Cadet Life

Theodore Hyatt Cowee ’20

In the fall of 1919, just 16 years after the Wright brothers made the first powered flight, PMC became what was reported at the time to be “the first college in the United States to include flying in its curriculum.”

Lt. Theodore Hyatt Cowee ’20, of the United States Air Service, the grandson of PMC founder Theodore Hyatt, was the instructor for program, which consisted of eight flying lessons in a Curtis biplane and 12 ground lessons. Twenty students enrolled, and training took place on the field opposite Springhaven Country Club in Wallingford, about two miles north of the campus.

The following year, the course was under the direction of G. Sumner Ireland, of Curtis Eastern Airplane Corporation. Although 17 Cadets wanted to participate, most were unable to obtain parental consent and the program was grounded.

Records are sketchy, but it appears that the course was not revived until 1939, with the Civil Aeronautics Authority providing both ground schooling and flight training at Philadelphia’s S. Davis Wilson Airport, later to become Philadelphia International Airport. Students who successfully completed 72 classroom hours and flight training received a pilot’s license.

In 1955, PMC became the first military college in the U.S. to have a Civil Air Patrol program. According to the Alumni Bulletin “more than 100 cadets have enrolled in the program ….” The instructors were Air Force Reserve officers. Studies included aerodynamics, navigation, meteorology and flight training. By 1963, first classmen able to pass a flight physical qualified for the Army ROTC Flight Training Program conducted at the Bridgeport Airport in New Jersey. After 35 hours of instruction, which included soloing, cadets received the ROTC pilot’s badge and could apply to the Federal Aviation Administration for a private pilot’s license.

In 1967, the Atlantic Aviation Corporation awarded the Atlantic Aviation Trophy to the first classman selected the outstanding student pilot in the ROTC flight training program. After 1st Lt. William J. Stephenson (’63) was killed by enemy ground fire while flying a Sioux observation helicopter in Viet Nam in 1966, the award was renamed in his honor. Three years later, criteria for the medal was changed, awarding it to the first classman in the program who displayed the most sincere and dedicated desire for a career as an Army aviation officer. In 1972, the year the Corps of Cadets was disbanded, the award was once again tendered to the most outstanding student in the program.

When PMC started its aviation program, it was leading the way into the future, and the move made headlines nationwide. After all, the Ironwood (Mich.) Daily Globe reported in its coverage of the cutting-edge course, “In a short time, aerial passenger service will be demanding a great number of experienced fliers who will be needed in the coast-to-coast service … composed of large, comfortable planes capable of carrying twenty-five passengers….”

PMC Aviators

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The key to successful writing, Ernest Hemmingway famously said, is “the application of the seat of the pants to the seat of a chair.” What he was referring to, of course, was discipline. At PMC, inculcating discipline was at the heart of the curriculum, not to mention the real purpose of all that seemingly interminable spit-shining and brass polishing and bracing and close-order drill. So it’s not surprising that several former cadets went on to become successful authors. Here are a few:

BILL SPEER (Class of 1972) has taught at the American Military University and Georgia Military College and produced several historical documentaries and films. “Broomsticks to Battlefields: After the Battle, the Story of Henry C. Robinett in the Civil War,” is the biography of an 1860 graduate of Delaware Military Academy (predecessor to PMC) who distinguished himself as a Civil War artillery captain, only to commit suicide. The book “reminds us that historians and psychologists have barely begun to study…post-traumatic stress disorder among Civil War veterans,” one reviewer wrote.

MARK L. RICHARDS (Class of 1969) served as an Army infantry officer before entering the health care field, where he worked as the chief financial officer at a large academic health center. “Legions of the Forest,” which opens in 9 A.D., and centers around a clash between Roman legions and the German people they intend to subjugate, is a tale of war, treachery and the vicious politics of the Golden Age of Rome.

ROY EATON (CLASS OF 1969) left the Army as a second-lieutenant. He taught math and coached wrestling at St. Bernard, a Connecticut prep school that inducted him into its Athletic Hall of Fame in 2006. He was named to the New York Military Academy Sport Hall of Fame in 2007 and the New London (Conn.) Hall of Fame in 2009. His memoir, “Soldier Boy,” tells the story of his experiences at PMC and as a prep school cadet at New York Military Academy.

