FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                                            RELEASE NO. 45-08

LYRICS REVISED – June 4, 2008

WEST POINT N.Y. – Six small but important changes to the lyrics to the West Point Alma Mater and to the Corps have been made.

These songs written in the early 20th century simply reflected the times.  They were not designed to exclude women.  The simple truth was that women were not part of the Corps or alumni when the songs were written.

The impetus for this decision was attending the funerals of female graduates killed in action and realizing that singing “Guide us, thy sons, aright” in the presence of those great female warriors was unacceptable.  These songs explicitly exclude our women graduates–two of whom have given their lives in battle–was the driving force behind the changes, and it’s simply the right thing to do.

“I’ve listened to graduates and current cadets’ thoughts on this matter, and I appreciate everyone’s input.  At the end of the day, as the commander I am ultimately responsible for doing what’s right–and making these relatively minor changes is the right thing to do,” said  Lt. Gen. F. L. “Buster” Hagenbeck, West Point Superintendent.

“As we are relearning on distant battlefields, symbols and words are important,” said Hagenbeck. “Six hundred of our current cadets and 3,000 of our total graduates are women, but two of our most important symbols, the Alma Mater and The Corps contained words that explicitly exclude them.

“As leaders of character, do we expect our cadets or graduates to condone exclusion of women?  No.  We clearly expect them to do the right thing,” said Hagenbeck.

“No place in America embraces tradition more than West Point, and these songs have been part of our tradition for almost half of our history,” noted Hagenbeck. “But changing one word in the Alma Mater does not destroy our traditions.”

The changes:

Alma Mater

"Guide us thy sons aright," to "Guide us thine own aright,"

The Corps

"The men of the Corps long dead." to "The ranks of the Corps long dead."

"We sons of today, we salute you" to "The Corps of today, we salute you"

"You, sons of an earlier day" to "The Corps of an earlier day"

"And the last man feels to his marrow" to "And the last one feels to the marrow"