West Point chief seeks gender-neutral lyrics

[unhappycamper]

Out of tune?
Overhaul sought for academy alma mater.


West Point chief seeks gender-neutral lyrics
The Associated Press
Posted : Thursday May 15, 2008 22:39:27 EDT

WEST POINT, N.Y. — The head of the U.S. Military Academy says it’s time to replace the “men” and “sons” in West Point’s two most beloved songs with more gender-neutral lyrics.

Army Lt. Gen. Franklin “Buster” Hagenbeck, superintendent of the nation’s oldest military academy, told a congressional oversight committee Wednesday that with more than 3,000 women graduating from West Point since 1976, the change is long overdue.

“We’ve got a couple buried in our cemetery,” Hagenbeck said, referring to the two female West Point graduates killed serving in Iraq and buried at the academy.

During a presentation Wednesday to the academy’s Board of Visitors meeting in Washington, D.C., Hagenbeck said he wants to change the words to the military academy’s alma mater and its companion piece, “The Corps.” Both songs date back about a century, with the lyrics to the alma mater written by a 1911 graduate and “The Corps” penned by a West Point chaplain.


Rest of article at: http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/05/ap_westpointsongs_051508/