DAVID FIEDLER (Class of 1968) served in the Signal Corps and after a deployment to Vietnam was assigned to the U.S. Army Electronics Command. Drawing on his combat experiences, Fiedler wrote a book on radio physics that is still in use today, was used extensively in the Gulf War/Afghanistan and has been incorporated into official Signal Corps doctrine. As a result of his work in tactical communications the Army Chief of Signal has awarded him the Chief of Signal plaque twice and inducted him into the Order of Mercury signal honor society

BRIAN KATES (Class of 1968) served as an Army military police captain in Berlin Brigade during the Cold War. His first recognition as a writer was PMC’s Dome Award as best student journalist. Later, as a reporter and editor at the New York Daily News, he won numerous awards for journalistic excellence, including a Pulitzer Prize for editorial writing. His non-fiction book, “The Murder of a Shopping Bag Lady,” the story of a homeless woman slain on the streets of New York, won a Special Edgar Allan Poe Award from Mystery Writers of America.

TOM VOSSLER (Class of 1968) severed 30 years in the U.S. Army commanding an infantry platoon in the Vietnam War and a mechanized infantry-armored battalion task force in Germany. In addition, he taught military history, strategy and leadership at the U.S. Army War College and is a former director of the U.S. Army Military History Institute at Carlisle Barracks, Pa. Vossler and co-author Carol Reardon combined to encapsulate the events of the Battle of Antietam, the bloodiest single day in American military history, and in their newest book “A Field Guide to Gettysburg.”

EDWARD J. MAROLDA (Class of 1967) served as the Acting Director of Naval History and Senior Historian of the Navy. In 2017 the Naval Historical Foundation honored him with its Commodore Dudley W. Knox Naval History Lifetime Achievement Award. He has authored, coauthored, or edited nine works on the U.S. Navy’s experience in Vietnam. In support of the U.S. Naval Institute’s Oral History Program, he has interviewed Vietnam veterans and retired admirals Stanley R. Arthur and Joseph W. Prueher.

CHARLES E. “Doc” MERKEL, Jr. (Class of 1967) served for more than 20 years as an Master Army Aviator in the U.S. Army and currently serves as the historian for the 53d Wing at Eglin Air Force Base, Florida. He authored the book “Unraveling the Custer Enigma,” which contains information about the court martial of Custer.

 FAGIANI (Class of 1967) was a social worker and director of a program for recovering drug addicts, He is also a translator, essayist, short story writer and poet whose free verse captures “the rhythms of struggle and street life,” the New York Times wrote in 2014. His first book of poetry, “Rooks,” published in 2005, follows him through his freshman year at PMC, where, one reviewer noted, “the spotlight is on the time-honored discipline that transforms young men into warriors.”

LOUIS HORNER (Class of 1962) served in the U.S. Army Signal Corp. He received a presidential citation from President Ronald Reagan in 1985 for designing a computer enrichment program that served several thousand children nationwide. His book “Who Will Water the Flowers,” chronicles his life as an African American during a turbulent time in U.S. history and examines the friendships he forged, beginning with those built at PMC.

MERVYN HARRIS (Class of 1957) is a former Army captain and served as a representative to the Pennsylvania House of Representatives from Delaware County from 1964-66. He has served on the boards of numerous non-profit organizations and events committees. His book traces the history of Nether Providence Township, Pa, from its original Lenape Indian inhabitants.

KARL WETTENGEL (Class of 1921) wrote “The Ghost of Paddy O and Other Poems” in free verse while at PMC. It illustrates the continuity of the spirit of PMC.

EUGENE HOOPES (Class of 1901) served as an engineer during World War I and became an aeronautical consultant for the military, working at air fields in the U.S. and Europe. He began his writing career in 1951 with the publication of “Tales of a Dude Wrangler,” a series of fictional stories told, as one reviewer put it, “by the type of wrangler one may find at any roundup, at any ‘dude’ ranch, or around any campfire where stories of the rangeland and its lore were told.”

HORACE HOBBS (Class of 1897) was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross for extraordinary heroism during the Philippine Insurrection in 1905 and the Silver Cross for gallantry in France during World War I. “Kris and Krag: Adventures among the Moros of the Southern Philippine Islands” is recognized as a classic work on the little-documented Philippine Insurrection.

Shortly after his father’s death in 1893, Cecil DeMille was enrolled at Pennsylvania Military College. According to DeMille’s biographer, Charles Higham, while at PMC DeMille was a “determined, forceful boy,” who “loved the endless dawn drills, the cold baths, the stern reminders of the dangers of falling from a high level of many virtues.” In the two years he spent at PMC, DeMille was a successful student, ranking fourth in his class and was an athlete. Colonel Hyatt approved of his passion for the theatre and in 1898 DeMille left PMC.

Although he did not graduate from PMC, DeMille remained loyal to the school throughout his life. In 1931, he received an honorary degree Doctor of Letters. In 1951, this acknowledged founding father of the Hollywood film industry, created the DeMille “Freedom Trophy.” It was to be given yearly to the Cadet who has “shown in an outstanding manner his personal conviction and devotion to the American ideal of individual freedom and the inalienable rights of man.”

