Tag: West Point

Veterans Day Ceremony 2023 program. Plus JROTC History by Dr. Erik Anderson, and an update on Gloucester’s Civil War Era Coat #GloucesterMA

Posted on by Catherine

PHOTO BLOCK: program; Emcee Vionette “Vee” Chipperini, Dir. Cape Ann Veterans Services; Cata trolley; lining up for the parade to the Joan of Arc monument and Captain Lester S. Wass Post 3 American Legion following the beautiful Veterans Day Ceremony 2023 at Gloucester High School

PHOTO BLOCK: Gloucester’s Civil War Era Coat

As a result of the pandemic and lobby enhancements at GHS, Gloucester Civil War era coat was covered and stashed in the hallway. The temporary sign with an introduction to the display will soon be replaced by four permanent labels designed for this case. The BEFORE photographs were taken in 2015 by Kim Mimnaugh who after noticing disrepair and mold, sought care of the coat & case, and its forgotten history. A community restoration fundraising effort expanded in order to display the coat in full view. Valerie Marino shared news about possible funding through the Massachusetts State Historical Records Advisory Board (MA SHRAB) which was applied for and awarded in 2018 and 2019.

“I’m proud of our city volunteers, students and residents who came together to help raise awareness of this American artifact that has history to our country and to our local community,” said Mayor Sefatia Romeo Theken. “With this SHRAB grant, as well as Awesome Gloucester and online fundraising monies, the education and heritage will live on for years to come.”…The SHRAB program is an extension of grants awarded by the Massachusetts Sesquicentennial Commission of the American Civil War with supporting services from the Secretary of the Commonwealth William F. Galvin and Massachusetts Archives Department, which features a rigorous and competitive qualifying process. The program reviewed hundreds of applications across the Commonwealth, but the ten-page application overview designed by two young activists, …was “enthusiastically” selected by Commonwealth Archivist Dr. John Warner and his committee.”

Gloucester’s Civil War-Era Coat

This exhibit tells the story about a noble coat and its cultural significance to Gloucester and American history.

  • Title: Gloucester’s Civil War-era Coat
  • Designer: Unknown
  • Date: American 19th century, about 1860
  • Owner: ______ (wearer once known)
  • Media: ¾ length coat: linsey-woolsey (linen and wool mix), buttons, repairs & patches
  • Dimensions: about 27” x 12” x 49” on the stand
  • Credit line: City of Gloucester, Massachusetts. Gift of Roger W. Babson (1875-1967) 1934 and dedicated May 30-31, 1935, GHS; Bequeathed to Babson by Albert W. Bacheler (1842-1929); Gift of wearer(s) once known, enslaved person(s), to Bacheler, December 1864.

Introduction label. Four permanent panels coming soon. Albert Bacheler (1842 Balasore, India -1929 Melrose, MA) was a Gloucester resident, GHS Principal, and community leader for 30 years beginning in 1884 until he retired in 1914. Under Bacheler, GHS acquired accreditation status to provide equal and higher educational opportunities for boys and girls, as well as athletic and extracurricular activities. He used the coat to inspire generations of students. Bacheler graduated from Dartmouth in 1871 where he also played baseball. Bacheler was a Civil War Veteran, New Hampshire 12th Regiment, Company E and POW.  He enlisted August 12, 1862 and fought in every battle albeit Cold Harbor including Gettysburg. He was captured and imprisoned in Libby Prison, Richmond, Virginia. He escaped and received help from enslaved families–including this textile–as he traveled north. The coat afforded Bacheler warmth and camouflage to escape recapture as he made his way. Bacheler eventually reached safety, meeting up with the Eight United States Colored Cavalry. What happened to the people who helped him and the wearer of this coat is unknown. This exhibit honors their agency and Bacheler’s, educators, education, veterans, service and community.

Bacheler established the forerunner of what became the JROTC. I’m republishing this great read by educator Dr. Erik Anderson, a former GHS Principal himself.

JROTC FASCINATING HISTORY AT GHS

read excerpts from The Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps at Gloucester High School: An Interdisciplinary Study of Community Leadership Development Amidst Societal Change by Dr. Erik M. Anderson, ©2015

A lengthy list of former GHS students and JROTC members, mentors, veterans, notables, businesses and organizations mentioned is incredible! Among them are: Leo Alper, Roger W. Babson, Albert Bacheler, Sargeant Barbosa, Melvin Bernstein, Kellogg G. Birdseye, Harry F. Bray, John Buckley, R. Wesley Burnham, Frank T. Chance, Roger Conant, Stephen Dexter, George Dolliver, Donald H. Emero, Saul Feldman, Charles Foster, Major Galbraith, Peter Garrisi, Jane Garrisi, Anthony Gentile, Ron Gilson, William Goodwin, Debbie Goodwin, David Greer, John F. Grillo Sr., Henry Hurwitz, Leslie O. Johnson, Arthur Jones, Benedict Karr, Mark Kennefick, Hilton Kramer, Phil Kramer, Clovis LaFond, Col. McBride, Captain McNerney, Thomas Morris, Morris Pett, David Pistenmaa, William Poirier, Herb Pomeroy, Kendrick Rattray, Henry Rosen, Levi Rudolph, Bob Ryan, Frank C. Shepherd, J. Raymond Silva, Richard R. Silva, Warren Silva, Benjamin A. Smith III, Robert Smith, Roy Spittle, William B. Squillace, Bob Stevenson, Oliver H. Story, Sgt. Tucker, Dick Wilson; and West Point and so many colleges and universities; extensive bibliography, newspapers, city archives and Sarah Dunlap.

