Castle Heights Military Academy - Yearbook (Lebanon, TN)

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SENIOR CLASS ESCORT TO THE COLORS

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is setting over the blue foothills of the Cumberlands: the long gray- clad lines stretch silent and immovable: there is the blare of a bugle from up the field, and then the strains of the national anthem as the Colors slowly sink from the top of the gleaming white Hag-staff in the distance. ls there any wonder that the red-blooded boy loves the real military school? The program is changed, however, on Wednesday and Saturday afternoons. These are the recreation days. ln the afternoons all are free for outdoor games, for hikes and expeditions, for strolls to town and perhaps a visit to the motion picture house-all, that is, except those who have demerits. These spend the afternoon in walking extra duty, one hour for each demerit. On Saturday morning comes the most rigid inspection of the week, Hrst of quarters and then personally of the cadet under arms. The mother may well glance at the clock and think of her son at 10:30 A. Nl. Saturdays, but she will scarcely be able to dream of the incredible neatness of which her boy is now proving capable, or to conceive it possible that he should ever clean up a room to such an unbelievable degree of perfection. But he does, and he is proud of his accomplishment. lmagine yourself without a servant, and your son, having done all his own work, inviting you to enter, and challenging you to Hnd one handkerchief folded the wrong way, one messy spot in the soap-dish. one particle of trash on the floor, one book out of place, one drawer in disorder, one odd or end shoved out of sight, or one atom of dust any- where! Bu! me boy goes through this every week at Castle Heights. On Slfndays the cadets attend service in the Lebanon churches- Eiesbyterlan, Cumberland Presbyterian, Methodist, Baptist, or nstlan' Those Wh0 prove themselves faithful attendants on Sunday School leave the Hilltop earlier, and join the formation on the Squaff beffffe Chl1fCl1. Sunday afternoons are free, and for many yea-ff If has been the custom to encourage in the evening a Y. M. C. A. Servlce Conducted by the cadets themselves, a faculty officer assisting. Supper is Served at 6130 P. M., after which reports are answered 'to the Commandant or his assistant. At 7:20 another bugle sounds 77

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first call, and at 7:39 follows call to quarters, marking the beginning of a period which is perhaps scarcely possible to be duplicated in all school life outside that of the rigidly military institution. Before the last note of this bugle, your boy is in his quarters, to study until 9:40. The big buildings are quiet: the long halls deserted except for the figure, here and there, of a faculty officer or a cadet ofhcer on official duty. A glass panel is let into every door, and through these, as he passes along, the officer glances into each room. Should he enter, the occupants would have to stand at attention: but he does not interfere with their work. This is the study hour. Rarely does the officer disturb the cadets who are at work. And there is no visiting from room to room. For more than two uninterrupted hours your boy has absolute quiet in which to prepare his tasks of the morrow. At 9:40 a welcome bugle sets the cadets free. This, however, lasts but a few minutes, as at 9:50 a second call to quarters sounds, followed by taps at I0 o'clock. - And then-real silence. You may look at your clock at home and know that however quiet your sitting-room, it is no quieter than the surroundings in which your boy is going to sleep. Let the Officer of the Day's sabre clank a little as he goes from floor to floor on his final inspection: let the faculty'ofHcer's flashlight throw a lance of brightness across the bed-these are nothing to Castle Heights cadets. They have been through a full day, and another one will begin at 6:20 A. M. tomorrow. i MILITARY PERSONNEL While every faculty officer at Castle Heights is in uniform and all Cofffpefate in maintaining the military aspect of school life, the cadet's mllftefy Instruction Proper is in the hands of officers who by 'long training and Cxliierience are peculiarly adapted for this special work. At. the head of the military staff is the Army detail, an ofHcer of the Umted States Army 6Specially set aside by the War Department to act for the Academy in an advisory capacity. Next comes the Qommandant of Cadets, who is also the executive head of the dis- Clplmenfff the SCl1Q0l. Then follow the various tactical officers, who, in ffddltlon to thelf teaching in the class-room and their disciplinary duties 011 their own Divisions, have special oversight of the different company organizations. 79