According to George Bjotvedt ’51, who interviewed DeMille in California, “The award idea was born during a nostalgic discussion with Mr. DeMille about the time he was a cadet in gray. A marksmanship medal, awarded to DeMille while attending PMC, was one of his most cherished possessions.” For the next 24 years, the DeMille “Freedom” Trophy was one of the most coveted awards presented at Commencement.

One of the cheekiest pranks in the history of PMC was the “Pink Tank Incident.” Homecoming was always a grand celebration featuring a pajama parade, pep rally and bonfire and the colorful decorations in front of the dormitories. It was also a time when the exuberance of students was tolerated throughout the campus.

In October 1967, Homecoming Co-Chairman, Junior Class President and future PMC Student Government President Roy Eaton ’69 imagined an exploit designed to unify PMC Cadets and Penn Morton students during the weekend celebration. With the support of student leaders and others, as well as the entire cheerleading squad and Band, Eaton organized the group as his diabolical plot was planned.

After the Friday night student mixer, the carefully recruited classmates “clad in fatigues with camouflaged faces were led in a commando style four-hour raid on three of the iconic landmarks on campus – including the most revered, the M4 A-1 Medium tank, located in front of the Hyatt Armory. To those Cadets who had chosen Armor as their service branch, the Sherman class tank, which was used in Europe during World War II, was a prized symbol. The next morning, a “Mickey Mouse face donned the steeple clock, the entire length of the stadium’s white press box had been scrupulously candy stripped in the school’s yellow and red colors,” and the symbolic tank was fully covered in bright pink paint.

“As the cadets marched to breakfast, no one noticed the co-ed cheerleaders dressed in cadet uniforms who had been positioned in various companies throughout the Corps of Cadets.” As the Corps entered the dining room, “the Cadets were startled to find that the commandos had totally disassembled the mess hall and void of all tables and chairs. Before the corps could regroup, the cheerleaders, having impersonating Cadets, emerged from the ranks of the Corps and discarded their cadet uniforms. They then joined the band to lead an impromptu but well-planned school-wide pep rally.

The history of flags and banners is as old as civilization itself. The armies of the Pharaohs of Ancient Egypt and the Romans followed the flags and banners of their leaders. These flags and banners were a distinctive symbol. This tradition was carried on during the American Revolution.

The Color Guards of PMC, a well-trained and prestigious unit, carried the American and PMC flags. At first there was only one Color Bearer, typically a sergeant, who carried the American Flag. When the PMC Flag was added and the size of the Corps of Cadets expanded, the unit grew. The detail then consisted of two Cadet corporals and two or three sergeants. Usually the Color sergeant gave the necessary commands for the movements and for rendering honors.

Much of the information about the PMC Color Guard is contained in the Adjutant’s Books (1862 to 1888) and the published General and Special Orders of Charles and Frank Hyatt. Although most of the Cadet appointments did not contain descriptions of assignments, in some cases individuals were listed as Color Bearers. Unfortunately a complete set of these Cadet appointments has not survived.

By the 1920’s, the reputation and enrollment of PMC was endangered by a lack of academic accreditation. To overcome these challenges, admissions standards were changed and all high school work was shifted to the Pennsylvania Military College Preparatory School. As Vice-President, Colonel Frank Hyatt also investigated having PMC approved by the Middle States Association.

Founded in 1887, The Middle States Association is an organization that provides schools, colleges and universities affirmation that they meet the established and rigorous academic standards of the Association. The value of this accreditation is the recognition that a reliable and independent authority has affirmed the quality of education offered by a college or university.

Colonel Hyatt learned that PMC did not meet the standards for accreditation by Middle States because

PMC was a private military college with no endowment.
Its library facilities were lacking.
The relationship with the preparatory school was to close.

To meet the requirements of Middle States, PMC began to expand the library, in large part due to gift of 3,000 books from Dr. James H. Gravell, of the Board of Trustees, and the appointment of Albert Corpening as the first librarian. In addition, steps were taken to make the preparatory school separate, including making Karl Agan, the College Registrar, Headmaster of the Pennsylvania Military Preparatory School.

In 1947, new efforts were made to gain accreditation, including building a new library. Unfortunately, the visiting committee from Middle States denied the college’s application in 1949 because of a lack of financial stability. With the arrival of General Edward E. MacMorland in 1953, a detailed plan had been developed to accomplish the goal of achieving Middle States accreditation. Under the General’s leadership along with the many improvements made over the past 10 years by other dedicated people, PMC was ready. Despite several areas that needed “clarification,” PMC was accredited in 1954.

During a follow-up evaluation in 1957, which was to confirm the findings of the 1954 evaluation, the Middle States Visiting Committee commended PMC for its “administration and leadership, improved alumni relations, good record keeping, improved financial and budgetary situation, high spirit and morale of students and good library leadership and staff.”

