WEST POINT, N.Y. – At an institution steeped in tradition that has been ongoing for 222 years, alumni ceremonies during Graduation Week are a time to reflect and pay homage to the classes of graduates who have served and sacrificed in the defense of our nation.
This year’s alumni ceremonies began with a Medal of Honor Dedication ceremony as U.S. Military Academy Class of 1949 graduate and 2004 Distinguished Graduate Award recipient, and Honorary Colonel of the 75th Ranger Regiment, retired Col. Ralph Puckett Jr., had his Medal of Honor donated by his family to the academy in the Haig Room on May 21. Puckett passed away on April 8, 2024.
The Army Ranger was serving with 8th Army Ranger Company as a first lieutenant on Nov. 25-26, 1950, in Korea, when he earned his Medal of Honor. Subjecting himself to enemy machine gun fire and using himself as a target for the enemy, his fellow Rangers were able to spot the enemy machine-gunner locations and direct artillery fire on their locations. He was wounded several times while performing this act of service to his unit, going above and beyond the call of duty.
He would years later earn a second Distinguished Service Cross for his actions during a nightlong battle near Chu Lai in Vietnam. He served in the Army for 22 years before retiring in 1971.
His Medal of Honor will be displayed at the Arvin Cadet Physical Development Center for an unspecified period over the next academic year.
The next ceremony was the annual Alumni Wreath Laying Ceremony where the two oldest living graduates in attendance, Roger Conover, USMA Class of 1948, and Bob Springer, USMA Class of 1949, placed a wreath at the statue of the Father of the U.S. Military Academy, Sylvanus Thayer. The USMA Classes of 1949, 1954, 1969 and various alumni from different years were in attendance.
After the wreath laying ceremony, everyone moved to the Corps of Cadets Alumni Review and the presentation of the West Point Association of Graduates’ Distinguished Graduate Awards on the Plain.
Six USMA graduates received this year’s distinguished graduate honors including retired Gen. Wesley K. Clark, Class of 1966; retired Gen. Jim C. McConville, Class of 1981; retired Lt. Gen. Thomas P. Bostick, Class of 1978; retired Lt. Gen. Karl W. Eikenberry, Class of 1973; retired Maj. Pat Locke, Class of 1980; and Kathleen S. Hildreth, Class of 1983.
In recent years, the West Point AOG and the Long Gray Line have been recognizing its women graduates for doing remarkable things in the military and beyond as two more women were inducted this year.
Locke is not the first female from the famed Class of 1980 to become a distinguished graduate as Marene N. Allison received it last year. However, Locke is a “Trailblazer” who has helped others blaze their own trails by helping West Point find future leaders across the United States as an admissions representative for more than 30 years.
She was one of two African American women in the historic Class of 1980, the first class of women, and the first African American woman to graduate due to the academy’s Order of Merit.
The Detroit native started her career as an enlisted Soldier at Fort Polk, Louisiana, in 1976, before the Army communications specialist was asked by her battalion commander if she wanted to go to West Point. While she never heard of West Point, once she got to the academy, she never looked back. Her class started with 119 women, and she was one of 62 who graduated.
Breaking barriers and shattering glass ceilings, Locke was one of the first women to serve in multiple combat arms assignments as an Air Defense Artillery officer. She had to medically retire while on the promotion list to lieutenant colonel after a training accident that damaged her spine.
But on this day, on an unseasonably warm 85-degree, clear blue sky day on The Plain, Locke came full circle from a young lady who entered West Point in July 1976 not knowing what the future held with 118 other women to being surrounded by a number of her female classmates to share in the apex of her epic journey.
However, the moment still brought clarity of the surrealness of what her young self would have thought or could not have imagined 48 years ago.
“It feels kind of unreal to think of where we started versus where we are right now at this moment, could anyone have projected that this would be happening today,” said Locke of not only herself but her female classmates. “I can say the academy has continued to make these full-circle (moments) and I hope they never stop.”
Locke grew up in modest means in Detroit where she didn’t even have a bed to sleep in before she joined the Army. Then, when she took the giant leap to come to West Point, her life took on not only an extraordinary sense of purpose, but her life completely changed from the one she knew in her youth.
“It absolutely changed not only my life, but my family’s life,” Locke explained. “Coming to the academy and just finding out about the academy, people believe that they can do almost anything. So, we’re not limited by our current circumstances or the circumstances that we find ourselves in right now concurrently. It just takes a little bit of grit, a little bit of perseverance, and you can get there. I’m hoping that I’m paving the way for everybody else to continue this whole movement and we don’t backslide.”
As a minority female, she wanted to remind not only minority women, but all women, that if you believe in yourself and your abilities despite where you grew up or how people may have mistreated you in your youth that anything is obtainable.
“Don’t let the circumstances that you’re in right now stop you from achieving everything that you can possibly achieve. Your potential is endless,” Locke stated. “It depends on what you want, how much resilience you have, and what you’re reaching for. I just want to make sure that everyone remembers that this is an institution that produces leaders, and we want to go out there and lead and continue to go upward while not staying flat or backward.”
The best part of the day for Locke was sharing this moment with not only her family but the friends who she will forever walk with as part of the Long Gray Line – her classmates. Ten female members of the Class of 1980 were at the ceremony to cheer her on and chant Locke’s name during the ceremony, which brought a big smile to her face.
“Number one, I can’t believe that we’re here,” said Locke of her classmates who surrounded her cheering and waiting to give her a warm embrace. “And number two, just to have them here and have their support, it is because of them that I was able to do anything that I’ve accomplished to this day. Without them, I wouldn’t be standing here right now. So, thank you, Class of ‘80.”