GRADUATE NEW YEAR, NEW WPAOG INITIATIVES TO SUPPORT THE LONG GRAY LINE

To achieve this bold vision, WPAOG is preparing to launch a number of new initiatives:

Rockbound Highland Home

Designed to welcome back graduates and their families with special access and activities not available to the public, this new program will ensure that every graduate coming back home to the Academy is welcomed back as family should be. The Rockbound Highland Home Program is exclusively for USMA graduates and designed to assist you in navigating post security procedures, offer insider access to West Point activities and select facilities, and provide personalized tours for you and your guests.

Career Services

To respond to growing requests from our graduates, the West Point Association of Graduates is investing in expanding and enhancing the Career Services Program it offers our alumni. Successful career transitions are built on a foundation of knowledge and planning, provided through an effective career services program.

West Point Connect

A WPAOG priority is to invest in its online infrastructure to create a dynamic, next-generation networking and collaborative tool that will boost the connectivity of members of the Long Gray Line.

For more information, contact WPAOG at 845.446.1650 or annualgiving@wpaog.org.

Experience one-of-a-kind adventures with WPAOG’s travel program.

By Keith J. Hamel, WPAOG staff

FROM: Glenn E. Schweitzer ’53

I was pleased to see Ed White ’52 featured on the cover of the 2016 fall issue of West Point. At the time of his walk in space, I was a foreign service officer serving as the first science attaché at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow and later wrote about this event in a book. Here’s a passage that demonstrates U.S.-Soviet relations at the time:

“I saw a stirring Soviet television broadcast of the first walk in space by Soviet cosmonaut [Alexei A.] Leonov. Our astronaut Ed White, whom I had known when we were cadets at West Point, was scheduled to make a similar walk a few weeks later. The next day when I was playing tennis with Frank Bourgholtzer, a wellknown American correspondent in Moscow, we talked about the film and his possible interest in showing it on American television. We agreed that it would have wide public appeal and might also help Ed White prepare for his walk. Frank subsequently purchased a copy of the film from a Soviet news agency, and it was promptly shown to the American public and to Ed. Three months later, Ed bought me lunch in Houston and described how the film had helped him in learning to tumble in space without losing control.”

RESPONSE:

Veryinteresting,althoughsuchcooperationcontradictsthewords ofColonelFrankBorman’50(Retired),whowasthebackup commandpilotforGeminiIV,themissionduringwhichWhite performedhishistoricspacewalk.Duringa1999interviewforthe NASAJohnsonSpaceCenterOralHistoryProject,Bormansaid, “MyreasonforjoiningNASAwastoparticipateintheApollo Program,thelunarprogram,andhopefullybeattheRussians…I tookveryseriouslythisColdWarandtheideathatwewere somehowsecond-ratetoaCommunistcountry.”Bormanwas initiallyopposedtoWhite’sspacewalk,feelingthatitwasadded lateinGemini’strainingprogramandasadirectresponseto Leonov’swalkinspace,soitisfascinatingtothinkthatWhite̓s feat was “aided”bytheRussians.Although,astheInternational SpaceStationillustrates,spaceexplorationmaybebestasan international race.