T is for The Thin Grey Line

Having looked at our own ceremonials this morning, let's look at someone else's this afternoon, with some undated, unaccredited stuff from the archive, I believe it will date around 1950-54, from the other stuff that came with it, although the article would appear to say 1952 precisely! And it may be a syndicated piece from a Floridian paper of the time.

Coming from a lifetime in Florida's Keyes has resulted in humidity/damp damage to the pages- as a pink staining

Text reads . . .

The Colorful Kaydets

Realistic figurines, here pictured for the first

time, form pageant of West Point uniforms

IN HONOR of West Point’s sesqui-

centennial,  which  is  being  cele-

brated  this  year,  a  series  of  21

small   military   figures  has  just

been completed, to show changes in

the  U.  S.  Military Academy’s uni-

forms since the first was adopted 150

years ago.  Standing  approximately

10^[*^] inches in height, the little cadets

took more than a year to make. They

were originally sculptured by T. H.

Jones of the Heraldic Branch of the

Quartermaster General’s office in

Washington, D. C. Later, they were

cast in plaster, and then meticulously

hand-painted by two of the Branch’s

artists, Jack Ocenasek and Jackson

Buchanan.  Often,  because  of the

plaster’s porosity, the painters had to

apply several coats to make details

stand out realistically. Following its

unveiling at the West Point Museum,

the collection is slated to be sent on

a tour of other museums. Ultimately

it  will  be  returned  to  the  Point,

where it will be a permanent exhibit.

NEWS COLORFOTOS BY ROBERT CRANSTON. DANIEL JACINO AND FRANK LIVIA

. . . * Ten inches is approximately 260mm

Text reads . . .

Here's [the] uniform [that] U.S.M.A.s

first grad [uate], Joseph Gardner

Swift of Massachusetts, wore

in 1802. It was patterned

after those of engineer offi-

cers in [the] Revolutionary War.

PAGE 4

Text reads . . .

Between West Point's original 1802 dress uniform (below, left [now above]) and the

current 1952 one (below right [now just 'below']), these uniforms were worn, at one time

or another, by Academy cadets. Their dates are respectively (l to r.)

1814, 1825, 1840, 1840, 1857, 1875, 1886, 1890, 1899, 1220 and 1930

. . . the 1899 looks surprisingly 'Confederate'!

Text reads . . .

Today, cadets have special uniforms for various occasions. Left to right:

Summer full-dress "50/50"; Summer chapel attire ([model/model's painting?] to be revised because

of inaccuracies); hop manager; all-white; lst sgt. in dress gray; sgt. in

"50/50"; officer of the day in "f. d. gray"; yearling in overcoat with cape.

I presume (like 'assuming' but using the circumstantial evidence in the text!) that they are still to be seen in a cabinet at West Point's museum/visitor centre somewhere; has anybody seen them? I also bet the current wardrobe at West Point differs greatly from that of 1952!

While I am on the subject; I can't recommend The Long Grey Line by Rick Atkinson highly enough, along with Chickenhawk (Robet Mason) and the one by a tracked-carrier officer I can't remember; it is one of the seminal memoirs of that era, helping to explain not only the Vietnam conflict (as the other pair do) but also the mess of the mid-to-late 1970's that may well have contributed to the truck-bomb catastrophe in Lebanon a few years (1983) later.