Classmate Update

Posted on March 17th, 2008 by Alex

Paul Carron sent me a note a week or two ago. He’s married to a Charlotte girl who keeps him in line, and they just had their first little one. Madeline Elisabeth Carron was born 16 January 2008 at Fort Benning, GA.

Also, to round out this update, here’s something on a 99er that I stumbled upon when I was looking around the USMA website:

Uptgraft named MacArthur Award winner

(reprinted from The Pointer View)

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Department of the Army announced the winners of the Gen. Douglas MacArthur Leadership Award for calendar year 2007 Tuesday.

Captain James W. Uptgraft (Class of 1999), an instructor in the Department of Military Instruction at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, is one of the 28 company grade officers, including three other academy graduates who were named.

“I am extremely honored to be recognized as a MacArthur Leadership Award winner,” Uptgraft said Wednesday.

Other academy graduates were Capts. Christopher J. Demure (Class of ’00), James T. Golby (’01) and Edward E. Kennedy (’00).

The MacArthur award is given annually to Army officers — active, Guard and Reserve — who exhibit extraordinary leadership abilities and embody the ideals embraced by MacArthur. Criteria for the award include the ability to motivate others, understand fellow Soldiers and inspire commitment, teamwork and esprit de corps.

The award states that “these officers epitomize the ideals for which Gen. Douglas MacArthur stood: Duty, Honor and Country.”

The MacArthur Leadership Award program is jointly sponsored by the Army and the General Douglas MacArthur Foundation.

The awards will be given in Washington in May.

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USMA Visit II

Posted on March 7th, 2008 by Alex

Caufield Crew and Sailing Center

If you haven’t been back ina few years, you definately haven’t seen the new crew and sailing center. I never had the pleasure of visiting the old one, but I doubt it holds a candle to the new facility. We weren’t able to get into Caufield while we were there, but if the inside is anywhere near the fit and finish of the outside, it has to be a palace. As you can see from the picture below, there’s essentially two buildings. The one on the left may even have two levels to it. I’m assuming by the four overhead doors that the main level is used for boat storage. Who knows — the way things are going they might have an entire amusement park in there. It’s hard to believe there wasn’t even internet access in the barracks when we showed up, isn’t it? Of course, I’m sure there’s some 40’s grad out there saying “It’s hard to believe we didn’t even have running water in the barracks, isn’t it?” As long as there’s a grad one year older than the graduating class, you’ll always hear “the corps has”. Bottom line — nice building.

Anderson Rugby Complex

That’s right. A Rugby complex. Complete with interior and exterior viewing areas, two lit playing fields, home and visitor locker rooms, weight room, cardio room, and who knows what else. Again, we weren’t able to get into the building, but it looks nice from the outside and the fields were impeccable. It’s down by the Hudson (near North or Target Hill Athletic fields — I can’t remember which was which). I know for some of you hard-core ‘99ers there can be no replacement for a Saturday afternoon Rugby match on the concrete pitch that is Buffalo-Soldier Field, but I think you could learn to appreciate the new digs given enough time. Maybe a microsecond or two. Lee and Penny Anderson did this up right, that’s for sure.

Well that’s it for this update. More tours to follow.

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