"You remembered your first day [and] your last day. Everything in between was a blur."
That's how Ken O'Sullivan recalls his cadet experience at the United States Military Academy at West Point in the early 1960s. The Long Gray Line—a phrase used to symbolize centuries of academy graduates—was more an idea than a feeling fostered among cadets. The few graduates O'Sullivan recalls encountering during his days at West Point were instructors or administrators at the New York institution.
But that's changing, he says, in part through the West Point Association of Graduates' 50-Year Affiliation Program.
"The academy wants you to see the Long Gray Line in everything you do," O'Sullivan says.
West Point established its 50-Year Affiliation Program in the mid-1990s, when the academy and its alumni association expanded interaction between cadets and graduates. Several institution leaders, including General John Abizaid, West Point's commandant at the time, recognized the importance of involving alumni when cadets reached key milestones.
"There has always been cadet-alumni interaction during homecoming and the alumni exercises [before graduation and commissioning as officers], but there had not been as many opportunities for developing personal relationships as the affiliation program has accomplished," says Lt. Col. Jim Johnston, the Association of Graduates' vice president for alumni support.
West Point's affirmation ceremonyWest Point's 50-Year Affiliation Program is similar to the U.S. Naval Academy's Another Link in the Chain program in its basic functions. Representatives of the alumni class are expected to host a Reception Day event to speak with the parents of incoming West Point cadets. They provide speakers for significant academy traditions, such as the affirmation ceremony (when cadets renew their commitment to the Army) and the branch-notification ceremony (when fourth-year cadets learn what part of the Army they will join after graduation). The alumni also present a class flag to the cadets.
When O'Sullivan's Class of 1963 began its relationship with the academy's Class of 2013, the alumni were invited to work with West Point's William E. Simon Center for the Professional Military Ethic. The center recruits members of the 50-Year Affiliation Program's alumni classes to serve as guest leaders of seminars that cadets needed to attend. The seminars cover important but difficult-to-articulate academy values such as honor and leadership. Alumni help stimulate discussions with the cadets, using real-life examples from their academy days and as soldiers and military and civilian leaders.
O'Sullivan enjoyed watching initially hesitant cadets deepen their relationships with alumni as they progressed through the academy.
"Once these young men and women get past their first year, when everything they're doing is scrutinized, they open up—whether it's about the seminar subject matter or more personal things," he says. "Some of my classmates were like a dad to these cadets."
The combination of traditional 50-Year Affiliation Program highlights and involvement in the Simon Center's seminars was "a great shot in the arm" for the Class of 1963, O'Sullivan says. "We were trying to do something for the cadets, but I think we got as much out of it as they did. Maybe even more."
Photos: USMA cadets and alumni from their 50-Year Affiliation Program class gather often throughout the cadets' time at West Point. Highlights include the affirmation ceremony (top and middle photo), when cadets receive honor coins (bottom) from the alumni class, and the Ring Melt ceremony (bottom photo) when several alumni-donated rings are melted to become part of the younger class's mementos.
(Publication and photography credits courtesy of CASE Currents Magazine)