A Wet Rat

Hollywood finished Cadre Week (Hell Week) in one piece apparently. She has called me on the phone a couple of times and has sent me a couple of e-mails. I was looking through the photos the school takes and caught a glimpse of my girl as she was coming out of the river. You can't see these very well but I have ordered copies and will frame them upon arrival!

Check out the short hair. I think it looks great. I am hoping to see pictures soon of her day at New Market on Sunday. The new cadets all took their oath and remembered those who had come before them. Read about the tradition from the VMI website:

More than 400 members of VMI’s new Rat Class took the oath as cadets at the nation’s oldest state-supported military school Sunday. The ceremony took place on the field where the college’s Corps of Cadets distinguished themselves in the Civil War Battle of New Market.
VMI’s newest cadet class, the Class of 2012, which matriculated two weeks ago, traveled by bus the 80 miles north to New Market Battlefield State Historical Park for the ceremony. A small group of upper class cadets marched the entire distance over several days, representing the three-day march that took the entire student body of the college into battle 144 years ago.
After taking a tour of the historic grounds and reciting the Cadet Oath, the new cadets charged across the battlefield as the New Market cadets did on May 15, 1864. “The new cadet visit to New Market each year is an important event that gives our newest cadets — who come to VMI from all over the country — a real sense of VMI’s heritage as the only military school to ever fight as a unit in combat,” explained Col. Thomas H. Trumps ’79, commandant of cadets.
“Although our new cadets are well versed in the Institute’s history, it doesn’t hit home until they stand on hallowed ground and charge across the ‘Field of Lost Shoes,’” Trumps said. “At that moment, the new cadets fully appreciate the significance and sacrifice of that day nearly 150 years ago. When you couple the re-enactment of the charge with the solemn Cadet Oath ceremony, it’s truly a moving day that marks the start of their four-year journey of becoming full-fledged VMI men and women.”
New Market cadets dubbed the battleground the “Field of Lost Shoes” because on the day of the battle it was a rain-soaked, recently plowed wheat field that sucked the footwear right off of many of the combatants.
Ten cadets died from battle wounds, and 45 were wounded; however, the Corps plugged a hole in the center of the Confederate ranks and executed a vital role in repelling the Union forces. Six cadets who died in the battle are buried in Lexington adjacent to the VMI parade ground.