More hazing at TX A&M

[hoosier]

Last year we had the band hazers, complete with naked pictures, at TX A&M.

Now we have the calvary hazing new guys with (what else) horsey poo.

The band hazers got off. Will the horsey guys?
------------------------------

November 3, 2002

Corps unit saddled by controversy

By KELLI LEVEY
Eagle Staff Writer


Eagle file photo

Cadets in Texas A&M's Parsons Mounted Calvarly ride during final review last April

A half-dozen young horsemen sprinted in Friday’s late afternoon wind, gathering their supplies and leading their horses into the maroon barn labeled with sprawling white letters.

The future of the Parsons Mounted Cavalry, the country’s only collegiate military horseback unit, was as cloudy as the sky overhead. Two weeks earlier, the commandant of Texas A&M University’s Corps of Cadets had suspended the cavalry unit, pending a criminal investigation of hazing and other possible criminal charges against members.

About half of the unit’s 60 cadets — four juniors and 27 sophmores — remained active, and it was some of those cadets who were out at week’s end at the outfit’s headquarters at Fiddlers Green on Harvey Mitchell Parkway, shouting above the din of passing cars and planes flying to and from nearby Easterwood Airport.

One member of “the cav,” who declined to give his name, said he and his colleagues were trying to maintain a positive attitude in the face of the latest controversy to strike A&M’s Corps.

“It’s especially hard on the sophomores, because it’s their first year and they’re caught up in something they don’t fully understand,” the student said with a shrug. “But we just plan to maintain the herd, maintenance-wise, and present the cannon of ’02 and perform whatever functions they deem we can continue.”

About half of the unit’s members remained active following the suspension. A source close to the investigation said some students are accused of beating other cavalry members, urinating on them and dousing them with water and horse feces. Hazing is against state law.

The cavalry was created in 1973 as a unit of the Corps to carry on the legacy of horse-drawn artillery units. Cadets in the unit attend all home football games, firing a 1902 cannon after every A&M score, and have participated in rodeos, Galveston’s Mardi Gras and San Antonio’s Battle of Flowers.

“It was always a lot of fun at the games because instead of having to march in, you got to ride in on your horse,” said Jay Krogh, a 1984 A&M graduate who was in the outfit for two years. “It was sad in a way because you missed your outfit, but you had this other outfit, the cav, there around you.”

Krogh, who lives in Pennsylvania, said members were verbally teased by upperclassmen but never physically abused, as far as he knew.

“It was all done in good fun, something guys do when they’re together,” he said.

Mark Rhame, Class of ’85, had only positive things to say about his two-year stint in the organization.

“It’s one of the best things I did in college,” he said from his home in Mandeville, La. “It’s good for the guys and it’s a great PR tool for the school. I think we were invited to every county fair in the state, so after football season was over we got to travel all over the place on just about every weekend.”

Only juniors and seniors are allowed to ride the horses and fire the cannon, but Rhame said even the sophomores, who trail the procession with wheelbarrows and shovels, are “crowd-pleasers.”

“Everyone thought it was kind of funny, and they were just glad to be part of it,” he said.

The Corps and several of its elite programs have undergone previous hazing investigations, and this is not the first for the equestrian unit.

In 1991, a female member reported she had been harassed and sexually assaulted. She later recanted the sexual assault allegations but not the hazing and harassment charges. The commandant at that time, Maj. Gen. Thomas Darling, said his investigation proved those incidents occurred.

The unit was suspended but Darling allowed it to resume activities after it revamped its constitution to specify that harassment and discrimination would not be tolerated. In addition, Darling interviewed each person before allowing reinstatement into the unit.

In January, the Fish Drill Team unit was reinstated after being suspended since 1997. A freshman on the team had reported hazing by upperclassmen advisers.

The cavalry is a special unit of the corps in the vein of the Ross Volunteers, the Fish Drill Team and the Simpson Honor Society, said Corps of Cadets spokesman Major Doc Mills.

“They do that in their off-time, as an extracurricular activity, and it is organized like a military unit,” he said.

Many of the horses are owned by the university, but some of the students bring their own.

Before World War II, horse-drawn artillery units and infantry were part of a training path for perspective military men, Mills said. Around 1943, the mounted units became defunct as armored and mechanized units began transporting the artillery and units.

“This whole thing was created to honor the university and commemorate those times,” Mills said. “It seeks to preserve the heritage and tradition of the horse-drawn artillery units.”

That aim is outlined in the constitution of the cavalry, which states its purpose is “to attract attention to the University and its Corps of Cadets, recruit members for the Corps of Cadets, and to demonstrate pride in the heritage and traditions of Texas A&M.”

George Parsons, who has contributed thousands of dollars to the outfit since his brother Tom founded it, said he has not been privy to its inner workings.

“It’s very unusual, to say the least, and I understand that it is a wonderful organization,” he said.

When told of the current investigation, Parsons laughed aloud.

“I’m 75 years old and they were doing that when I was in school,” he said. “They were trying to stop hazing in the ’40s and it hasn’t ended yet.”