**PLEASE NOTE THE EXCERPTS ARE INCOMPLETE & MAY NOT INCLUDE NAMES LISTED ABOVE. I WILL ADD THE FULL PDF LATER.**

Dr. Erik Anderson 2015 – excerpts from paper about JROTC at GHS its history of Community Leadership incl interviews with Gloucester veterans and notablesDownload

“…as far as I’m concerned, it belongs to Gloucester and there is much, much more that could be researched and written.”

Dr. Erik Anderson. Anderson is an educator and former principal at Gloucester High School, Gloucester, MA, and White Mountains Regional High School, Whitefield, NH.

Cape Ann Forum announces next incredible speakers: May 6 with Sarah Chayes and May 20 with Andrew Bacevich

Posted on by Catherine

Cape Ann Forum logo

Mark your calendars. Kathy O’Neil shares Cape Ann Forum‘s press release for their next  (local) lectures on international issues.

May 6 Sarah Chayes at City Hall

WHY CORRUPTION THREATENS GLOBAL SECURITY: A Cape Ann Forum with Sarah Chayes

In dozens of countries, corruption can no longer be understood as merely the bad deeds of individuals. Rather, it is the operating system of sophisticated networks that cross national boundaries in their drive to maximize returns, and it has gotten to a level that it threatens global security, according to Sarah Chayes, who is speaking at the next Cape Ann Forum at Gloucester City Hall on Sunday, May 6 at 7 pm.

Chayes, author, a former reporter for National Public Radio in Afghanistan and a senior associate in the Democracy and Rule of Law program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, is not only exposing the extent of this problem—she’s advising policymakers on how to combat it. One of her recent studies focused on Honduras, the source of many of the refugees now seeking asylum in the United States.

“The strands of the Honduran kleptocratic network overlap, and personnel is shared among public, private, and criminal network elements. But the three sectors do retain some autonomy, interacting via exchanges of revenues and services,” writes Chayes.

“Revenues are captured at the expense of the environment as well as the people of Honduras, and some of the most resilient opponents of the network’s business model are community groups defending the land. These groups are largely ignored by international donor institutions, the bulk of whose assistance benefits the network.”

Sarah Chayes’s work explores how severe corruption can help prompt such crises as terrorism, revolutions and their violent aftermaths, and environmental degradation. She recently left her position at Carnegie to work on her next book, which will apply this framing to the United States.

Before joining the Carnegie Endowment, Chayes served as special assistant to the top-ranked American military officer, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen. She focused on governance issues, participating in cabinet-level decision-making on Afghanistan, Pakistan, and the Arab Spring, building on the years she reported on the region for NPR.

Chayes says it was “a sense of historic opportunity” that prompted her to end her journalism career in early 2002 and to remain in Afghanistan to help rebuild the country. She chose to settle in the former Taliban heartland, Kandahar where she founded Arghand, a start-up manufacturing cooperative, where men and women working together produce fine skin-care products.

Her first book, The Punishment of Virtue: Inside Afghanistan After the Taliban, was published in 2006. Her most recent book is Thieves of State: Why Corruption Threatens Global Security (2014), Winner of the 2015 Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Current Interest. “I can’t imagine a more important book for our time.” ―Sebastian Junger

This is the Cape Ann Forum’s last major event of the 2017/2018 season, as the organization closes in its 100th presentation since it was formed in 2001, which will be commemorated next September. The May 6 forum will also feature the announcement of the organization’s annual international awareness award to a graduating Gloucester High School senior, which comes with a $500 scholarship.

Sarah Chayes
Sarah Chayes portrait by photographer Kaveh Sardari

May 20th Andrew Bacevich at Gloucester Stage

The Cape Ann Forum is also co-sponsoring a presentation by Andrew Bacevich, a West Point graduate and Vietnam War veteran, at the Gloucester Stage Company, 267 East Main Street, on Sunday, May 20, at 6 p.m. The talk is part of a month-long program on Combat Art—“In War and Afterwards”—curated by Gloucester artist Ken Hruby and organized by the Rocky Neck Cultural Center, which will exhibit the work of combat veterans.

Bacevich is a two-time Forum speaker and a nationally known commentator on international affairs, a professor emeritus at Boston University, and the author of nine books, including The Limits of Power: The End of American Exceptionalism and America’s War for the Greater Middle East: A Military History.