New York Military Academy - Shrapnel Yearbook (Cornwall on Hudson, NY)

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L f DECORATING BARRACKS FOR MAJOR FOOTBALL GAME-1917 Fire once again threatened to take a costly toll of the school in 1924. The blaze in the cavalry stables was dis- covered quickly, however, and members of the troop braved the flames to rescue every one of the horses quar- tered in the long building. Work on new and more modern stables was begun at once. This was a fine year in most departments of N.Y.M.A. athletics. The football team, captained by Charles Beck- with, '24, won six out of seven games and scored 196 points to 25 for its opponents. Basketball had been returned to the status of a varsity sport some time previously and the 1925-24 team ran up a total of 556 points fan average of 40 per gamej, losing only to the undefeated Navy Plebes. The fencing team, undefeated through the season, num- bered West Point varsity among its victims. It was the Navy Plebes who upset the N.Y.M.A. bas- ketball squad again the following year. Trailing by fifteen points at the end of the first half, the Plebes staged a sen- sational rally to win by two points and hand the quintet of Captain Jimmy Baldwin, '25, its only defeat during the regular season. Both the fencing and track teams were undefeated, however, the former for the second successive season. The swordsmen won eight dual meets against stiff opposition and Raymond Sieminsky, '26, Luis Fuertes, '25, and Francis Dohs, '25, placed 1-2-3 in the national interscholastic fenc- ing championship. In recognition of this sensational show- ing, team members were given major letters for the first time in the history of the sport at Cornwall. The track team was captained by the brilliant Freddie Robbins, '25, who set his mates a fine example by making three new individual records and assisting in establishing a fourth. Robbins ran 100 yards in 9.9 seconds, put the shot 44 feet, ZVZ inches, and pole vaulted to a new high of 10 feet, 9 inches. He also ran on the mile relay team which set a mark of 3 minutes 41.3 seconds. The team was coached by Edmund M. Wisner, professor of languages, who developed many fine athletes at the Academy. Two new organizations made their appearance during the 1924-25 term. They were the Glee Club and Sword and Plume, a dramatic group. The Glee Club was coached by Frank Mead, '91, a resident of Cornwall who had al- ways kept up his interest in the school. The club's first session was featured by a concert for wounded war vet- erans at the Chelsea Hospital. Although dramatics held a high place among scholastic activities from 1894 to 1921, there was a lapse of three years in this branch following the death of Superintendent Page Thirty-one

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Alexander Gillespie, '11 julian Ball Haswell, '00 Morton Eugene Hecht, '05 Edward L. Horton, '12 Robert R. Howard, '95 Silas Kantrowitz, '10 Gilbert F. Lewy, '07 James Lee Loomis, '97 Elmo P. Montross, '17 Arthur S. Moore, '97 Eliot D. Moore, '00 Edwin R. Palmer, '00 George E. Patterson, '07 Christopher Peterson, '00 John P. Phelps, '95 Arnold C. Pouch, '10 Howard D. Rockafellow, '99 john B. Rose, '93 Philip H. Salmon, '17 Louis Scherp, '10 Hugh S. Stange, '12 Joseph F. Taylor, '90 NAVAL RESERVE Francis C. Crowell, '15 Harry H. Dale, jr., '17 Seymour Glantz, '09 Paul J. Guidone, '10 James E. Mann, '18 Byron Weston, '16 William A. White, '16 Lawrence H. Wolff, '09 NAVAL MILITIA Elwyn Leslie, '06 E. E. Rockhold, '91 Alvarez D. Rose, '16 U. S. AMBULANCE SERVICE Chester I. Christie, '06 Douglass j. Clarke, '14 PERLEY R. HAMILTON, '17 Mark Robert Miles, '09 George M. Porges, '14 George S. Shultz, '15 Austin T. Tubbs, '09 Those who served in other branches: M. J. Daly, '13 Frank W. deGanahl, '10 Frank Farnham, '17 Leland L. Goodrich, '13 Paul Davis Greely, '16 The following members alumni, were in the service: Harry M. Blank Hubert W. Butts William T. Cochran George R. Dempsey Harry R. Dougherty William B. Ennis William T. Galvin Roy E. Habermann William H. Haigh Willis H. Hale Robert L. Knowles, '15 George H. LeFevre, '17 John E. Northway, '18 Sidney Stuart, '99 Ralph C. Turner, '01 of the faculty, excepting Frank M. Ham Paul J. Hermann Victor B. Hornney Clarence Ketcham William A. Kurtz Harry M. Scarborough Hermann R. Schoeler Frank D. Walker Orlo C. Whitaker