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®I)c Caiiet 3S.un inbepenbentlp fap cabets; sfince 1907 ' Library Preston Archives Preston Library Lexington VA 24450 $ 1 . 0 0 V()lumcX€V F r id a y , M a rc h 8 ,2 0 0 2 Niiml>er2() Jonathan Daniels ^61 Remembering a VMI Legend Although Jonathan Daniels’ courageous acts took place more than 30 years ago, it has been a fairly recent tradition at VMI to celebrate Danie ls on or about his birthday every year in recognition of his valor. T h e date for the Da n i e l s ceremony is fas t approaching and the Corps o f Cadets will once again be reminded of what hap-p e n e d down in Alabama in the late summer o f 1965. After spending his entire childhood in New Hampshire, Jonathan Daniels came to the segregated south to matriculate with the class of 1965 at VMI and endured the Ratline like most classes before his. However, Daniels found the treatment harsh and unjust and did not take part in the Ratline experience as an upperclassman. Instead, he and his roommates soon become known as “rat daddies” among the rats in barracks. As an English major at VMI, he became involved with tKljc Cnbet and rose to the position o f editor his first class year. Daniels was also named valedictorian of his class. After graduating from VMI, Daniels was accepted to Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He went on to earn a master’s degree in English, but as a strongly religious person, Daniels soon lost interest in his studies and instead attended seminary school. In 1965 he heeded the call of Martin Luther King, Jr. to come down to the Deep South to help with the struggle for desegregation. Daniels’ journey would take him to the small town of Selma, Alabama, and his violent death. While in Selma, By Magnus Nordenman Cabct Managing Editor Daniels got involved in student protests and the picketing of local companies that refused to do business with African-Americans. Daniels left accounts of his work in Selma in his diaries that remain to this day. Reverend Daniels with Ruby Salesi “After a week-long, rain-soaked vigil, we still stood face-to-face with the Selma police. I stood, for a change, in the front rank, ankle-deep in an enormous puddle.. .1 found myself only inche s from a young policeman...We matched baleful glances and then both looked away...One of my friends asked [the young policeman] for his name. His name was Charlie. When we sang for him, he blushed and then smiled in a truly sacramental mixture of embarrassment and pleasure and shyness. Soon the young policeman looked relaxed, we all lit cigarettes (in a couple of instances, from a common match), and small groups o f kids and policemen clustered to joke or talk cautiously about the situation. It was thus a shock later to look across the rank at the clergymen and their opposites, who glared across a still unbroken ‘wall’ in what appeared to be silent hatred,” Daniels wrote of one of his encounters with the authorities in Selma. Daniels and a few other civil-rights activists were arrested on August 14, 1965 for picketing three local businesses. They were released six days later and found their way to a local drug store. The group o f newly freed activists went into the store to buy sodas. However, the owner of the store, Tom Coleman, approached the group waving a shotgun. After making threats he leveled the shotgun at Ruby Sales, a young A f r i c a n - American girl in the group. D a n i e l s pushed Sales out of the way and caught the full blast of the shotgun in his chest. Daniels died immediately. Coleman then called the S p o l ic e and stated, “I just shot a preacher. You need to get on down here.” Although Coleman confessed to the murder to the Selma police, he was prosecuted for manslaughter and was found innocent by the jury. As Coleman left the courtroom, the jury stayed beshind to shake his hand. King personally commented on the deeds of Daniels shortly after his death. “One of the most heroic Christian deeds of which I have heard in my entire ministry was performed by Jonathan Daniels,” Rev. King said upon hearing o f his death. “Certainly there are no incidents more beautiful in the annals of church history, and though we are grieved at this time, our grief should give way to a sense of Christian honor and nobility.” The Anglican Church considers Daniel to be one of only 15 modern-day martyrs. In 1997, the VMI Board-of-Visitors enacted the Jonathan Daniels Humanitarian Award. The first Continued on page 5 .. . .f. -iVA:'''- ; - ■'- -'s ^ "■ . ' ■ 5-' . • ' ' :: ■ , “Success^’. P i^ e n ti Prog^ss w : ,r, oiyv-f ^ Rugby ' ■ ’ ■ Cadet Captains Announced for ‘03 By Glenn Walton Cnbet Asst. News Editor The Commandant’s office finally posted the list for next year’s Corps leaders on Thursday. This list outlined the rising first class cadets chosen to hold the prestigious rank of cadet