Healing Old Wounds And Appreciating The Academy: A West Point And Ladycliff Family Returns To Their Rockbound Highland Home

Mark Van Drie grew up in Lansing, Michigan, in a family with four boys and one girl, and he enjoyed playing sports. His father had served in WWII with the 1st Cavalry Division and was part of the occupation force in Japan after the war. His grandfather served in WWI with the Buckeye Division. When he arrived for R-Day, he had no idea what he was getting into. Years later, as the Second Regimental Tac, he ran Beast from 97-99 and revamped the PT program, adding more and longer road marches. He played rugby at West Point, eventually serving as the team captain, which he called his best leadership experience at USMA. He did well with Cadet academics until the honor incident that rocked the Class of ‘77 in the spring of 1976, which left him bitter. When the cheating issue was uncovered, Mark remembers being segregated into a separate barracks with others who had been accused. Some of the accused tried to make the honor incident as big as possible. He had to meet with a lawyer and volunteered to take a lie detector test in New York City. He passed the lie detector test, had to meet with the Department Head of EECS (Electrical Engineering and Computer Science) to demonstrate how he had done the problem in question, and a day or two later he was released, joining his summer detail as Beast Cadre. Earlier, he had met his future wife Carol, who was a student at Ladycliff college in Highland Falls, on a blind date to a football game. During Mark’s time at West Point, the Vietnam War ended and in the summer of 1976 women were first admitted to the Academy. Upon graduation, Mark commissioned into the Infantry because he respected Bob Hensley, an Infantry Officer serving at West Point. Mark’s first assignment in 1978 was at Ft. Lewis, Washington, with 2nd Battalion, 1st Infantry, followed by a stint in the 3rd Infantry Division in Germany from 1982 to 1985. This was the period of the “Hollow Army,” where a lack of funding left units “short on everything.” Combined Arms were not even being trained. He describes his unit’s mission in Cold War Germany, where concern over a Soviet invasion was always forefront in everyone’s mind. He recalls the code words “Lariat Advance” alerting units for an EDRE (Emergency Deployment Readiness Exercise), giving them “2 hours to bust the gate.” Returning from Europe, he served in a Recruiting Battalion in Los Angeles from 1985 to 1988, focusing on leadership to empower his subordinates to achieve success. Living on the economy in LA was a financial hardship for the families in the Recruiting Battalion because COLA (Cost of Living Allowance) was not yet a fully developed program. After Command and General Staff College and the School of Advanced Military Studies (SAMS), Mark was assigned to the 10th Mountain Division in 1990, serving as a Multi-National Forces Observer in the Sinai in 1992, performing humanitarian relief following Hurricane Andrew in 1992, and deploying to Somalia in 1993. After serving as a Battalion Commander in 1st Battalion, 502nd Infantry from 1995 to 1997, he returned to West Point, where he was assigned as the 2nd Regimental Tac from 1997 to 1999. He admits that he had not been a “stellar Cadet,” so he looked for potential in the Cadets in his regiment, adding, “It gave me perspective.” Considering what West Point and his service mean to him, he states that his wife encouraged him to return to West Point, which “healed wounds,” and he notes that he “grew to appreciate” the Academy. Carol describes her experiences at Ladycliff College, meeting Mark, and taking care of Army Families through the Family Support / Family Readiness groups.