2 minute read

GENERAL’S GREETINGS

from The Sabre Magazine: Summer-Fall 2023

from The Sabre Magazine: Summer-Fall 2023, page 22

IN MEMORIAM: HENRY GREEN ‘37

Wow, what an incredible spring! R-MA won a national championship in computer science, along with a state title for that same Middle School team; our track and field athletes won state championships in the 100 meter, 200 meter, and shot put events; and 60 graduates just departed with more than $19 million in scholarship awards, for our 16th consecutive year of 100% college acceptance!

We are particularly proud of the 12 Service Academy appointments and several more “full rides” from ROTC scholarships won by the Class of 2023.

If you’ve not seen this year’s Commencement Ceremony, you can catch it on our YouTube channel (www.YouTube.com/@RandolphMaconAcademyVA) and hear the Assistant Commandant of the Marine Corps’ remarks at about the 50 minute mark in the video. We were all pleased to see General Smith nominated as the next Commandant of the Marine Corps on the Monday after he spoke here on The Hill!

The fall looks even more exciting, as we’ll begin the third great revolution in R-MA’s development as a military preparatory school. The departure of Air Force Junior ROTC was not something anyone here wanted to see happen, but it has opened the door to an even greater opportunity for our faculty and our cadets. Having begun our military journey in 1917 with the National Defense Cadet Corps, we became an even more distinguished military program with the arrival of Air Force Junior ROTC in 1975.

While I was sad to see AFJROTC depart at the end of this year, the Board of Trustees has directed us to build a proprietary military program to make R-MA’s campus culture and the performance of our cadets still more distinctive. The opportunity to tailor that program to the strengths and needs of today’s students is something we’ll be proud to show to you when you visit campus this fall. We’ll retain our Flight Program, now augmented by the Unmanned Systems Lab, and one of the strongest programs of its type in the country today. Our long association with the Air Force Academy Falcon Foundation will also continue to thrive. For those who may not know, R-MA graduates and post-grads now number more than 40 cadets at USAFA each year!

So, make your reservations for Homecoming early! Many of you know we sold out all the hotels in the area last fall and folks had to make reservations more than 50 miles away, just to be with us on that special day! We look forward to an even bigger crowd to celebrate all that it means to be a member of the Yellow Jacket family!