Ira Williams William B. Wilson At the Academy, while the world was torn apart, the accomplishments of two cadets stood out. Charles L. An- derson, jr., '18, of Ardmore, Oklahoma, became the first boy in the history of the school to win the award of Dis- tinguished Cadet. The gold star on the collar of the Dis- tinguished Cadet means that he has maintained an average of ninety-five per cent in conduct, eighty-five per cent in scholastic work, and ninety per cent in military science. In addition, he must have won his letter in some form of athletics. The other youngster to gain the spotlight was Earnesto Betancourt, '20, who won the Clemens Medal for fencing by defeating three Columbia University swordsmen in the finals after having fainted from exhaustion following the preliminary bouts earlier in the day. More than half of the faculty was in service at home or abroad when the Academy re-opened in September, 1918, and the name of Homer Russell Smith, '14, had been added to the list of N.Y.M.A. alumni killed in action. Pressed for materials of all sorts, the Government had called in all equipment issued to the military schools and the work in this department at Cornwall was consequently curtailed to a large extent. As if skies were not already sufliciently gray, the influ- enza epidemic made its appearance with its frightful toll of suffering and loss of life. It was small wonder that news of the Armistice in November sent the entire world into a delirium of happiness. The flu epidemic undoubtedly deprived N.Y.M.A. of its greatest football record, since it necessitated the can- cellation of four games on the 1918 schedule. The cadets won all live of the games which were played, scored 339 points to 7 for their opponents, and defeated Irving School 135-0, a scoring record which has never been equalled. On March 16, 1919, word was received that the govern- ment had established the battalion as a unit of the Reserve Officers Training Corps and during that summer thirty-five N.Y.M.A. cadets, still inspired by the recently concluded war, attended the course at Camp Devens, Massachusetts. This was the largest group in the camp from any single military school. A world still happily dazed by the miracle of peace after the horror of the World War felt that universal security had been realized at last when the League of Nations was organized and President Wilson received the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts in that direction. On the threshold of the third decade of the twentieth century, New York Military Academy continued to develop young men dedi- cated to peace but ready for war if it should ever come again. Conclusion of the school year 1921-22 at N.Y.M.A. saw the end of one, and the beginning of another cycle in the history of the Academy. After nearly thirty years in the service of the school, Colonel Jones resigned as superin- tendent. He was succeeded by Milton F. Davis, whose ap- pointment as a Brigadier General was announced at al- most the same time. General Davis had come to Cornwall in june, 1909, as commandant and professor of military science and had been a member of the faculty ever since, except for the period of this country's engagement in the World War. During that time he was attached to the Air Service, first as chief of training and later as chief of staff. Page Thirty

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Jones, who had always been a leading figure in arranging and producing the cadet shows. The only production staged by Sword and Plume in its first year was Booth Tarkington's The Trysting Place , presented of the Midwinter Hop. Albert Lefever, jr., '25, C. Salmon III, '27, were the individual stars formance. Lewis P. Metesser, '25, was acting the play and handled all the technical details. at the time and Arthur of the per- manager of Despite the fact that all four fraternities on the campus flourished almost from their beginning, there was occa- sional dissension among them concerning rushing and other activities. In order to eliminate these rough spots and to establish a standard code of rules for all to obey, the cadets formed an interfraternity council known as Sigma Phi. This organization immediately set up rules which were accepted by all the fraternities. Most important was that which forbade the pledging of any cadet until he had attended the Academy for a full