Cavalry returns to campus

By Todd Mansfield
Norwich Guidon Staff Writer

After nearly five years of reorganization, the Norwich University Cavalry has charged back onto campus.

According to current NU Cavalry officers, the Cavalry unit was “stood down” at Norwich in 1994 due to issues concerning the conduct of its members.

In 1998, the unit was allowed to return to campus, and today, the members of the NU Cavalry unit are doing their part to represent the University both on campus and off, according to its officers.

Dwayne Chabot has been the NU Cavalry’s faculty advisor since its return to campus in 1998.

According to Chabot, it has taken some time to get things going due to the lack of resources. The Cavalry unit had only 20 members at the beginning of the 2001-02 academic school year.

But when training for the unit opened this fall, 48 cadets attended the organizational meeting, according to Chabot.

“Now that we finally have horses, people are just knocking down the doors wanting to join,” Chabot said.

One of the early problems when the Cavalry returned in 1998, according to Chabot, was a lack of horses.

“The cavalry was at Abare Farms,” Chabot said. “I think the first year back we did not have any horses and didn’t do any events on campus. We went around begging to see a horse every once in a while. The hard part was keeping everybody together the last four or five years with not many horses.”

This year, in a special arrangement, the unit has leased six horses from Debbie Brown and Ron Tallman, who run the Autumn Harvest Inn, located in Williamstown, Vt.

“They have done a generous offer,” Chabot said. “Six horses, leased. They are charging a very low fee, lower than it would have cost last year to house two horses.”

In order to make their presence known, the troop has taken part in corps events as well as several additional events, according to Kalin Reardon, a 21-year-old senior environmental science major from Arlington,Vt. “We participate in parades, football march downs, Labor Day parades, and we are going to do mounted color-guard,” Reardon said.

At the end of the 2001 school year, ten members of the NU Cavalry attended a civil war reenactment called “live-in history” presented by Company D, the first Vermont cavalry during the Civil War.

According NU Cavalry commander Don Manchester, 21, a senior computer information systems major from Brentwood, N.H., the members of the unit learned some important aspects of cavalry while attending the reenactment.

“We saw what a cavalry unit was really supposed to do,” Manchester said. “It was really good for the future of cavalry here at Norwich for us to know people like them.”

Chabot agrees that the event was a great help to the unit. Many social connections made through Company D have proved highly beneficial this year.

“That opened up a lot of doors, because we are getting all of this training, people helping, adult supervision, because they are dedicated to the cavalry,” Chabot said.

In addition to the special leasing deal with Debbie Brown and Ron Tallman, both of whom are members of Company D, the NU Cavalry unit has also gained the services of trainer Barbara Watts.

Watts, an adjutant of Company D, has been volunteering her time to teach NU Cavalry members about how to ride horses.

“She usually charges between $40-$50 dollars an hour,” Chabot said. “She comes in and trains our cadets for free.”

According to Miguel-Tiago Camilo, 21, a peace, war and diplomacy major from Bloomfield, N.J., the cavalry was shut down or “stood down” in 1994 because members of the unit were caught drinking illegally.

In 1998, the cavalry unit was allowed back under the supervision of Chabot.

Now, having a place to stay and people to help teach them what to do, the biggest problem the NU Cavalry unit faces is one of equipment to use, according to Camilo.

“We have uniforms from 1912, the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s,” Camilo said. “They are all ancient and are all falling apart; we really need to replace them.”

The unit has a total of 10 uniforms that are used for Norwich functions. Only seven of them are wearable, according to Reardon.

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