Virginia Military Institute - Bomb Yearbook (Lexington, VA)

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presidential inaugural parade, unquestioning response to natural dangers — forest fires, a truly remarkable growth in the quality of academic instruction and extra- curricular activity, a remarkable improvement in the appearance of the Cadet Corps (if not in spiri t and atti- tude), a modest number of Rhodes, Fulbright, and Wilson scholars, thirty-five per cent of its members named distinguished military or air science students, and a greater centralization of authority in the First Class, vis-a-vis, of course, the rest of the Corps. With all these pleasant recollections, perhaps the most worthwliile will prove to be the recollection of shared hardship and brotherhood. Men do net like to be manipulated for what they are told is their own good; but there is this to consider: are we always, at this junc- ture in our lives, capable of determining just precisely what our actions should be within the milieu of a system with which we have perhaps not enough objective famil- iarity to understand. Most of us profess a callow agnos- ticism, but will we ever be exposed to religious precept by choice. ' Regimented religion, as the order of the day, wins few disciples — maybe later in life. The transient, but passionate, embitterment will wear off. We know it ; its effect will not. There is a lesson to be learned from the experience; all problems must be accorded objective analysis, not, perhaps, within their immediate context, but as fragments of a larger, more inclusive picture, a larger framework of experience. The Class of 196, ' 3 will disperse to the winds. Its contribution to the VINII — measured in terms of what it has learned within its spartan walls — will have to be measured in terms of what it achieves later. Certainly, we will admit that dynamic action has not been our forte. The conflict between the formative first year and the new order of the succeeding three has created some hesitation in an environment given to conservative tenets. It re- mains for the Class of 1963 to demonstrate that the hesi- tation, doubt, and ten.sion are not permanent fixtures, but a transient portion of life ' s experience. Uh • HER- FAME ■ AND ■ READY- IN ■ EVERY- TIM TO- VINDICATE -HE9,| ONOjl|0 DEFEND iggr2 ? -»v J SSPfF '

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iy jiJULikjiii Seated: J. Bunting. J. H. Storm, P. E. Brunei, J. J. Miite, C. H. AVatson. Standing: G. il. Rapport, T. J. Snyder, W. A. Vells, O. E. Souder, L. L. Peters, J. F. Frosch, C. M. Walton, C. T. Sprouse. HONOR COURT njr- f Pierre E. Bbxtnel President The men in barracks with perhaps the most burdensome re- sponsibility to bear are the ones chosen by their classmates to rep- resent them on the Honor Court. After their selection, it becomes their duty to interpret and decide upon matters involving the Honor Code of the ' irginia Military Institute. To say that only the fourteen men pictured on this page rep- resent the Honor System would be facetious, for it has become, through inherited tradition, the duty of every member of the Corps to uphold and jealously guard each and every principle on which the Code is based. Although the rules set by the Court are basically sim|)le — a ])erson may not violate those principles considered honorable by the Corps — they iiave been so admirably observed that colleges throughout the United States have come to the VMI in hopes of finding out just how they might also initiate a similar system in their particular schools. To a query of this nature, the Court can only answer that such a network of honor cannot be started by a small group, rather it must be the sincere concern of the entire student body. It is, therefore, the duty of the Court not to serve as constables for the Corps, but to act as interpreters of the moral laws under which the Corps lives. The Honor Court is only the ai)ex of honor which finds its foundations in the honorable character of every cadet at the VMI.