captain. Thisraii^s he^^^^ by onl^ the for rank. Through a process of peer evaluations and interviews by faculty members, 22 o f these cadets were ultimately chosen. These cadets are to be entrusted during the upcoming year with running the military operations of the - I f J iu ® »• ^ i VMPs Regimental Staff passes in review. top 2 percent of cadets in the Corps, and bestows the top responsibility for military leadership at VMI. Several weeks ago a list was compiled of the top 60 candidates for this rank out of all the members of the Class of 2003 who applied Corps, from the day-to-day to the larger and more significant events, such as the Governor’s Inauguration Parade that cadets participated in last January. That parade was coordinated, planned Continued on page 5 Maj. Stanton Smith: A Study in Chemistry By Dan Cragg Cnbct Layout Editor This semester there ginia where he earned his Ph.D., In organic chemistry. After graduating from U VA, he became a post-doctoral researcher for a small com-have been unprecedented reports of liberal arts majors happily making the trip past the cannon ball to a science elective. This strange occur- pany where he worked on a rence is largely due to one project for the US Army. man. Major Stanton Smith of the Chemistry Department, the instructor of the popular chemistry of warfare class. This is where his interest in chemical warfare d ev e loped. Although he could not comment on the specifics o f Smith originally comes from the project, he did say that a Fayetteville, Georgia but has large portion of it dealt with spent much time away from his home state. He attended the University of Central Florida where he received a a nerve agent. According to Smith, “the project was to make compounds that would act as a scavenger of nerve Maj. Gen. Richard L, Irbyr VMl^ tenth Siiperiutendentx passed a way on March. 6 in l^exington: tie was VMI Class of 1939 .and sdrVed as Superintendent. frotn 1 9 7 1 -1 9H/ . B.S. in chemistry and went agents.” on to the University of Vir- . Smith came directly to VMI upon concluding his work as a post-doctoral researcher in August of 1999. The majority of classes he teaches are the required Chemical Science courses for non-science majors, but he does sometimes get a chance to teach upper level courses like organic chemistry for chemistry and biology majors, or what he is teaching this semester, Special Topics in Chemistry: The Chemistry of Warfare. He says the idea came from his rat chemical science classes; “the cadets wanted a class on death and destruction.” Smith has surely delivered. The beginning of the class dealt largely with explosives and even included a demonstration o f thermite, but his Continued on page 5 Army Department Threatens Seconds ^ Scholarsh^s By Caliet Staff Writer On 28 February all contracted army cadets in their third year of military science , received an email entitled “Death Knell” by their MSIII branch chief, Maj. Timothy Lethers. This email addressed what Lethers felt was a sub par performance by the MSIII class as a whole. Lethers pointed out that their performance could jeopardize the scholjarships of those cadets possessing them. Although the letter did not address specific cadets, it did mention that the performance o f the Guaranteed Reserve/Guard Force cadets (cadets who have scholarships that require a National Guard/Reserve commitment after college) was especially sub-par. Major Lethers attributed this to the fact that these cadets were not competing for a branch of their choice in the active army, and therefore it was felt they could coast the rest of the year. This email seems to have been sparked in part by the performance of several MSIII cadets in the recent army land navigation exercise. The course was designed to test expert infantrymen. Many cadets complained that this course was beyond their current experience and skill level. The army cadre found many cadets quitting the course after several failed attempts, and even found a group of who had stripped the insides of their rifles to avoid having to clean them later (this practice would have been met with severe disciplinary action if the cadets were active duty soldiers.) Also, the army department cited an farming drop in PT scores within program. VMI went from being second in the nation in PT scores to a somewhere in the two hundreds. Currently Lethers has reorganized the entii-e MSIII chain o f command and Says that cadets should expect more disciplinary actions. The cadets had a Friday morning meeting with Col. William Faistenhammer, who verbally counseled the cadets, and stipulated that there must be a change in attitudes by the MSIIIs. Currently contracted cadets who have been unable to obtain a passing score were given an ultimatum: pass the APFT or lose your contract/scholarship. Also, the standards of morning PT has significantly increased recently.
