Alumni and Friends of VMI:
Cyber Corps Numbers: 577
More On Liddy: The following letter appeared
in the Washington Post fairly recently. It was authored by Scott
Reid '98. Considerable debate continues to rage among alumni
regarding Mr. Liddy's upcoming commencement address. If you;d
like to get a flavor of the debate, visit the Electronic
Turnouts. By the way, graduation will be held on May 15 and New
Market ceremony will be held on May 14.
A Blot On Our Standard Of Honor
By Scott Reid
"The present crisis---that dense and tangled forest of
controversy we call Watergate---seems to me, in its nature and
portent, the most serious in two hundred years’ history of
our Republic."
This was what Josiah Bunting had to say about Watergate when he
gave the commencement address at the Virginia Military Institute
in the summer of 1974.
Now, 25 years later, Bunting is Superintendent of VMI, and the
scheduled graduation speaker is Watergate conspirator G. Gordon
Liddy. The selection of Liddy as speaker has been criticized
recently by some in the VMI community, and rightly so. Liddy
orchestrated the Watergate burglary, in an effort to subvert the
most basic and fundamental part of our democracy---the election
process. VMI prides itself on its strict standard of honor. If
someone of such moral flexibility is allowed to speak at
graduation, that standard no longer exists.
"If Liddy were a cadet, he’d be dismissed from VMI for
violating our honor system," says Honor Court president and
graduating senior Joel Britt. The graduation speaker should be a
positive example for graduates, not a convicted felon.
The Watergate break-in was not Liddy’s first involvement in
an illegal act either. It was the culmination of a slew of shady
activities he took part in, dating back to the Pentagon Papers.
Liddy joined a special White House team (later dubbed the
Plumbers) formed to discredit Daniel Ellsberg, who had leaked the
Pentagon Papers to the press. He helped plan and supervise the
burglary of the office of Ellsberg’s psychiatrist. At one
point, Liddy suggested wiretapping The New York Times to find out
what Ellsberg had told them. Liddy even supported drugging
Ellsberg with LSD before he spoke at a fundraiser, to make him
look like a burned out drug addict.
Over the next year, the Plumbers performed a number of
"Dirty Tricks" to ensure Nixon’s reelection. Liddy
actually had a plan to silence any protesters at the Republican
convention by snatching protest leaders, drugging them, and
holding them hostage until after the convention.
He called the proposed kidnappings "Night and Fog", a
reference to the German "Nacht und Nebel", in which
people would suddenly disappear in the night, taken away by the
Gestapo as suspected dissidents. Liddy said it "would strike
fear into the hearts of the leftist guerrillas."
In a recent Washington Post article, Liddy said, "One of the
things that cadets will do when they are commissioned will be to
fight to protect the First Amendment, which entitles everyone to
have an opinion of me and protects my opinion. I respect their
opinion, and I hope they will respect my right to express
mine." This is almost comical coming from Liddy, who
repeatedly tried to suppress the First Amendment rights of those
whose opinions differed from his own.
Liddy is now the host of a syndicated radio talk show outside of
Washington D.C. It is a right-wing version of the sort of gonzo
journalism that has swept the country in recent years. Would
cadets have chosen Howard Stern or Jerry Springer to speak at
graduation? Actually, yes, they just might have. Most cadets don’t
take the selection of graduation speaker too seriously. In the
early 80's, one VMI class voted for John Wayne to speak at
graduation, who had been dead for a number of years. Many of the
seniors I know are indifferent about who the speaker is. They’re
busy enough worrying about graduating. Supporters of Liddy's
selection have told me, although they dont condone what he did,
they think he’ll give a good speech. Well, Hitler gave a
good speech, but I wouldn’t want him as graduation speaker.
The majority of cadets I’ve spoken with admitted they didn’t
even know who Liddy was before his selection. Most of those who
did know of him, only knew him for his radio show. Watergate
happened before many of them were even born. Over the years, the
term "Watergate" has come to include all of the
criminal activities that led up to the burglary. So, it is not
surprising that the few cadets who knew about Liddy’s
involvement in Watergate, including myself, were ignorant of his
actions aside from the break-in.
