Racing Canonballs !

Always competitive, we were challenged to race a ball fired from that brass cannon at the Citadel. It's the only college in the world with a drag strip designed for cars vs. cannons. The cadets had some gunpowder left over from their New Year's Eve celebration so they wanted to rumble. We had blown all of our fireworks so we decided to lay down a Windveil Blue streak for the Long Gray Line.

Well, actually the GT is parked on the driveway to the parade grounds at the Citadel, the Military College of South Carolina. This is just follow up to our most recent posting of the F-4 C Phantom jet fighter. That picture showed none of the surrounding buildings at the Citadel. We are in front of the Padgett - Thomas barracks and the official seal of the State of South Carolina hangs just above the arch.

The Citadel is a four year military college which still fields a full corps of cadets. Their graduates have fought in every war in which our nation has been engaged including the Civil War or as it's called down here, " The War Between the States ". In that war they fought on the side of the Confederacy, a legacy which had been celebrated ever since Lee surrendered to Grant...until the wet blanket of political correctness put an end to the singing of " Dixie " at their football games. " Dixie " is still played at a few limited events including some of the parade days. It ain't dead yet.

The Corps just as all other military colleges in the country had been all male until that policy was legally challenged some years back. During that controversy, a supporter of tradition printed up a batch of bumper stickers in blue which read: :"SAVE THE MALES" . It was wildly successful, but the Citadel's defense against the admission of females was not. That, as they say, is history and the corps soldiers on.

It is a beautiful campus and home to a proud corps of cadets. We are grateful to them for not being present since explaining this blog and our reasons for taking these pictures to anyone takes a long time and makes us look both suspicious and ....kind of crazy. We'd have been run out of the gates at bayonet point, but in viewing the account of our visit, we hope that they will know that our hat's off to them for the job they do, for the sacrifices they make for their country.