I wanted to share some email I got a couple weeks back. Here at the Golden Knight Battalion we are proud of our history. With the recent passing of LTC (retired) Clark Bailey we were reminded of our past. This email was sent to me by Mark Rosenthal.
Mark writes…..
The recent passing of LTC Clark Bailey (ret) prompted me to find your web site – perhaps to see if he was mentioned.
From the Clarkson announcement that was forwarded to me:
Clark Bailey was a 1958 West Point Academy graduate and master’s degree
recipient from the University of Arizona. He served for 20 years in the
U.S. Army Signal Corps, coming to Clarkson in 1973 as an Associate
Professor of Military Science. In 1975, he became Professor and Chair
of Military Science, until his retirement from the Army as a lieutenant
colonel in 1978.
The classmates I remain in contact with and I remember him as a good natured leader who took inherited a program in the post-Vietnam low point and began rebuilding it. He was there as the first women came into the program – Karen Celentano (now Sielski) was commissioned into the Signal Corps in 1977. It was LTC Bailey, in his first year there, who convinced the Army that Potsdam, NY is actually COLD during most of the school year, and got parkas and other cold weather gear authorized for the cadets.
When St. John’s University’s cadet Rangers had a fatal hazing incident, it was LTC Bailey who talked personally one-on-one with each of the Clarkson Ranger cadets to (1) ensure that there was nothing similar going on at Clarkson (there was not) and (2) make it exceedingly clear that we were upholding the public image of not only the ROTC program at Clarkson but also the Army as a whole. We all had great respect for him, and there were no secrets.
The drill team was revived under his tenure, initially led by Cadet John Kokus, and then my room mate, Cadet Kevin Garroutte.
The ROTC color guard was established during those years as well, originally led by Cadet Jack V. Scherer and Cadet John T. Peters.
Pardon me for my reminiscing a bit – I just wanted all of you at 49 Elm Street to know that a bit of your legacy passed on last week.
Mark Rosenthal
p.s. – when she returns in the fall, please pass along congratulations to Cadets McTaraghan and Portelli from (I think) the third Clarkson cadet to attend jump school (August 1976). I still have my “original” wings pinned to my Clarkson Ranger beret.
Thanks Mark
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