From USMAPS 2016 / USMAPS 1966 Affiliation CINC
Bruce Nolte -
Classmates. Brothers:
By now, many of you have seen
Terry Young 's Facebook post about the 2d event of our Class 50 Year Affiliation Program, the Carlson Crucible Challenge, named for our fallen Classmate, Randy Carlson, which was held up at the Prep School last week. A total of seven Classmates participated:
Bill Arcuri
John Veenstra
Bill Richardson
Bill Trivette
TJ Young
Craig Rutler
And yours truly,
Bruce Nolte
The Carlson Challenge began at 0600 on 06 August and continued all day. There were a total of six events, and the day concluded with an awards ceremony at 1830. Some candid shots of the day taken by Bill Arcuri are attached.
The Prep school Class of 2016, which will form the “Vanguard” of our 50 Year Affiliation Class of 2020, reported for duty back on 20 July, so by the date of the Carlson Challenge, most of them had only been in the Army for some 17 days. Unlike back in our day, most of the Cadet Candidates had no prior military service, as Basic Training is no longer required before coming to Prep School. Instead, a Cadet Detail of some 80 First & Second Class Cadets formed a training cadre, and put the new CC’s through an abbreviated basic training.
And if what we saw last week is any indicator, these cadets did a great job. Not only in training these young men and women on basic soldier skills, but in creating cohesion, spirit, and acceptance of the Army Values. All of us Old Grads were proud of the Cadets and of the Cadet Candidates.
A couple of vignette’s:
· You’ll all be glad to learn that the Marne Obstacle Couse at Buckner is unchanged since our day with the exception that they have managed to get the mud and water out of the Low Crawl event… J
· One of the Cadet Candidates is a 305 lb football recruit. He ran the 2 mile run in 15:10, and then ran back to encourage CC’s behind him. This guy “gets it,” and my bet is that he will be the football captain. A really impressive kid.
· The Cadet Cadre took the bio of Randy Carlson’s life written my Mike Jones and de-constructed it into a number of what I’ll call “Mini Sermons” about Army Values. They also took the photos of Randy from Snoopy’s Memorial to Randy and blew them up to 36X24. They then placed a photo and one of these Values Discussions at each of the six stops of the Carlson Challenge. As each squad of CC’s rotated through each event, a First Classman discussed each of these values with the CC’s and how these values were exemplified by MAJ Carlson. As us Old Grads rotated through the events ourselves, we were truly touched.
· The last event of the day was a climb up the ski slope. The Cadet Detail had taken a number of large 20 pound stones, painted them black, and painted on each on a letter of Randy’s name in gold. Each squad had to carry one of these stones up the ski slope and on up to Redoubt 4 without it touching the ground. At the Awards Ceremony at the end of the day, these stones were placed on the stage to spell MAJ RANDALL ARTHUR CARLSON 1970. I’m telling you, this was a moving event.
· At the Awards Ceremony, the ’70 Contingent also presented “Carlson Crucible Challenge” coins to each member of the winning squad. These coins were procured and prepared on very short notice by Bill Arcuri, and we all owe him a debt of gratitude. At the conclusion of the Ceremony each ’70 participant shook hands with every Cadet and every member of the Cadet Detail.
As we rotated though the course, all of the ’70 participants got to mingle freely with both the CC’s and the Cadet Cadre. They are an impressive bunch. And the Prep School staff is really top notch. The Vanguards of the USMA Class of 2020 are off to a good start.
SWI and BEAT NAVY!
Bruce Nolte F-4