year, unless he entered in the graduating class. In the latter case a boy might be pledged after completing one term. Members of the original council were Luis Fuertes, '25, and William Laidlaw, Jr., '25, Alpha Chi Sigma, Emil Balzerini, '25, and William Morris, '25, Chi Sigma Chig Frank Sakser, '25, and Fred Dudley, '25, Pi Phi, and Arthur Gallucci, '25, and Lewis Metesser, '25, Delta Sigma Nu. The late fall of 1925 witnessed a staggering shock to the foot soldiers of the corps. A competitive infantry drill among the companies was called for Thanksgiving Day and won by-bold your hats-Troop D, the cavalry unit! The troopers left their hay-burners in the stable, undressed to the extent of removing their beloved spurs, and out- maneuvered their deadly rivals in the infantry companies at their own game. One result of the drill was elevation of Cadet Captain Louis Grimm, '26, to the post of Senior Captain of the Bat- talion. Another was that every one of the thirty-six troop- ers became impossible to live with for the remainder of the school year. The grim haunt of all school officials-an epidemic- descended upon the Academy in the early weeks of 1926. Scarlet fever stalked the campus, filling all hospital fa- cilities to overflowing and placing the entire plant under quarantine. The basketball season was cut off in its prime, with less than half of the schedule completed. The Midwinter Hop, annual high spot of the social season, was postponed twice and finally cancelled. There was a similar curtailment of most of the other cadet activities, as Dr. George Dempsey and an augmented corps of nurses battled to stem the tide of the disease and cure those already afflicted. How well the medical staff succeeded in its task is dem- onstrated by the fact that the track team was undefeated for its second straight season, an impossible accomplish- ment if the boys had not been in perfect physical condi- tion again. The team won five dual meets and William Keish, '27, set a new record in the javelin throw, tossing the spear 155 feet 2 inches. Despite difiiculties arising from the scarlet fever epi- demic, the year also saw the introduction of The Cadet, student literary publication. Two issues of the magazine were published in the first year with Bill Laidlaw serving as editor-in-chief. The Alumni Association, under the leadership of its president, George Porges, '14, became active in the spring of 1926 and climaxed its program with a dinner at the Hotel Pennsylvania in New York. The affair was attended by more than 150 alumni, who were entertained by the Academy glee club and orchestra. This activity was re- fiected the following fall when The Ramble published a page of alumni news in each issue. Colonel Harry M. Scar- borough assembled and edited this page for the cadets. Colonel Scarborough was especially fitted for this task because, although not a graduate of the Academy, he was the senior member of the faculty in years of service. Scar- borough came to N.Y.M.A. in the fall of 1906, after hav- ing attended Dickinson Preparatory School and Dickinson College, from which latter he was graduated with the de- gree of Bachelor of Philosophy. He served as instructor in science until 1925. In 1912 he was appointed headmaster also, and in 1918 his title was changed to executive ofiicer. The latter post was abolished in 1937 and he is now head- master again. Colonel Scarborough served as a captain in the Chem- ical Warfare Service during the World War, was appointed a lieutenant colonel in 1923 and received a Certificate of Capacity for Colonel in 1950. From 1918 to 1937, while Colonel Scarborough was Executive Ofiicer, Mr. Herbert Alvah Hinman was Head- master. A graduate of Middlebury College, Mr. Hinman was Superintendent of Schools in New Haven, Vermont, and Ashtabula, Ohio. He was instructor in science and headmaster of the junior School at N.Y.M.A., and had been connected with the Academy for twenty-five years until his death in 1937. A major addition to the facilities at the Academy was the new swimming pool which was opened in February, 1927. There was no formal swimming team until the fol- lowing year but the sport was made compulsory for all cadets and remains so to the present time. The pool is seventy-five feet long and twenty-five feet wide, and con- tains the most modern equipment for all sorts of aquatic activity. Page Tbirly-two