Information to Users
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
INFORMATION TO USERS This manuscript has been reproduced from the microfilm master. UMI films the text directly from the original or copy submitted. Thus, some thesis and dissertation copies are in typewriter face, while others may be from any type of computer printer. The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. Broken or indistinct print, colored or poor quality illustrations and photographs, print bleedthrough, substandard margins, and improper alignment can adversely affect reproduction. In the unlikely event that the author did not send UMI a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if unauthorized copyright material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. Oversize materials (e.g., maps, drawings, charts) are reproduced by sectioning the original, beginning at the upper left-hand comer and continuing from left to right in equal sections with small overlaps. Each original is also photographed in one exposure and is included in reduced form at the back of the book. Photographs included in the original manuscript have been reproduced xerographically in this copy. Higher quality 6” x 9” black and white photographic prints are available for any photographs or illustrations appearing in this copy for an additional charge. Contact UMI directly to order. UMI A Bell & Howell Information Company 300 North Zed) Road, Ann Arbor MI 48106-1346 USA 313A761-4700 800/521-0600 UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA GRADUATE COLLEGE STRONGER THAN CUSTOM; WEST POINT AND THE ADMISSION OF WOMEN. 1972-1980 A Dissertation SUBMITTED TO THE GRADUATE FACULTY in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy By ROBERT LANCE JANDA Norman, Oklahoma 1998 tJMI N um ber: 9839796 Copyright 1998 by Janda, Robert Lance All rights reserved. UMI Microform 9839796 Copyright 1998, by UMI Company. All rights reserved. This microform edition is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. UMI 300 North Zeeb Road Ann Arbor, MI 48103 Copyright by ROBERT LANCE JANDA 1998 Ail Rights Reserved STRONGER THAN CUSTOM: WEST POINT AND THE ADMISSION OF WOMEN. 1972-1980 A Dissertation APPROVED FOR THE DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY BY Acknowledgements I did almost everything wrong in graduate school. Really. 1 took too long with my course work, studied far too long for general exams, and spent so much time "working” on my dissertation that good friends were fearful 1 might one day die a student. One suggested my pursuit of a Ph.D. represented a "streak which humbles Cal Ripken - indeed, an epic saga which now eclipses the rise and fall of the Roman Empire...," and looking back I sometimes have that feeling myself. Yet 1 bear few grudges. Life has a way of making us take as much time as we need to accomplish our given tasks, and there have been more than a few perks to accompany my leisurely river boat journey towards the ivoiy tower at the University' of Oklahoma. 1 have relished the priceless opportunity to work among gifted and supportive people in the OU Department of History, made a few friends, and actually been paid to do what 1 love best: study and teach American history. As a result of research directed toward the completion of my dissertation I have also been afforded the marvelous privilege of traveling to Texas, Colorado, and New York to conduct interviews and review documents, and to visit the United States Military Academy at West Point several times. Interviews allowed me to meet and visit with over a hundred current and former members of the Academy staff and faculty, including dozens of men and women who attended West Point during the 1970s. They have been a source of great assistance and inspiration these last few years, and more than a few went IV out of their way to offer their memories, ideas, mementos from the past, and their good wishes to my endeavors. By forcing me to track them down in places as widely separated as Paris, France, Lithuania, Oregon, Alabama. Washington, New Hampshire, Germany, and a host of other places they helped me leam only too well those timeless lessons regarding weekend and evening phone rates and the price of international calls. For would-be interviewers my best advice is to NEVER make operator assisted calls to Lithuania, though in hindsight Em glad 1 learned that lesson on my own, just as 1 learned so many lessons about travelling, interviewing, and research on a shoestring budget. 