Let me begin by saying it is a privilege to be asked to share the vast experience of a second lieutenant with such a distinguished group. Had I been aware of the youngest graduate tradition, I would have been more diligent in my efforts to find alternate tasking tonight
My name is 2LT Anne McClain and I hail from Spokane, Washington. I am a 2002 graduate of the US Military Academy, where I majored in Aerospace Engineering and played softball for four years. I am a rotorhead both by birth and branch. I am at the University of Bath on a Marshall Scholarship working toward my master’s degree in Aerospace Engineering. However, most of my time is really spent playing rugby and convincing my British friends 20 miles is not too far to drive for dinner.
A favorite expression at West Point is that "much of the history we teach was made by people we taught." The other one is that "the Corps has."
Knowing that I come from the youngest class present tonight, I know I must have had the easiest time at the academy - for every class knows the last “real beast summer” was the one they attended. Incidentally, I hear they’ve really gone soft this year.
Each cadet has a telephone in their room. Everyone has a computer and each computer has a TV connection. There is no morning PT and plebes do not go home on leave in uniform. Table commandants must let their people eat, table duties are minimized, and there is no physical hazing. “How is the Cow” is optional “Heritage Knowledge.” For that matter, most anything you once laughed about - or looked forward to doing to YOUR Plebes - is probably considered hazing these days.
Yearlings have off post privileges. There are no more pajamas, coat and tie, or banana suit. Cigar smoking on the apron is a thing of the past; there is no more singing the 12 days of Christmas. There is no short overcoat.
While I will not complain about these changes nor comment on their role in the development of cadets, there are things that have never and will never change.
Duty. Honor. Integrity. The Thayer Method.
There are people in this room who can remember when Astronaut Buzz Aldrin, Gen. Roscoe Robinson, and Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf were cadets. There are people in this room who can remember the men and women whose names are not so well known because when the time came, they answered the call of duty and did not come home. Roommates. Teammates. Classmates.
Seven of my classmates are the people I miss with the most affection, my teammates on the 2002 Army Softball team. Calling them my best friends inadequately describes the relationships we have, enduring every challenge and sharing each personal victory from the time we raised our right hands to the moment we threw our hats in the air – you know the relationship I speak of.
Today, just nine months after graduation, ten months after our final softball game, three have been called to duty.
Do you remember how quickly the time passed between graduation and boarding a plane to Vietnam? Do you remember sitting in the sand in the Middle East with memories of 100th Night Shows and Spirit Missions still fresh in your head?
Throughout our country's history, West Point graduates have fought in and won every war. In the near and distant future, the cadets of today will again answer that call, and they will succeed. You and your classmates wrote the history we learned, and today we are writing the books for future cadets. Like all new members of the Long Gray Line, I look forward to the call of duty with youthful, naive anticipation.
So no, we did not have to ping to classes or square our corners, but one fact remains unchanged. When the call of duty comes, we are ready.
