Education: Citadel’s Choice

In the 92 years since its cadets helped ring the curtain up on the Civil War by firing on the Union steamship Star of the West on her way to relieve Fort Sumter, the Military College of South Carolina (the Citadel) has had much to remember. It has turned out generals by the dozen (among them: Lieut. General James T. Moore, Major General Harry K. Pickett, Major General James B. Allison). Major Thomas D. Howie (“See you in St. Lô”) went to the Citadel, and so did Korean Ace Captain Dolphin Overton. At the Citadel, a plebe is still a Doowillie, Dumbrod, Dumbsmack or Duwack; he must still “crawl” for an upperclassman. If a cadet asks, “What do plebes rank?”, the Doowillie must reply: “Sir, the president’s cat, the commandant’s dog, the waitresses in the mess hall and all the colonels at Clemson [College], sir.”

Last week, the Citadel (enrollment 1,393) welcomed a new man whose rank is in no doubt. After receiving a hero’s ticker-tape welcome in Manhattan, he had headed for South Carolina to accept the $12,000 job as successor to the Citadel’s 86-year-old president, General Charles P. Summerall, onetime U.S. Army Chief of Staff. In time, the new president will also be something to remember. His name: Mark Clark, General, U.S.A.