Coastal Georgia-A Rich Military History

 

Visit Georgia's Coastal Empire, a community with a rich military history.  Hinesville, the gateway to Fort Stewart, is the home of Lee Donne Olvey, USMA '55, King of the Beasts and First Captain.  Fort Stewart is the home of the 3rd Infantry Division.  Hunter Army Airfield in Savannah,an Air Corps/Air Force base from the 40s to the late 60s, is the home of the 3rd ID's aviation assets; the 3rd Bn, 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment; the 1st Bn, 75th Ranger Regiment; the 224th MI Bn (AE); and the USCG Air Station.  Savannah is also home to the USCG Marine Safety Office, USCG Station Tybee, and the Savannah District of the Corps of Engineers.  Finally, the Savannah/Hilton Head Airport is home to the 165th Airlift Wing of the Georgia Air National Guard.

If you consider all of the State of Georgia, the contribution to our Nation's military history is even greater. One bit of Georgia military history that has not received the deserved national attention is the list of USMA grads who were born in Georgia.  The West Point Society of Savannah wanted to get the names of all of Georgia's graduates to be included in our bicentennial book "Entwined Destinies-West Point and the Coastal Empire 1802-2002" by James Mack Adams, an AOG Friend of West Point.  The names of those born in Georgia from the first in the Class of 1815 through the Class of 2002 were included in the book. Those from the Class of 1958 born in Georgia are:
George Robertson, Bill Parks, Tony Nadal, Harold JM Williams, Ed Dodd, Frank Bowen, Edward J Burke, Dick Reidy, Milt Wofford, Linc Jones, Clyde Brown, Dick Beyea, John Herren, Barrie Williams, Pete Bahnsen, Charlie Moore, and Dick Bauchspies.  Sam Collins is the only member of USMA 1958 who received a nomination from Georgia but was not born here.

 

Something missing in the book is a list of those from the Class of 1958 who were neither born in Georgia nor received their nominations from Georgia but claim Georgia as their home.  Perhaps we will have our classmates that fall into that category identify themselves at the class dinner on May 16, 2006.

To learn more of the military history of Georgia and its Coastal Empire and how that history is intertwined with that of the US Military Academy, you may want to order a copy of the book "Entwined Destinies-West Point and the Coastal Empire 1802-2002" from the society's website at www.west-point.org/society/wps-savannah.  The proceeds of the book sales help support our program, the Travis Award for Excellence, that recognizes outstanding high school juniors and our annual Coastal Empire Conference on Ethics, directed toward high school juniors and educators.