Gerald George Chikalla

West Point, 1955

Be Thou At Peace

Posted by Mark Swayne on October 18, 2012:

I was a freshman 'rook' at Norwich University in the fall of 1984 when COL Chikalla was the Commandant. During a sunny early September Saturday in Vermont my company had just finished a run and we were being 'motivated' by our upperclassmen cadre. In order to show our manliness we were instructed to repeatedly sing, "I'm gonna rape, kill, pillage, and burn, I'm gonna rape, kill, pillage, and burn...eat babies." As we were shouting this, a mountain of a man moved swiftly up the hill and asked for the cadet in charge. The large man was wearing eagles on his shoulders and reminded me of a mix between General George Patton and Paul Bunyon. When the senior officer cadet came forward, the Colonel asked him if he had ever served in combat. The officer cadet mumbled a shy and timid, "no sir." The Colonel barked, "What, I can't hear you son." This time the cadet officer spoke up with his no sir. The Colonel replied, "I thought so, as no man who served in war would ever say such a thing. No one under my command will ever do these things and I will hear no more of this." The Colonel then put his pipe back in his mouth and slowly moved to the next formation. I learned later that day that the man with the eagles on his shoulder was our Commandant, COL Chikalla. That memory of Colonel Chikalla will stay with me forever.

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