Fishburne Military School Welcomes Parents
A Fishburne Family for sure…James Gladhill ’61, James Gladhill ’89 and the rest of the family turned out to congratulate Dylan Gladhill ’19 on becoming “an old man”.
Waynesboro, VA — Over the weekend, Parents of Cadets at Fishburne Military School streamed onto Campus for the Caissons’ annual Parents Military Weekend festivities. The event is designed to celebrate the accomplishments and progress of the Corps of Cadets both academically and militarily throughout the first nine weeks of the year.
Over 100 families arrived throughout the course of the weekend for Parent/Teacher conferences, National Honor Society Inductions, Drill and Raiders Teams demonstrations, Soccer, fundraisers and more. Families traveled from as far as California, Montana, Arizona and Mexico to take part in this celebration of all things FMS.
On Friday, Mr. Liam McNamara ’09 delivered the guest speech as twelve new members were inducted into Fishburne Military School’s M. Frank Wooten chapter of the National Honor Society. Inductees were: Timothy Arndt ’17 (Fairfax Station, VA), Joshua Beard ’17 (Aguila, AZ), Cody Chapple ’17 (Grottoes, VA), Ryan Curran ’19 (Carthage, NC), David Eldredge ’19 (Carver, MA), Gavin Flanagan ’20 (Centreville, VA), Jakaria Labay-Kamara ’17 (Hughesville, MD), Hu Sung Lee ’18 (Seoul, Korea), Howard Marsh ’17 (Middlebrook, VA), Yuan Pu ’19 (Glen Allen, VA), Braydon Stone ’17 (Annapolis, MD), Garrett Venn ’17 (Staunton, VA).
The Caissons hosted Massanutten on Anderson Field that evening for a soccer match. Prior to the match and during the half-time proceedings all FMS Fall Senior Athletes were recognized and called to mid-field, escorting their parents or a favorite instructor.
Saturday morning began with a roar as 32 RATs (Recruits-At-Training) completed an early morning road march through Waynesboro before completing a series of teamwork exercise on campus and “breaking out” to become full-fledged members of the Fishburne Military School Corps of Cadets. The final event was a Bus Pull and the Cadets erupted into joyful cheers as they crossed the finish line and became “old men”. Each new cadet would have his new black name tag pinned to his uniform by his mother, father, relative or sponsor following the afternoon review parade.
The Color Guard, Drill Teams and Raiders Team then took turns demonstration their newly honed, various skills much to the delight of the crowds who cheered and clapped as rifles snapped, popped and flew and Cadets rappelled from the top of barracks before building and crossing a one-rope bridge.
The official events concluded as the Corps of Cadets took the field for a Review Parade ending with the New Cadet Pinning.
Fishburne Military School is the oldest and smallest of all military schools for boys in Virginia. Its college-prep curriculum is built upon the structure of an Army JROTC program. FMS is designated as a JROTC Honor Unit with Distinction and may nominate qualified candidates to the United States Service Academies. Fishburne hosts one of only four Summer JROTC programs in the nation, accredited by US Army Cadet Command.
