Editor's Note: This article was submitted following publication of the June issue of the Kablegram, in which there was an article about Colonel Robert Wease (by Mark Orr, SMA `73). That article prompted the story that follows.

I just found the SMA website and received a June 2002 Kablegram. I'll be sending in the alumni dues and hope to attend an alumni function in the future. I graduated in 1965 and retired from the U.S, Army in 1997 as an Armor officer. My wife and I have retired to the mountains of Colorado and hope some SMA alumni will drop in to ski with us sometime.

I read Mark Orr's article about Major Wease ( he was Captain Wease in 1965). My roommate and I decided in our senior year that George Washington and Thomas Jefferson together with an open textbook couldn't have scored an “A” on one of his exams, but that's another story! It was great to read that he is still at Fishburne Military School.

The article by Mark Orr reminded me of the fact that I too was the beneficiary of a second chance at SMA that made a huge difference for me as it turned out, and I'd like to share it with the alumni who get the Kablegram.

I was not a model cadet in my first two years at SMA. I managed to land on the Beat Squad pretty regularly, and I was a fixture in Major Dodge's (the Commandant of Cadets for those who don't know him) answering “sticks”. I wore a groove in my right shoulder marching around the asphalt on Fridays and Saturdays with that M1 rifle. Maybe that's why I decided to go Armor rather than Infantry!.

Major Haddock (the Headmaster at the time) always managed to say “hello” to me when I was marching on the Beat Squad. He often asked me how I managed to do well academically considering the fact that I spent so much time walking off demerits rather than studying. Also, my roommates were always quick to point out that dating the girls at Stuart Hall and Fairfax Hall was a much better option than marching in the rain, but I just didn't get it.

Now comes the second chance! Major Dodge and Major Haddock must have gotten together and decided that I needed a fresh start. Otherwise I probably would have left SMA at the end of my sophomore year - voluntarily or involuntarily.

Major Dodge called me into his office and offered me an opportunity to become the Commandant's Aide at the start of my Junior year. The aide's duties were to be a model cadet and work every afternoon posting “sticks” to cadets' records and then preparing the weekly Beat Sheet. The “carrot” was that I had an opportunity to graduate as an officer, and my slate could be wiped clean. It was quite clear that I was expected to excel academically and set a positive example for a change. Parole was what it was - one slip and back to the dungeon.

Instead of marching on the Beat Squad I was to be under Major Dodge's nose every day working and studying in the office next to his. Well, I grabbed the second chance. I didn't deserve it for sure, but I figured that I owed him a lot. I think Major Haddock was involved too in this little project to rehabilitate me, but I never knew for certain. Frankly, at the time I felt like Major Dodge was the only one who cared about me one way or another. I was determined to repay him fully! His son, Randy, was a classmate, and I found myself to be jealous of him - having a great dad like Major Dodge.

So the story has a happy ending. I did graduate as an officer, marched in the Howie Rifles - I was pretty good at marching by my senior year after a zillion miles on the Beat Squad! I produced some grades that made Major Dodge and Major Haddock pretty happy . I don't remember ever making that “A” on a “Wease” government test, and I'm not sure anyone else did either. I even managed to find out where the girls were at Fairfax Hall and Mary Baldwin because I had some new found free time - once I got off the Beat Squad for good!

Now I can look back on 27 years as a U.S. Army officer. Had it not been for Major Dodge (I know he ended up as Colonel Dodge, but he was “Major Dodge” to me.), I wouldn't have made it at all. I like to think that I had more than a few soldiers beginning with Viet Nam who I gave second chances to because I was the recipient of that same generosity from Major Dodge.

I hope to see him at a future reunion and have the honor of saluting him. In the meantime I'd like to thank him again. I'm sure there are many others who benefited from Major Dodge over his career at SMA. I'm just one of them.