ROTC Cadets visit West Point and NYC

Photos and story by Cadet Public Affairs Office: C/2Lt Benjamin Gould, C/MSgt Bryan Scarbrough and C/TSgt Zachary Phillips, C/A1C Madison Maynard

Air Force Junior ROTC students from Piedmont and Porter Ridge High Schools in Union County recently visited State where they toured the West Point Military Academy and New York City. Students were tasked with homework assignments that they would brief at each stop on the jam-packed four day tour. Several of the 50 students in attendance had the opportunity to present their topics on the bus ride to and from New York. “Sometimes it is just too noisy for the students to be heard trying to brief a large group on a busy Manhattan street” said Captain Louis Werder, the Senior AFJROTC Instructor at Piedmont High School. The student briefings on the World Trade Center, Freedom Tower and the 911 Memorial were accompanied by a 911 documentary. Cadets were housed in an old girl’s school dormitory in upstate New York. “We had 55 people and about 45-50 beds, but the cadets knew that going in and they figure out a spot for everyone to sleep.” Sleeping bags and sofas in the conference room accommodated several volunteers. The senior students in the Junior ROTC corps watch out for the cadets and ensure they are supervised in dorm rooms, have sleeping accommodations, and are fed daily. Upon arrival they visit a grocery store where the seniors have to West Point Museum ensure that there is enough food and supplies to feed everyone for the next 3 mornings. “They shotgun into the store, disperse and hit the aisles, and I just wait at the checkout counter with the booster club chaperone and the checkbook,” Capt Werder explained. “About 4-5 minutes later, they show up with enough cereal, bowls, spoons, milk, bananas and water to keep themselves fed for the next 3 days; it really is a marvel to see and quite impressive how good a job they do at it.” The students set up shower schedules and lights out times and make their rounds before reporting to the instructors that all have been put to bed. In the morning they arise, prepare for the day, and await their room inspections by the senior cadets. Once the room has been cleaned and inspected, the cadet officer in charge of that room will bring his students to breakfast, which has been set up by a few designated cadets in the cafeteria. Then they are off on the charter bus for day. The first stop was the West Point Military Academy where the students took a tour of the campus, stadiums, cemetery and military post before stopping at the museum. “We start early to fit a lot in. We had a two-hour tour complete before the visitor center and museum even opened.” Chief Master Sergeant Holmes, Piedmont High School instructor, had pre-arranged base access with public affairs for an early morning visit. Cadet briefings on the West Point tour included the Chain, , history of women at the academy, notable graduates, the West Point Cemetery and notable graves (Goethals, Custer, Scott, Buford…), , Stony Point Battlefield and General “Mad” Anthony Wayne – where the General earned his famous nickname after a daring midnight raid using only bayonets to capture the British Fort. Students briefed on Benedict Arnold and his plan to surrender the fort to the British, with his detection and eventual defection to the British army. The toured Michie and Shea stadiums at West Point and received student briefings on Dennis Michie - who was instrumental in starting the football program at West Point but was killed in Cuba during the Spanish American War, and on Charles Shea - who received the medal of honor for singlehandedly disabling 3 machine gun nests advancing his unit’s position during WWII. After the West Point tour and a fast-food lunch stop they were off to Hyde Park where they toured the Franklin Roosevelt mansion and museum and paid respects at the graves of Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt. Across town they went for another tour of the Vanderbilt Mansion where they discussed the differences between old money and the “nouveau riche” (new money). A quick drive from the Hyde Park mansions, students briefed on the Vanderbilt Mansion, Hyde Park, NY Culinary Institute of America and Vassar College before joining the students at Marist College in their campus dining room for the evening meal. Following the meal was a short drive to the historic Mohonk Mountain House Resort where the cadets enjoyed an evening session of ice skating in the open-air pavilion. The next morning after breakfast and dormitory cleaning, inspections and checkout it was time to head into the city. The charter bus dropped the group off at Liberty Park in New Jersey where they caught a ferry to the Statue of Liberty, the French centennial gift to the . The stairs up the pedestal were a workout, but all of the students made it and got a great view of the statue interior and then of Manhattan. They toured Ellis Island and were able to look up relatives that had come to the United States as immigrants. The ferry then dropped them off at the Battery in New York City where they walked over to the 911 Memorial on the site of the World Trade Center catastrophe. The history of New York from the Dutch through the British was briefed along the tour of the financial district, with stops at Wall Street, the Charging Bull, Trinity Church (with its rich history and the grave of Alexander Hamilton), Fraunces Tavern (where George Washington bade his farewell to the troops) and Federal Hall (where 8 years later Washington returned to take the oath of office as the first President in 1789). An authentic New York pizza lunch - with the large slices and thin crust and a slice that flops over unless you fold it to keep it from dripping that tasty grease down your arm – was followed by a subway trip to Brooklyn and a walk back to Manhattan across the suspended walkway of the Brooklyn Bridge. Another subway ride to midtown and they were headed up one of the newest skyscrapers in Manhattan: 432 Park Avenue. The skyscraper is a residential building that is taller than both the Freedom Tower and the Empire State Building (if you don’t count the masts on top of the building). They got to tour two apartments (one with a $75 million dollar price tag and one with only a $45 million dollar cost) where they got a picturesque view of city – actually looking down on the Empire State Building’s observation deck. The building, not yet open for business, has open floors (called drum floors because of the drum with elevators and utilities in the center) for wind management where the students went outside for an unimpeded view. The tour was arranged by New York billionaire Harry Macklowe whose company owns the building (Captain Werder had contacted him when the Empire State Building and Freedom Towers both denied school group rates for Saturday visits). Mr. Macklowe graciously arranged a tour of the skyscraper for the group. The guide explained that the only way a group could tour 432 Park Avenue was prior to occupancy, as some of the units are over $100 million dollars and they are not just paying for the view, but for a high level of security as well. A short walk (and some photo stops) past St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Trump Tower, Rockefeller Center, Radio City Music Hall, and Times Square brought the group to the Broadway musical of Fiddler on the Roof where they were enlightened on the plight and the exodus of the Jewish people in Pre-WWI Russia. Following the show was another subway ride and a free Staten Island Ferry ride (always free, and one of the best nighttime views of the Manhattan Skyline), they boarded the bus on Staten Island headed back to North Carolina. Students slept soundly on the bus after a solid day of walking and touring. The Air Force Junior ROTC had completed another curriculum-in-action field trip.

An evening at the Broadway Theatre

Enjoying a subway ride under Manhattan

Staten Island Ferry view of the Manhattan skyline

Horsing around on the ferry departing Ellis Island

911 Memorial

Enjoying the Broadway show

Posing in the West Point Museum

Inside Vanderbilt Mansion in Hyde Park, NY

Outside and inside the Statue of Liberty

View from the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty

A delicious New York pizza lunch

Touring Ellis Island

Touring West Point Military Academy

An evening of ice skating at the Historic Mohonk House in upstate New York

A visit to the Roosevelt Mansion in Hyde Park, NY

Students tasked to provide cadet meals buy supplies at a local grocery store

Cadets preparing for and conducting morning room inspections

Student provided morning meals followed by morning headcounts

Fraunces Tavern in New York City, site of George Washington’s farewell speech to his troops, still open for business

History lesson at the Trinity Church graveyard

Views from 432 Park Avenue skyscraper

Relaxing with a $75 million dollar view of Central Park

ROTC students walked over Brooklyn Bridge

Ferry ride back to Staten Island where the bus waits to take tired students back to North Carolina