New School Year Starts off with a Boom!

Written by The Trumpeter Cadet Staff
The 135^th Corps of Cadets marched into the chapel where faculty, staff, alumni, former employees, city and county officials, and friends of WMA had assembled.  The invocation was given by COL Tim Casey, COL Rick Cottrell introduced those on stage and COL Michael Lierman welcomed everyone to the ceremony. 
COL Lierman spoke of the people who would end up being most important in the lives of the cadets.  “Most times it’s the little things that make the biggest impact”, said COL Lierman.  “Wentworth is not the buildings, or seats you sit in.  Wentworth is the people. You are one of those people.”

COL Lierman went on to explain the history of the ceremony.  COL Jerry Brown, former president of Wentworth Military Academy & College and now the Mayor of Lexington, started the ceremony in 1993 to signify the start of the school year and as a time to set goals and expectations.  COL Lierman made the following suggestions to the Corps:  Set goals and expectations for yourself.  Write them down and look back at them often.  Focus on what you want to achieve and visualize the goal.  Step out of your comfort zone.  Treat others the way you would want them to treat you.  And finally, make good decisions and don’t pass judgment.

COL Lierman then spoke of Congressman Ike Skelton.  Congressman Skelton passed away last year.  He had been the keynote speaker of the Sounding of the Cannon Ceremony for the past 15 years.  Congressman Skelton overcame many struggles in his life, and he finished every race he started.  He was special to Wentworth and his message was “Achieve the Honorable.” 

COL Lierman finished with this quote by Lao Tzu, “Do the difficult things while they are easy and do the great things while they are small.  A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step.”

Mayor Jerry Brown invited the cadets to be part of “Legendary Lexington” and to participate in everything the community has to offer.  “You are now part of the community and its history,” Mayor Brown told the cadets.

The 135^th Corps is led by C/LTC Justin Aldred.  The Battalion Commander spoke to the Corps and thanked them for their service to Wentworth.  He went on to say that we are a team and a family.  We should motivate, help, and encourage each other.  He then quoted part of the West Point Cadet Prayer, “Choose the harder right instead of the easier wrong.”

The 135^th Corps of Cadets raised their right hand as the Cadet Oath was administered by Commandant of Cadets LTC Darren Fitz Gerald.  LTC Fitz Gerald also administered the Honor Council Oath to the seven members in attendance.

The last part of the ceremony was the actual sounding of the cannon.  COL Cottrell recited part of General Douglas MacArthur’s Thayer Award acceptance address given at West Point in 1962.  This address has become known as the “Duty, Honor, Country” speech.  Part of the speech is as follows:

Duty, Honor, Country: Those three hallowed words reverently dictate what you ought to be, what you can be, what you will be. They are your rallying points: to build courage when courage seems to fail; to regain faith when there seems to be little cause for faith; to create hope when hope becomes forlorn.  They build your basic character. They mold you for your future roles as the custodians of the nation's defense. They make you strong enough to know when you are weak and brave enough to face yourself when you are afraid. They teach you to be proud and unbending in honest failure, but humble and gentle in success; not to substitute words for actions, not to seek the path of comfort, but to face the stress and spur of difficulty and challenge; to learn to stand up in the storm but to have compassion on those who fall; to master yourself before you seek to master others; to have a heart that is clean, a goal that is high; to learn to laugh yet never forget how to weep; to reach into the future yet never neglect the past; to be serious yet never to take yourself too seriously; to be modest so that you will remember the simplicity of true greatness, the open mind of true wisdom and the meekness of true strength. They give you a temper of the will, a quality of the imagination, a vigor of the emotions, a freshness of the deep springs of life, a temperamental predominance of courage over timidity, an appetite for adventure over love of ease. They create in your heart the sense of wonder, the unfailing hope of what next, and the joy and inspiration of life. They teach you in this way to be an officer and a gentleman.

After each of these words, Duty, Honor, and Country, the cannon is fired.   

Good Luck 135^th Corps of Cadets, faculty and staff!!