Impact of West Point Prep School (USMAPS) on Class of 1961
December 2022 Jim Oaks would like our ZOOM sessions to be built around the
members of our class who reported to the Man in the Red Sash on July 2, 1957 who
had been at
Stewart Air Field in Newburgh, NY at the USMA Prep School..
Ed Brown, who was one of the 90 new cadets who reported from the Prep
School that day, tells me that 38 of them graduated in 1961, two more in 1962
and one actually graduated from the Naval Academy in 1964.
Ed and Art Downey will lead the session and they will try to contact
as many of that group as possible to join in.
I’m looking forward to our Zoom about the Prep School next week. Ed
Brown has sent me a couple of items that I will attach and you will enjoy if you
have time to read them. Please at least look at the “USMAPS Class of
1957 Statistics”.
If you read the two part article from the 1975 Assembly (USMAPS
History 1 &
USMAPS History 2)
you may be
surprised to learn that the Prep School had its beginning during WW I, and that
between WW I and WW II there were separate schools within the different Corps
Areas in the US.
Starting in 1946 the school consolidated at Stewart Air Field in
Newburgh, NY and that was where our classmates attended. In 1957 the school moved to Fort
Belvoir, VA, then to Fort Monmouth, NJ in 1975 and then to the nice facility at
West Point in 2011.
Ed Brown suggested I read John Purdy’s entry in the 50th
Reunion “Howitzer.” If you don’t know John’s story of resigning his commission
as an Army officer in order to attend the Prep School and then come to West
Point, you should read it too.
Here is the audio of John Purdy’s comments. He covers the
time he stayed in the Army, but did not cover his time after he got out which
would have been equally interesting. I will break it into
two parts to be sure
you all get it.
Since John had been a Lieutenant before coming to the Prep School, he
was made the Company Commander of the class at Prep School. He was assigned to
F-1 at West Point after Beast. John is currently the second oldest of their
group, second only to Kermit McGinnis. (Bill Reno is the oldest among those who
graduated from West Point.)
John Purdy
I spent some time with Ed Brown and Art Downey today planning the
format for the session and after we finished Art contacted COL Rich Johnson who
is the present Commandant at USMAPS and he agreed to join the zoom for an update
on the present day school.
When we were cadets, and even until recently, I did not realize how
many in our plebe year class had been at USMAPS. We only had two, Ron Hannon and
Durb Wagner in our company (I-2). I will attach two files that Ed sent that show
where all were assigned. It looks like F-2 had the most with eight.
USMAPS '57 Data - Alphabetical or
USMAPS '57 Data - USMA Company. Among other things, I was impressed by the percentage that
made the Army a career.
Here is a link to a bio of Col Rick Johnson who is the current
USMAPS Com.
https://www.westpoint.edu/usmaps/profile/rick_johnson
Today’s zoom was one of the best. I will provide more thoughts and info later,
but I wanted to get out
Col Rick Johnson’s talk. He is the
commander of the Prep School (USMAPS) at West Point.
Here is a shot of Col Johnson.
Here are just a few things you will learn from the talk. The present
class started with 223. The school has a capacity for 245. Of the 223, 38 came
from the Army with prior enlisted service. They are recruiting more, but there
is stiff competition. The instructors and coaches are GS employees, not
military. Col. Johnson’s direct boss is the West Point Superintendent. About
half the entrants are recruited athletics with most coming directly from high
school. Also about half the entrants (not all athletes) are from unrepresented
minority groups.
Yesterday’s zoom attendance was one of the largest. The screen shot from the
start of Col. Johnson’s briefing included the following, going from top row
down:
Art Downey, Jim Oaks, J B Taylor, Corkie Rittgers, John Grisoni, Ed Jones;
Warren Miller, Bill Reno (no picture), Gene Witherspoon, Ken Meissner, Mike
Harpold (from Alaska), Steve Denney; Ed Barry, John Purdy, John Cornelson,
Frenchy Hebert, Brian Schultz, Jim Mathison; Mike Underwood, Mike Hale, Pete
Gleichenhaus, Rick Johnson (USMAPS), Bob Bernard, Joe Stringham; Deac Lancaster,
David Delwiche, Ed Brown, Larry Noble, (another devise of Bob Bernard’s, Andrew
(not sure who this was); Al (I think Vanderbush) on the bottom line. Later Moose
Harmon logged in and I think that was everyone.
Of this group, Downey, Taylor, Rittgers, Grisoni, Reno, Meissner,
Harpold, Purdy, Cornelson, Hebert, Underwood and Brown were former members of
the last class of USMAPS that trained at Stewart AFB in Newburgh and entered
West Point on 2 July, 1957.
Downey selected the following guys to talk about their experiences
both at the prep school and their years after:
Purdy (who had been their CO at
Stewart), Taylor & Reno,
Grisoni,
Hebert and
Harpold & Brown. I will send the
Q and A after Col. Johnson finished his briefing.
John Grisoni
The files I sent
last night of JB Taylor and Bill Reno represented the outstanding achievement
made by two of the Prep Schoolers who graduated from West Point. The others that
Art chose to talk left the Academy for one reason or another. Their stories are
quite compelling as well. We will start with a guy who, as Art said in his
introduction, had given back to West Point on a level greater than many of us
grads.
This one is shorter, but the “after West Point” career of Frenchy
Hebert (below) was certainly neither short nor dull. It will probably leave you
wanting to ask him questions.
Frenchy
Hebert
I did not have time to insert JB Taylor’s picture yesterday, so I will
send it now along with a story about him that Gene Witherspoon sent me today. (I
think Gene may be one of our class’s top story tellers.)
JB Taylor
Here is a JB Taylor story that would have taken too long for verbal inclusion in
our session on Thursday:
My only contact with JB during our military careers was in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
circa 1991 shortly after the end of the 100 hour Gulf War called Desert Storm.
JB was the top dog or Project Manager for OPM SANG which stood for Office of
Project Manager, Saudi Arabian National Guard. His outfit advised the Saudi
National Guard which was entirely separate from the Ministry of Defense &
Aviation with different princes in charge – Abdullah (later King) for SANG and
Sultan for the other. I commanded the Transatlantic Engineer Division charged
with mission to clean up the mess (emergency restoration) in Kuwait after the
war. Transatlantic Division had evolved from the Middle East Division of the
Corps of Engineers which was in country for about 30 years and built most of the
Saudi military infrastructure on a fully cost reimbursable basis.
JB and Sally had me for dinner in their Riyadh villa which was rigged with a
safe room in case of chemical attack as I recall. Having last been in Saudi
when stationed there with the Middle East Division in 82-84, I had forgotten the
traditional Saudi greeting between men of a kiss on each cheek. Thought JB was
getting fresh when he tried the local greeting. The Saudi guys also hold hands
which for some was off-putting. Anyway, JB & Sally’s son was in a Desert Storm
combat unit and Sally was vocal in worrying about his safety. When I opined
that she probably wasn’t that upset about JB being in Vietnam, her reply was
something along the lines that “it’s different when it’s a son!” I guess that
means you were dispensable, JB?
This is Mike Harpold, who lives
in Alaska, and Ed Brown who summarizes some numbers about the Prep School Class
of ‘56-’57.
Mike Harpold
Ed Brown
Since I’m adding mug shots, I need to show the man who pulled this zoom together
and set up the interviews, Art Downey. Thanks, Art, for a great job! Many of
these Prep School guys plan to attend the Orlando reunion in January, so if you
also attend you can probably get some more stories that were not told last week.
Art Downey