Liddy’s selection was a fluke. He became a candidate for
speaker because of his popularity among some seniors who listened
to his radio show. Seniors were given a ballot, in which they
rated the seven candidates from their most favorite to their
least favorite. So, a senior’s first choice received more
weight than his second choice, and so on. Anthony Scalia, the
only Supreme Court Justice to vote against VMI going co-ed, was
senior’s first choice by this method of calculation. Former
astronaut Senator John Glenn came in second. Chuck Yeager, the
man that broke the sound barrier, placed third. . . .Convicted
Watergate burglar, G. Gordon Liddy, was fourth. When Scalia
declined, Liddy was the next person asked for two reasons. First,
he was the easiest to contact. Also, despite ranking fourth
overall, Liddy actually received the most votes as senior’s
first choice. His selection by a small following of cadets who
listen his show, gave him a plurality of votes that no other
candidate had. He accepted the invitation, waiving his standard
lecturing fee of $15000. Since Liddy had already been invited,
school administrators said rescinding the invitation would
reflect badly on VMI.
Allowing Liddy to speak will damage VMI’s image more than
removing him possibly could. In fact, Liddy’s removal as
speaker is all we can do, at this point, to repair the damage
already done to VMI’s reputation by his selection. We made a
mistake in choosing Liddy as speaker. We make a bigger mistake in
not admitting our error and correcting it. If Liddy gives this
year’s commencement address, we appear to be advocating
every illegal action he has ever committed, and every offensive
comment he has ever made.
In his speech to the Class of 1974, Bunting described the kind of
men, and now women, VMI strives to produce. "Men who tell
the truth, men who do not hate or despise those whose opinions
differ from their own, men of charity and pride and integrity. .
. . These standards are needed more desperately now than they
have been at any time in the history of the Republic. They must
be the standards of us all."
In letting Liddy speak at graduation, we are abandoning these
standards as irrelevant and impractical in today’s society.
Scott Reid 98'
Dyke Etiquette: I've learned that there have been concerns raised about how the First Class is treating their dykes. So, an eight pamphlet has been put together (Dyke's Guidelines" that addresses such topics as expectations, responsibilities of the First Class, responsibilities of rats, procedure for changing dykes, etc. Apparently this booklet has been around for a number of years. In addition on April 22 about 17 alumni were invited to attend a half-day orientation presentation on the dyke system. These alumni will return during the first week of the fall semester to meet with groups of cadets to discuss the dyke system. I think this is something akin to a dyke school.
Employment Opportunity:
Paul Van Doren '74 at SAIC has two telecommunications jobs open.
One is for immediate hire and the other is for 'recruit only'.
The immediate hire is for a Communication Engineer. The other is
a network engineer/administrator. Both positions work out of the
office (Skyline complex) in the vicinity of Baileys Crossroads,
VA, a part of the Washington DC metro area. This work is
primarily associated with a DoD healthcare data warehouse &
data mart system that is already nationwide and about to go
OCONUS. This work is being accomplished in an Integrated
Contractor Team environment - nothing that a VMI couldn't handle.
I will steer anyone who is interested to the official HR channels
that supervise the SAIC hiring actions. paul.h.van.doren@cpmx.saic.com
or 703.824.5933.
Resume' of the Week: Please see the attached
resume' from Mike McDaniel '87. Mike is presently with Intel and
looking to get back east. Thanks.
The Premier Service: The following appeared
in the Electronic Turnouts. I thought everyone would get a good
laugh from it.
For all those who've sometimes been unclear which Service is best
. .
Gene Rice '74.
A soldier, a sailor, and an airman got into a fight about which
Service was the best. The fight was so heated that they killed
each other.
Soon they found themselves in Heaven. They were still arguing
about which Service was best when all of a sudden they see St.
Peter walk by. They all turn to Peter and ask him the question,
"Which branch of Service is the best?" Peter replied,
"I can't answer that but I'll ask God what He thinks the
next time I see him."