Object Description
Repository | Virginia Military Institute Archives |
Collection | VMI Cadet Newspaper |
Title | VMI Cadet. March 8, 2002 |
Issue Date | 2002-03-08 |
Volume/Number | Volume 95, number 20 |
Publisher | Virginia Military Institute |
Publication History | The Cadet (originally the Keydet), VMI's student newspaper, began weekly publication in the fall of 1907. Not published 1943-44, 1944-45, 1945-46 |
Frequency | Weekly during academic year, except during examinations and vacations |
Subject |
Virginia Military Institute -- Publications. Virginia Military Institute -- Cadet life. College student newspapers and periodicals -- Virginia -- Lexington. |
Digital Publisher | Virginia Military Institute Archives |
VMI Archives Records Group | Publications |
Rights | Materials in the VMI Archives Digital Collections are intended for educational and research use and may be used for non-commercial purposes with appropriate attribution. The user assumes all responsibility for identifying and satisfying any claimants of copyright. Acknowledgement of the Virginia Military Institute Archives Digital Collections is required. Contact the VMI Archives for additional information. |
Type | text |
Format | application/pdf |
Description
Title | Page 1 |
Issue Date | 2002-03-08 |
Full Text Search | ®I)c Caiiet 3S.un inbepenbentlp fap cabets; sfince 1907 ' Library Preston Archives Preston Library Lexington VA 24450 $ 1 . 0 0 V()lumcX€V F r id a y , M a rc h 8 ,2 0 0 2 Niiml>er2() Jonathan Daniels ^61 Remembering a VMI Legend Although Jonathan Daniels’ courageous acts took place more than 30 years ago, it has been a fairly recent tradition at VMI to celebrate Danie ls on or about his birthday every year in recognition of his valor. T h e date for the Da n i e l s ceremony is fas t approaching and the Corps o f Cadets will once again be reminded of what hap-p e n e d down in Alabama in the late summer o f 1965. After spending his entire childhood in New Hampshire, Jonathan Daniels came to the segregated south to matriculate with the class of 1965 at VMI and endured the Ratline like most classes before his. However, Daniels found the treatment harsh and unjust and did not take part in the Ratline experience as an upperclassman. Instead, he and his roommates soon become known as “rat daddies” among the rats in barracks. As an English major at VMI, he became involved with tKljc Cnbet and rose to the position o f editor his first class year. Daniels was also named valedictorian of his class. After graduating from VMI, Daniels was accepted to Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He went on to earn a master’s degree in English, but as a strongly religious person, Daniels soon lost interest in his studies and instead attended seminary school. In 1965 he heeded the call of Martin Luther King, Jr. to come down to the Deep South to help with the struggle for desegregation. Daniels’ journey would take him to the small town of Selma, Alabama, and his violent death. While in Selma, By Magnus Nordenman Cabct Managing Editor Daniels got involved in student protests and the picketing of local companies that refused to do business with African-Americans. Daniels left accounts of his work in Selma in his diaries that remain to this day. Reverend Daniels with Ruby Salesi “After a week-long, rain-soaked vigil, we still stood face-to-face with the Selma police. I stood, for a change, in the front rank, ankle-deep in an enormous puddle.. .1 found myself only inche s from a young policeman...We matched baleful glances and then both looked away...One of my friends asked [the young policeman] for his name. His name was Charlie. When we sang for him, he blushed and then smiled in a truly sacramental mixture of embarrassment and pleasure and shyness. Soon the young policeman looked relaxed, we all lit cigarettes (in a couple of instances, from a common match), and small groups o f kids and policemen clustered to joke or talk cautiously about the situation. It was thus a shock later to look across the rank at the clergymen and their opposites, who glared across a still unbroken ‘wall’ in what appeared to be silent hatred,” Daniels wrote of one of his encounters with the authorities in Selma. Daniels and a few other civil-rights activists were arrested on August 14, 1965 for picketing three local businesses. They were released six days later and found their way to a local drug store. The group o f newly freed activists went into the store to buy sodas. However, the owner of the store, Tom Coleman, approached the group waving a shotgun. After making threats he leveled the shotgun at Ruby Sales, a young A f r i c a n - American girl in the group. D a n i e l s pushed Sales out of the way and caught the full blast of the shotgun in his chest. Daniels died immediately. Coleman then called the S p o l ic e and stated, “I just shot a preacher. You need to get on down here.” Although Coleman confessed to the murder to the Selma police, he was prosecuted for manslaughter and was found innocent by the jury. As Coleman left the courtroom, the jury stayed beshind to shake his hand. King personally commented on the deeds of Daniels shortly after his death. “One of the most heroic Christian deeds of which I have heard in my entire ministry was performed by Jonathan Daniels,” Rev. King said upon hearing o f his death. “Certainly there are no incidents more beautiful in the annals of church history, and though we are grieved at this time, our grief should give