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.
