Army sports’ biggest cheerleader is departing West Point today.

Lt. Gen. Daniel W. Christman, the U.S. Military Academy’s 55th superintendent and for the past five years its largest athletic supporter, moves off into retirement after 36 years of active military service.

Christman and his wife, Susan, will reside in Alexandria, Va., where he will take on an executive directorship with the Kimsey Foundation in Washington, D.C.

Christman said his work with the "rapidly maturing foundation" will emphasize giving to underprivileged youth in Washington, D.C.

Looking back at his tenure as superintendent, the 1965 West Point graduate said he takes great pride in having helped move forward the academy’s modernization program while also instilling a set of values in emerging leaders that reinforces what earlier administrations have done.

"Keeping a competitive sustainment level is important," Christman said, "so that we don’t fall behind our peers -- the other service academies, Notre Dame, Georgetown, Princeton and other institutions of higher learning."

Christman said he is pleased with the Army’s support in maintaining the funding for the academy’s vision into the future.

He also listed alumni support, which surpassed the Bicentennial Campaign’s goal of $150 million last year.

Army and alumni financial support are working together "to sustain by 2010 the very finest and most modern facilities for higher education and military training in the country," he added. "That’s the goal."

Another high point was the "deepening of the understanding of the role of values in the training of officers."

He praised the work of former USMA superintendents and commandants who "held trainees to high and demanding standards, disciplined them firmly without demeaning the subordinate in the process.

"This notion of standards-based, tough training without humiliating or demeaning a subordinate in the process is important for 21st century leadership," Christman said. "It is something we have spent a great deal of time on with the cadets over the past five years.

"It has not taken root in every case," he explained. "But as with every commandant and every superintendent, we feel we have moved the ball forward."

His tenure as superintendent also provided some learning experiences, Christman said, particularly when it came to realizing the responsibility involved. That’s when the understanding that this job is bigger than one person hits you, he explained.

"You realize a responsibility to care for a national institution that has become a national treasure," Christman said. "You have a sacred trust to care for. That means quality programs, quality facilities and graduates that are recognized the world over as first-rate professional leaders."

He credits the variety of assignments the Army laid before him as the ultimate training needed to become superintendent.

"The Army was very good to me and provided me with a diversified array of prior assignments," he said. "Those assignments included teaching at the collegiate level and getting advanced degrees.

"I also commanded a company in combat and a battalion on the East German border."

These types of former commands kept him in touch with young people, Christman said.

"Commanding a unit is very much akin to being superintendent of West Point," he explained. "You’ve got to be involved with the troops here to be successful. There is an inspirational part of leader development.

"What the Army taught me is that while management and desk activities are at times important to be a good leader and an effective superintendent, you need to be in front of the troops often enough to impart your vision, inspire them if you can and just work with them as best you can for follow-on service in the Army," Christman said.

Now that the academy is approaching its bicentennial, Christman reflected upon what makes West Point West Point. Part of what makes the institution great, he said, is its alumni.

"There is nothing in nature that says West Point will be a wonderful school," he said. "You have to have a supportive alumni base with which to march into this next century."

Christman said it’s important that the alumni and the academy’s chain of command be on the same sheet of music when it comes to issues.

"We can’t have an alumni community that is speaking with discordant voices about issues that are long since settled at the academy -- discipline, honor, women, private funding," he explained. "Those have been contentious issues in years past and have long since been solved," Christman said.

He said that if the alumni and West Point can learn to speak with one voice and the academy can continue to attract quality young people -- both military and civilian -- to study and work here, West Point would stay in great shape.