way to a sense of Christian honor and nobility.” The Anglican Church considers Daniel to be one of only 15 modern-day martyrs. In 1997, the VMI Board-of-Visitors enacted the Jonathan Daniels Humanitarian Award. The first Continued on page 5 .. . .f. -iVA:'''- ; - ■'- -'s ^ "■ . ' ■ 5-' . • ' ' :: ■ , “Success^’. P i^ e n ti Prog^ss w : ,r, oiyv-f ^ Rugby ' ■ ’ ■ Cadet Captains Announced for ‘03 By Glenn Walton Cnbet Asst. News Editor The Commandant’s office finally posted the list for next year’s Corps leaders on Thursday. This list outlined the rising first class cadets chosen to hold the prestigious rank of cadet captain. Thisraii^s he^^^^ by onl^ the for rank. Through a process of peer evaluations and interviews by faculty members, 22 o f these cadets were ultimately chosen. These cadets are to be entrusted during the upcoming year with running the military operations of the - I f J iu ® »• ^ i VMPs Regimental Staff passes in review. top 2 percent of cadets in the Corps, and bestows the top responsibility for military leadership at VMI. Several weeks ago a list was compiled of the top 60 candidates for this rank out of all the members of the Class of 2003 who applied Corps, from the day-to-day to the larger and more significant events, such as the Governor’s Inauguration Parade that cadets participated in last January. That parade was coordinated, planned Continued on page 5 Maj. Stanton Smith: A Study in Chemistry By Dan Cragg Cnbct Layout Editor This semester there ginia where he earned his Ph.D., In organic chemistry. After graduating from U VA, he became a post-doctoral researcher for a small com-have been unprecedented reports of liberal arts majors happily making the trip past the cannon ball to a science elective. This strange occur- pany where he worked on a rence is largely due to one project for the US Army. man. Major Stanton Smith of the Chemistry Department, the instructor of the popular chemistry of warfare class. This is where his interest in chemical warfare d ev e loped. Although he could not comment on the specifics o f Smith originally comes from the project, he did say that a Fayetteville, Georgia but has large portion of it dealt with spent much time away from his home state. He attended the University of Central Florida where he received a a nerve agent. According to Smith, “the project was to make compounds that would act as a scavenger of nerve Maj. Gen. Richard L, Irbyr VMl^ tenth Siiperiutendentx passed a way on March. 6 in l^exington: tie was VMI Class of 1939 .and sdrVed as Superintendent. frotn 1 9 7 1 -1 9H/ . B.S. in chemistry and went agents.” on to the University of Vir- . Smith came directly to VMI upon concluding his work as a post-doctoral researcher in August of 1999. The majority of classes he teaches are the required Chemical Science courses for non-science majors, but he does sometimes get a chance to teach upper level courses like organic chemistry for chemistry and biology majors, or what he is teaching this semester, Special Topics in Chemistry: The Chemistry of Warfare. He says the idea came from his rat chemical science classes; “the cadets wanted a class on death and destruction.” Smith has surely delivered. The beginning of the class dealt largely with explosives and even included a demonstration o f thermite, but his Continued on page 5 Army Department Threatens Seconds ^ Scholarsh^s By Caliet Staff Writer On 28 February all contracted army cadets in their third year of military science , received an email entitled “Death Knell” by their MSIII branch chief, Maj. Timothy Lethers. This email addressed what Lethers felt was a sub par performance by the MSIII class as a whole. Lethers pointed out that their performance could jeopardize the scholjarships of those cadets possessing them. Although the letter did not address specific cadets, it did mention that the performance o f the Guaranteed Reserve/Guard Force cadets (cadets who have scholarships that require a National Guard/Reserve commitment after college) was especially sub-par. Major Lethers attributed this to the fact that these cadets were not competing for a branch of their choice in the active army, and therefore it was felt they could coast the rest of the year. This email seems to have been sparked in part by the performance of several MSIII cadets in the recent army land navigation exercise. The course was designed to test expert infantrymen. Many cadets complained that this course was beyond their current experience and skill level. The army cadre found many cadets quitting the course after several failed attempts, and even found a group of who had stripped the insides of their rifles to avoid having to clean them later (this practice would have been met with severe disciplinary action if the cadets were active duty soldiers.) Also, the army department cited an farming drop in PT scores within program. VMI went from being second in the nation in PT scores to a somewhere in the two hundreds. Currently Lethers has reorganized the entii-e MSIII chain o f command and Says that cadets should expect more disciplinary actions. The cadets had a Friday morning meeting with Col. William Faistenhammer, who verbally counseled the cadets, and stipulated that there must be a change in attitudes by the MSIIIs. Currently contracted cadets who have been unable to obtain a passing score were given an ultimatum: pass the APFT or lose your contract/scholarship. Also, the standards of morning PT has significantly increased recently. |