1 hardly claim to have found every possible source which might have clarified or been relevant to my work, but I will say I enjoyed the journey towards finding what 1 did. Along the way my work has been touched by so many hands 1 am reluctant to call it my own. More experienced scholars tell me that fact governs every dissertation and book ever written, and fm sure they are right, just as John Kenneth Galbraith was right when he said “Authorship of any sort is a fantastic indulgence of the ego."' With all that in mind I would be remiss were 1 to fail to thank those who helped me complete a project more challenging, unnerving, and ultimately rewarding than any other in my life. At the University of Oklahoma my thanks go to the Graduate College, which furnished both a Crawley Research Award and Dissertation Grant to help fund my research, and to the OU Humanities Council, which provided me with a grant for travel 'john Kenneth Galbraith, The Affluent Society (New York: Mentor Books, 1958). p x to West Point. Within the Department of History I am indebted to Professors H. Wayne Morgan. David W. Levy, and Ben Keppel. They served on m\ dissertation committee, read drafts of the work in progress, and furnished invaluable insights and recommendations regarding research, what it means to be a professional historian, and how best to reach students in the classroom. I am grateful to Professor Paul A. Gilje, who triggered the idea for this work during the semester I was his teaching assistant and who became a valued teaching mentor, and to Professor Norman L. Crockett, who generously shared his office during the semester 1 began to write. Professor William W. Savage Jr. enlivened my graduate career with his thoughts on books, dissertations, academia, and the vagaries of university life, and his colorful impersonation of Marlon Brando lifted my spirits on several occasions when writing was especially difficult. Professor Alfred S. Bradford answered many of my questions about warrior life in the ancient world, and served as my trusted guide to the mysteries of Latin. I am also indebted to fellow graduate students, including Dirk Voss. Brad Raley, and Megan Benson. As roomate. trusted friend, and even editor, Dirk has been a quietly stalwart force in my life for many years, while Brad's rare combination of talents as a master brewer of beer and reviewer of my dissertation made my life much easier. Megan expanded my understanding of West Point flora and fauna, the Warner sisters, and the distinctions between equity and equalitv' as they relate to feminism. 1 am most profoundly beholden to Professor Robert L. Griswold. As chair of my VI general exam and dissertation committees as well as the Department of History. he has had an inestimable impact on my professional growth. His confidence, enthusiasm, and professional mentoring shaped every facet of my development as a scholar and teacher, and his quiet faith carried me through many days and nights when my own reservoir of resolve was shallow. My fondest hope is that I might emulate his example and mentor others in the supportive way he and the other scholars here at OU nurtured me. At the United States Military Academy 1 tip my hat to Dr. Stephen B. Grove, the West Point historian, to his assistant Patricia Mohler. and to Mr. Alan C. Aimone in the Special Collections section of the Omar Bradley Library. Dr. Grove was my professional host on two research trips to the Academy, and guided me through the archives and the wealth of material in his own office. He was particularly helpful, along with Ms. Mohler, in helping me gain access to many of the exit interviews conducted with the women of the West Point Class of 1980, and in answering my endless e-mail requests for often obscure bits of information. Mr. Aimone guided me through the considerable resources of the West Point library, and even let me stay with him after closing one night when the amount of material I needed to review and the number of hours left in my stay at West Point were in mighty conflict. Within the Academy's Class of 1980 I am grateful to everyone who spoke with me formally or informally about their experience as cadets, and to all who so generously shared their photographs, journals, letters, and mementos. Those who were especially V I! helpful include Marty J. Eaton. Joan M. Gerth. Nancy L. Gucwa. Major Karen J. Hobson. Lieutenant Colonel David G. Jesmer. Susan P. Kellett. Kathleen Silvia. Doris A. Turner. William K. Wray. Lieutenant Colonel Donna S. Newell. Danna Mailer. Lieutenant Colonel Anne W. MacDonald, and Robin R. Carrington. Major Kelly Lynch deservers special mention, both for sharing her photographs and memories and for generously reviewing the manuscript. Other West Pointers were a source of additional encouragement and insight. They passed me around the network of former graduates, offered invaluable opinions and background information in an effort to keep a civilian writing about military matters out of trouble, and generally spurred me onward. I cannot metntion them all.