times Award and the
Daughter of the American
Revolution Award to two VMI
cadets.
The annual Air Force Dining-
In is sponsored by the first class
(senior) cadets of the VMI Air
Fore Reserve Training Corps
unit. The formal dining-in,
which traces its origins to
British military tradition, will
be held in Moody Hall, VMI's
alumni building.
Item
Friday night, February 16,
will conclude the Kenneth Clark
film series entitled "Pioneers of
Modem Painting." This series
is presented by the Rockbridge
Chapter of the Virginia Museum
of Fine Arts, at duPont Hall, on
the campus of Washington and
Lee University.
Sunday night, February 18, at
Lee Chapel, on the W&L
campus, Black Culture Week
will open with a "Black Fire"
concert. This will be followed
throughout the week, with
seminars and other cultural
events centered around Black
Culture Week.
tention: although VMI has a
fine academic program,
Caldwell stated that there
should be "a renewed em-phasis,
from the Superintendent
on down, on the academic
program." He expressed
concern over the fact that many
worthwhile projects which
could publicize the academic
side of VMI had been allowed to
stagnate during the last few
months. A primary example
was the VMI SYMPOSIUM
which will not be held this year.
Military
The military system has been
very good during the course of
the year. Caldwell stated that
he felt the new Commandant
was the man primarily
responsible for the im-provement
in this area. He did
however, say that he felt there
was one issue which would have
to be resolved in the near
future. "With the abolition of
the draft, I feel that the Board of
Visitors should seriously con-sider
the role of compulsory
ROTC at VMI. Since there is no
service requirement for young
men anymore , I question
whether our current program of
required enrollment in ROTC
m i ^ t detract from the ad-ministration's
efforts to recruit
the quality students which VMI
will need in the future,"
Athletics
In considering this facet of
VMI, Caldwell said that he felt
the major spores program has
reached a crucial point in its
existence. He acknowledged the
fact that both the football and
the basketball program are in
the process of rebuilding. But he
did state that he felt that we
really have no business
scheduling teams as Ga. Tech
and Tulane whom we have very
little chance of defeating. The
scheduling which is done in the
future should be based upon the
fact that we are one of the
smallest schools to play a major
college schedule and the
makeup of our future opponents
should reflect that fact.
Cadet Caldwell is an English
major from Fincastle, Va. He
plans to attend medical school
somewhere in Virginia upon the
completion of his studies here at
VMI.
The new Editors and the Business Manager for next years' Bomb were announced by the Publications
Board earlier this week. The position of Editor-hi-Chief for the 1974 Bomb will be held by Bert Zinkand,
(right) an English major from Washington. D. C. His chief assistant, the Managing Editor will be Mike
Emzen (center) who resides in Batazia, Illinois. His major field of study is Math. The man who will be
responsible for the financial end of the Bomb will be Nick Ware (left). Ware is a History major from
Lynchburg, Virginia, lliese officers will assume their duties after the completion of Spring Brea k.
History Lecture Wednesday
The Department of History at
Virginia Military Institute has
announced the beginning of a
new series of Willis Jefferson
Dance, Jr., Memorial Lectures.
The first lecture in this series
will be delivered by Cd. John G.
Barrett, professor of history at
VMI, on Wednesday, Feb. 21.
Col. Barrett will speak at 8
p.m. in the Institute's Lejeune
Hall. The general puUic is
invited to attend.
The title of Col. Barretts's
presentation will be "Edmund
DeWitt Patterson, Yankee
Rebel." Patterson, a native of
Lorain County, Ohio, enlisted in
the Ninth Alabama Regiment in
1861. During his life as a Con-federate
soldier he kept a
fascinating journal describing
the combat he witnessed, dlol.
Barrett will recount many of
DeWitt's observations.
The first series of Dance
Lectures, which were presented
between 1952 and 1963, was
devoted to the lives of great
Americans.
Col. Barrett is a teacher-historian
whose special field of
study is the Civil War. He has
been a member of the VMI
faculty since 1953. During his
years at the Institute he has
written five books on the Civil
War and many articles for
scholarly journals.