The iconic bugle call “Taps” is possibly the most familiar melody to those who have served their country. When played, these twenty-four notes produce an emotion that lingers in the hearts and minds long after its tones end.

According to Taps historian M/Sgt Jari Villanueva, the bugle call was intended to signal lights out. While encamped at Harrison’s Landing during the Peninsular Campaign of 1862, Union General Daniel Butterfield (Third Brigade, First Division, Fifth Army Corps, Army of the Potomac) sought to replace the bugle call Extinguish Lights. He felt the call was too formal. He called Oliver Willcox Norton, the brigade bugler, and the two men worked together on a new call. Taps was first sounded in July 1862, and quickly spread to other units. The first use of Taps at a military funeral occurred when Captain John C. Tidball of Battery A, 2nd Artillery, ordered it played for the burial of a soldier killed in action. This custom was quickly adopted throughout the Army of the Potomac. In 1874, the U.S. Army officially recognized Taps.

Almost immediately words were added. The first were, “Go To Sleep, Go to Sleep.” The most famous and possibly the most recognized set of words to Taps has been attributed to Rukurd Hurd, an 1878 graduate of Pennsylvania Military Academy.

Day is done, gone the sun,
From the lake, from the hills, from the sky.
All is well. Safely rest.
God is nigh.

Fading light dims the sight,
And a star gems the sky, gleaming bright,
From afar drawing nigh,
Falls the night.

Dear one, rest! In the west
Sable night lulls the day on her breast,
Sweet, goodnight!
Now away, to thy rest.

Love, sweet dreams! Lo the beams
Of the light fairy moon kiss the streams;
Love, goodnight!
Ah, too soon! Peaceful dreams!

Rukurd Hurd left PMA in 1878 with a degree in civil engineering and settled in Minnesota. Although he was the secretary of the Minnesota State Tax Commission, he was also a consulting engineer for the United States Bureau of Mines. In 1911, he wrote Hurd’s Iron Ore Manual of the Lake Superior Region, and was recognized to be one of the leading mining experts in the country. During World War I, Hurd was a Major in the Engineer Reserve Corps and in charge of the Division of Statistics and Reports. In addition to composing the lyrics for Taps, Hurd wrote the music and words to three cadet songs: Rally (in memory of Theodore Hyatt), PMC Marching Song, and PMC Cadet Ley (dedicated to Charles Hyatt).

The PMC class ring has been a cherished memory of every cadet’s years at the school. The “Junior Ring Dance” was the long-awaited event for cadets. At the dance, members of the Junior Class received the coveted college ring, were officially recognized as upperclassmen, and given a greater responsibility in the Corps.

The Hyatt Armory was always beautifully decorated for what many considered to be a social highlight of the year. Upon entering the armory, Juniors were received by the College President, Commandant of Cadets and members of the military staff. Although the armory was always decorated, the center of attention was the nine-foot high replica of the PMC ring. As the name of each cadet and his date were called, they walked through the ring. Here the cadet had his own ring placed on his finger by his date. After receiving his ring, and a kiss, the couple walked through an arch of drawn sabres held by Seniors..

Prior to 1961, the replica of the ring was borrowed from Valley Forge Military Academy. For several years, the Student Council worked tirelessly on obtaining a replica of the ring for the use by successive Junior classes. The A.J. Schmidt Company of Chester made the frame of the ring. In 1963, a committee of Juniors completed the ring and artwork.

After the ring presentations, the capacity crowd spent the rest of the evening dancing to the music of renowned orchestras. Members of the Class of 1962 were able to entice Maynard “The Boss” Ferguson and his 16-piece orchestra to play at the Junior Ring Dance. The performance of the band enthralled many on the dance floor. In fact many couples stopped dancing near the end of every song to listen mellow tones of the brilliant Ferguson, who ranks as one of the most influential musicians in the history of Jazz.

The Cadet Corps Commanders, called First Captains after Eisenhower’s 1963 visit, were the highest-ranking Cadet. They were the personification of the PMC Cadet. In the eyes of Rooks, they were “God-like figures.” To the Upper Classmen, they were responsible for maintaining the morale and standards of the Corps as well as keeping the bond of trust with the Military Staff.

A selection committee, consisting of the Military Staff was responsible for selecting the new First Captain. This group prepared a slate of candidates and, after a series of meetings, the leadership of the Corps was decided and presented to the President of PMC.

The criteria for selecting a new First Captain consisted of:
1. A Cadet’s performance during ROTC Summer Camp
2. The military record of the Cadet at PMC
3. Academic Standing (a GPA of 2.5 was required)
4. Demonstrated, or potential, leadership qualities

Leadership, however, was the critical factor that was often considered the most important.