Raw emotions energized the moment as an ample number of shared memories synergized the atmosphere in reflecting on a 39-year military career and 43 years since arriving at the U.S. Military Academy. In honoring an exceptional and genuine person and a unique professional experience, the Corps of Cadets bid farewell and celebrated the Dean of the Academic Board Brig. Gen. Cindy Jebb with a Corps Farewell Banquet April 15 at the Cadet Mess Hall.
The evening was a retrospect of an expansive legacy that began in 1978 as a member of the third class of women accepted to West Point. Her story expounded on a career that included field research in Africa, working at the National Security Agency, study projects in Afghanistan and Iraq, serving as a senior advisor to the Chief of the Office of Security Cooperation-Iraq, the head of the Department of Social Sciences to becoming the first female and 14th Dean of the Academic Board at USMA in June 2016.
After Jebb retires from the military next month, she will become the fifth president of Ramapo College of New Jersey, not too far from her childhood home of New City, New York, in Rockland County.
However, before she moves onto her next venture in life, Jebb received several acknowledgements and had a chance to remember and give many thanks to everyone who helped shape her into the academic stalwart she is today during the farewell banquet.
Before Jebb’s speech, a handful of speakers set the stage beginning with the Commandant of Cadets Brig. Gen. Curtis A. Buzzard.
Buzzard, who is the third commandant to work with Jebb since she became dean, first met her about eight years ago when she was the SOSH Department head and he attended a Senior Leaders Conference at West Point, which was a conference to discuss national security challenges. Full story.