Some time later the three see Peter again and ask him if he was
able to find out the answer. Suddenly a dove landed on Peter's
shoulder. The dove was carrying a note in its beak. Peter opened
the note and read it out loud to the three fellows.
Gentlemen:
All the branches of the Service are honorable and noble.
Each one of you served your country well.
Be proud of that.
God, USMC retired
Update on VMI Sports:
FROM THE AD PAGE:
1999 VMI FOOTBALL SIGNEES (As of 4/20/99)
Name Pos. Ht. Wt. Hometown, VA/ High School
Brent Barth QB/P 6-1 190 Scottsdale, AZ/ Hargrave Military
Skip Carleton DL 6-4 275 Powatan, VA/ Fork Union Military
Ian Dyche LB 6-1 230 Reston, VA/ Bishop O'Connell
Craig Howard DL 6-3 275 Farmville, VA/ Fork Union
Brendan Kearney OL 6-2 250 Williamsburg, VA/ Lafayette
Matthew Kluk DL 6-2 230 Darnestown, MD/ Quince Orchard
Robert Mittelstadt RB 6-2 225 Garden City, SC/ Socastee
Deangelo Plather DB 6-0 175 Augusta, GA/ Hephzibah
Andy Reel TE/WR 6-3 200 Lexington, VA/ Virginia Episcopal
Eric Satterfield RB 5-11 205 Pennington Gap, VA/ Lee County
Justin Sayko DB 6-0 195 Virginia Beach, VA/ Hargrave Military
Kevin Solomon RB/DB 6-0 175 Hopewell, VA/ Hopewell
Edward Vaughns DB 5-10 160 Winston Salem, NC/ North Forsyth
Chris Walsh LB 6-3 215 Lima, OH/ Bath
Matt Van Wie OL 6-2 260 Myrtle Beach, SC/ Myrtle Beach
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WESTERN CAROLINA SWEEPS VMI WITH 7-4 VICTORY
April 25, 1999
LEXINGTON, Va. -- A pair of runs in both the sixth and seventh
innings propelled Western Carolina to a 7-4 victory over VMI, in
baseball action Sunday afternoon at VMI's Patchin Field, giving
the Catamounts a sweep of the Keydets in the three-game Southern
Conference series.
WCU (27-15-1, 13-6 Southern) won Saturday's game 18-5, and 10-4.
The Catamounts took a two-run lead in the first inning, when
Chris Moore's sac fly to centerfield scored Eric Johnson from
third, and a VMI fielding error getting the ball back into the
infield allowed Charles Thomas to score from second.
VMI (20-21, 12-14) posted one run in the bottom of the first, and
took the lead in the second when Eric East (Salem, Va./Glenvar)
scored on a wild pitch, and Stephen Johnson (Marshall,
Va./Fauquier) was plated on Ed Pearson's (Hampton, Va./Bethel)
sacrifice fly to short. The Keydets expanded their lead to 4-2 in
the fifth inning, when Eric Walker (Union Hall, Va./Franklin Co.)
was scored on Michael Goldman's sacrifice to right field.
However Western Carolina tied the game with two runs in the sixth
Ð the first coming on a solo shot on by Moore to leadoff the
inning. Morgan Frazier reached on a single, and was later driven
home by Steve Harris.
The go-ahead runs for WCU were posted in the seventh, when Eric
Johnson and Thomas reached on an HBP and single respectively, and
came around to score on consecutive walks issued to Frazier,
Charlie Wands, and Harris.
WCU starter Brad House was chased in the second inning, but
Catamount reliever Aaron Kirby scattered six hits and fanned four
Keydets to pick up the win. VMI starter Chris Riley (Poquoson,
Va./Poquoson) took the loss for the Keydets.
VMI concludes its Southern Conference slate of games next Friday,
April 30, and Saturday, May 1, with games against UNC Greensboro,
in Greensboro, N.C.
