[sticklist] - MidWest Alumni Regiment Commander Resigns

[Richard Forno]

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(c/o the FOG Mail List and Pete Robinson):

Following email dated 7/10/2009 was addressed to the alumni relations  
office of Valley Forge.

Erin,

I you would be so kind as to forward this to the correct individuals.

Effective July 13th 2009 I am resigning my post as Regiment Commander  
for the Midwest Regiment.

In addition I had recently submitted a request to Erin Wooley to  
obtain a Alumni Board Position for the 2009 School Year. My reasons  
are similar to those of my classmates David Welsh and Joel Grunke ,  
however I have the advantage of looking at my Alma Mater from the  
outside not from an internal board appointment.

My disenchantment with the current state of affairs has been growing  
for the last 4 years, I attended Silver and Gold Star Dinners,  
assisted in forming the second Alumni Regiment and have been speaking  
with Joel Grunke to secure a board appointment with the hope that I  
could effect change. The resignations of my classmates are a key  
indicator that this strategy is not effective and I feel to pursue an  
appointment would lead to a futile utilization of my time.

Valley Forge Military And College no longer maintains the founding  
principles I believe are the cornerstone to my success in life, family  
and business. Our cadets are seen at Valley Forge Mall with their  
Chapel Caps on backwards or sitting sideways on their heads. Their  
uniforms are dirty and un-pressed and shoes are in such poor shape you  
would think they where vagabonds not from an institution that has a  
tuition rate of $30,000 a year. I attended several Silver and Gold  
Stars dinners and each time the table I was seated at the cadets,  
officers included they where rude and viewed the entire event as a  
joke. Furthermore I took my 6 year old son to see my Alma Mater and a  
JC Football game in 07, We toured the campus and secured permission to  
enter several of the halls. Locks on the doors, floors filthy just  
deplorable and the rooms that where open, I could not believe what I  
was looking at.. We attended the football game where only a small  
number of cadets attended, and unlike my time at the academy they  
spent the bulk of the game at the concession stand pushing each other  
throwing food on the ground again just deplorable behavior.

In addition to my first hand experience, the loss of the key personnel  
with tenure of 30 years is a mystery to me. Col Medearis who I believe  
represented the highest level of professionalism, discipline and  
overall true character of Valley Forge Military Academy resignation  
after 32 years is beyond logic. His reasons I feel where a farce to  
insure he protected his pension/401K and any other agreements that he  
was subject to monetarily. One who loved his career and made such an  
effort to insure the principles that the founded the Academy would  
only resign if he felt that they could no longer stomach the  
directives he was given as Commandant of Cadets and the erosion of the  
core Values. If we continue at the current rate the Academy will have  
no faculty who believed in the core values, to that end I believe that  
is the objective of the current administration. In addition we are all  
aware of what happens if you question the current administration on  
why they have made the choices you become banned from all events and  
even access to the school. My family paid $50,000 in tuition for my  
time at VFMA and where very lucrative donors to the Golden Sword with  
endowments exceeding $30,000 over a 3 year period. So I challenge the  
administration to attempt to attack me I believe $80,000 gives me the  
right to walk on campus anytime I feel the need.

I understand the issues with competition for the small group of  
individuals who have children that can afford $30,000 a year is  
becoming ever more difficult to entice and convince that VFMA is the  
right direction for their child. However if we continue to remove or  
ignore the founding philosophies we are no longer a Military Academy  
we have become a left wing liberal academy that will position the  
school as needed to fill beds.

Until 4 years ago I was proud of the efforts I made to graduate as a  
first LT, giving up my summer for Camps and NCO and OCS processes.  
Today I sit pondering what will become of the institution that set the  
core values that I live my life today.  Sadly I believe VFMA will  
continue to slide away from the values that positioned the school to  
have the reputation it does today and become just another prep school  
on the main line.

My resignation will most likely have no effect on the activities that  
surround the school today but for me the opportunity to express my  
concerns and overall dismay regarding my Alma Mater is enough and I  
hope more alumni have the courage to express their discord as well.

  Regards,
William C Vain

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