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                         May 10, 2002

West Point Cub Pack seeks gold

By Lt. Col. Joe Manous
Cub Scout Pack 23

It has been a long road from design and construction through individual competition, but the West Point Cub Scout Pack (Pack 23) recently determined its 2002 Pinewood Derby Champions.

The 2002 Pack 23 winners are David Brownfield (Tiger Cubs), Jacob Ashcraft (Wolf), Josh McDonald (Bear) and Mike Theroux (WEBLOS). These boys represented West Point in the Hudson Valley Council District competition held at Center Court of the Newburgh Mall with David Brownfield finishing 3rd in the Tiger category.

The Pack competition was both exciting and eventful. While parents discussed the aerodynamics of various car shapes and the merits of graphite versus Teflon lubricants, the boys were awed by colorful paint schemes and the addition of Lego car drivers.

The day also marked the inauguration of an automated scoring system designed as an EE&CS independent study project by Cadet 1st Class Melissa Mills and Cadet 2nd Class Ben Quimby, David Bergmann and Joel Blanchard, under the supervision of Maj. Mike Brownfield.

The cadets designed, built, and tested the electronics that determine the finish order of a Pinewood Derby race to within one-thousandth of a second. Through this experience, these cadets were able to design a digital electronic system and provide a service to the community. Bergmann and Mills conducted a field test of their work by organizing and running the heats at the Pack competition.

Bergmann summed up the experience as, "working on the Pinewood Derby felt less like an assignment and more like a fun project just to do. It was great to see the fruits of our labor turn out so well when the scouts got to race their cars on the track. The competition was exciting and working with the young group was a lot of fun. It seemed that the scouts had as much fun racing their cars on the track as we did building it. Definitely a worthwhile project."