-------------
TEN KEYDETS NAMED ALL-CONFERENCE
AT SOCON TRACK CHAMPIONSHIPS
Quez Smith wins long jump and triple jump events for VMI
April 26, 1999
LEXINGTON, Va. -- Freshman Quez Smith (Virginia Beach, Va./Salem)
won two events, and nine other Keydet track and field performers
garnered all-conference honors at the 1999 Southern Conference
Outdoor Track and Field Championships, held Friday, April 23, and
Saturday, April 24, in Johnson City, Tenn.
Smith won the men's long jump with a jump of 24' 4-1/2", and
also took top honors in the triple jump behind and effort of 49'
2-1/4".
Sophomore Phil Weismiller (Newport News, Va./Warwick) was the
only other VMI performer to take first place in an event.
Weismiller won the javelin with a throw of 187' 6".
Sophomore Kenny Carmichael (Richmond, Va./Prince George) took
All-Southern Conference honors in the 400m dash and the 400m
intermediate hurdles. Carmichael was second in the 400m dash with
a time of 48.17 seconds, while his time in the hurdles was 53.06
seconds.
In the field events, senior Jordan Brandon (Chesapeake, Va./Great
Bridge) earned all-conference distinction in two events Ð the
shot put and the hammer throw. Brandon's longest throw in the
shot was 49' 3", while his best effort in the hammer was
165' 6". Junior Jason White (John's Island, S.C./St. John's)
was also named All-SC in two events; White finished third in the
discus with a throw of 146' 5", and third in the hammer with
160' 1".
The VMI team in the 4 x 100m relay finished with all-conference
distinction, after finishing second with a time of 41.64 seconds.
Running in the 4 x 100m for the Keydets were Smith, Jeff McKelvin
(Randallstown, Md./Randallstown), James Yarborough (Hampton,
Va./Hampton), and Ken White (Asheville, N.C./A.C. Reynolds).
Freshman Martin Dickson (Salem, Va./Salem) took third place in
the decathlon competition, with 5332 points, to also be named
All-Southern Conference.
Overall, the men finished third out of 10 teams with 121 points.
Western Carolina won the meet with 213 pts., followed by
Appalachian State in second with 154 pts.
In the women's competition, sophomore Angela Myers (Virginia
Beach, Va./Princess Anne) became only the second female athlete
at VMI to earn All-SC honors, with her third place finish in the
hammer throw. Myers' best throw in the competition was 130'
4".
The women's team finished seventh overall out of 10 teams, with
29 points. Western Carolina won with 275.5 pts., followed by
Appalachian State (1919), East Tennessee State (102.5),
Chattanooga (94), Furman (50), Davidson (32), and VMI (29).
------
KWON RECEIVES SOUTHERN CONFERENCE
TENNIS SPORTSMANSHIP AWARD
April 19, 1999
LEXINGTON, Va. -- Senior tennis player Jae Kwon (Midlothian,
Va./Midlothian) was presented with the Southern Conference's
Buddy Hartzell Sportsmanship Award, at the league's honors dinner
on Thursday, April 15, 1999 in Spartanburg, S.C.
The honors dinner was held in conjunction with the start of the
Southern Conference Tennis Tournament, which began Wednesday,
April 14, at Wofford College.
"I don't think they could've picked a more outstanding and
worthy young man," said Head Coach Bruce Harrison. "Jae
was certainly at the top of the Southern Conference in class.
He'll certainly be missed next year, not only as a player, but as
a leader and friend to us all."
Kwon completed the season with a 7-21 overall record, with a 6-17
mark at #1 singles. Kwon teamed up with Tom Huffman (Richmond,
Va./St. Christopher's) and Chris Lowrance (Lexington, Ind./Silver
Creek) to post a 15-12 overall mark in doubles play, with a 10-7
record at #2 doubles.
Renovations At The Institute: Seems that Scott
Ship Hall is undergoing a major renovation. Nichols Engineering
Building is next on the list.
That's it for this week.
RB Lane '75
Last Updated: October 11, 2009
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