Seth Foster Hudgins

West Point, 1964

Be Thou At Peace

Posted by Dan Evans and Cris Stone on February 10, 2014:

Seth Hudgins was one of our Class of 1964 leaders and our "Man on the Scene" at West Point for a generation. At the urging of Cris Stone and a number of Classmates Seth was nominated for the West Point Distinguished Graduate Award. What follows is a summary of his career, his work in the Army and in particular at West Point; above all it demonstrates his dedication to our Alma Mater and "Duty, Honor, Country". Throughout a career of professional excellence, Colonel Seth Hudgins' service has epitomized the West Point values of "Duty, Honor, Country." As the leader of the West Point Association of Graduates and a strong member of the Class of 1964, Seth continuously identified to the public and the Corps of Cadets the broad national significance of West Point as one of America's cherished institutions, and always demonstrated a strong interest in supporting West Point throughout his lifetime. He will be remembered as an exceptional military officer and commander, as a leader of the Association of Graduates (AOG), and as a lifelong contributor to the U.S. Military Academy and its mission. Seth Hudgins was the longest standing Executive Vice President /President of the West Point Association of Graduates, from 1990 to 2007. Seth retired from active service in 1990 and was selected for the position of Executive Vice President of the Association of Graduates. In 1993 he was named President of the West Point AOG, a position which he held with distinguished service to the United States Military Academy, the United States Army and USMA graduates and families. In 1990, the AOG consisted of a small group of executives and staff working in the basement of Cullum Hall. It raised approximately $2 million annually. Under Seth's leadership, the next seventeen years saw the transformation of the AOG into a vibrant and relevant organization, reconnecting with graduates, providing new services, improving communication methods and raising approximately $30 million annually to benefit the Long Gray Line--current and future cadets and graduates. These years coincided with the critical efforts of the Department of the Army and the West Point administration to reinforce and revitalize the USMA mission to produce leaders of character for the Army and the Nation as the 21st century approached. In those seventeen years of leadership, Seth served with five Superintendents (Palmer, Graves, Christman, Lennox, and Hagenbeck) and five elected AOG Chairmen (Mullane, Meyer, Hammack, Dyer and Stroup). He would be the first to acknowledge their fine support and leadership. However, Seth's leadership was the "constant" whose vision and tenacity was consistent for seventeen years with these ten outstanding leaders. May I offer a partial list of Seth's accomplishments of those seventeen years: 1. He oversaw the building of Herbert Hall, creating for the first time a place at West Point where alumni could gather. He managed a myriad of details including negotiating a long term lease on government property, raising money and establishing naming rights for building, rooms, pavers and others. Under his leadership, graduates now have an impressive place at West Point to call home. 2. He worked with the Academy leadership and legal team to ensure that proper legislation was enacted to enable the West Point AOG to raise funds for the Margin of Excellence and use these funds to benefit USMA. This was during a time when Congress was proposing budget cuts that threatened the quality of the cadet experience--and even the very existence of the nations' service academies. Because of this coordinated effort of the AOG and USMA, the government provides the baseline for USMA as it always has, but funds raised through the AOG provide the Margin of Excellence that continues to make the Military Academy a Tier-One University, competitive with the finest schools in the nation and attracting the most highly qualified candidates in its history. 3. He oversaw the Bicentennial Campaign for West Point, the first ever capital campaign in the history of any of our nation's service academies. The Bicentennial Campaign became the model for Air Force and Navy and won national recognition among colleges and universities. Over $250 million was raised during Seth's tenure. As a result, cadet programs were enhanced, facilities were upgraded, and new academic and military training disciplines were created--all with the goal of keeping West Point at the forefront of providing the Army with the finest leaders possible. 4. He reorganized the staff, upgraded systems and instituted a level of professionalism in all AOG departments resulting in an organization better positioned to serve its constituency. 5. He established and revised the Distinguished Graduate Award Program in conjunction with the Thayer Award format, which had been a more established program honoring non-graduates. Both programs now provide living examples of exemplary service to the nation to both the Corps of Cadets, our Graduates and to the Nation. 6. He raised the level of outreach and communications to graduates through the establishment of electronic communications. He initiated new communications and awards such as the Distinguished Society Awards, Minority Outreach, graduating class visits to Herbert Hall, annual West Point Society and Class Leaders' meetings and many others. All of these efforts were successful in creating the groundwork for continuing to engage the ever growing numbers of the Long Gray Line. 7. He established precedent for Chairman of the AOG and Superintendent to resolve issues privately so that there would not ever be public rife. 8. He revised recruitment methods and terms for both AOG Trustees/Directors and Advisors in order to get outstanding graduates to serve multiple terms despite the personal time and monetary costs involved. Board and Advisor membership migrated from largely a social endeavor to a functioning Board with independent committee meetings and measurable service to the AOG and to West Point. Prior to his military career, Seth began his grooming as an Army Dependent at West Point. He grew up at West Point and attended and graduated from Highland Falls High School while his father Colonel Seth Hudgins, Sr, Class of 1939, was assigned to the Tactical Department as the Regimental Commander, USCC and Deputy Commandant. Seth entered West Point in 1959 and graduated with our Class in 1964. He was at West Point when we marched in President Kennedy's Inauguration, and later at his tragic funeral. He was there to hear General Westmoreland's last address to our class at Reveille in Central Area before he departed to command the U.S. Forces in Vietnam. He was there at our graduation June week when the Class of 1914, Veterans of WWI celebrated their 50th Reunion. Now we are gray and our ranks thinning as theirs was in the dawn of our youthful careers. A consummate soldier and leader, Seth's 26 years of active military service included two combat tours in Vietnam during which he was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross and multiple Bronze Stars. He demonstrated his ability to lead in combat early in his career by earning the Combat Infantryman Badge as a cavalry officer in Vietnam. His first unit assignment was with the 101st Airborne Division where he commanded a platoon in the 17th Cavalry Squadron. His Reinforced Calvary Troop was one of the earliest units to deploy to war in the Republic of South Vietnam in 1966. He was with that unit during some of the earliest battles when the U.S. Army was being combat tested and tempered against an enemy familiar with the country that had been hardened by many years of fighting. After his first combat tour, he attended flight school at Ft. Rucker, Alabama and trained as a helicopter pilot. He returned to Vietnam in 1969 and reentered combat, this time from the air, supporting the troops on the ground and commanding an Aviation Company of the 158th Aviation Battalion. He was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross and Bronze Star, and 25 Air Medals for actions in combat. Beyond his combat tours, Seth was assigned to Europe and commanded an Aviation Company in the 3/12th Cavalry, with the 3rd Armored Division. While in Europe, after his command, he was selected to be the Aide de Camp to the Commander in Chief SACEUR, General Alexander Haig. In 1981, Seth was selected to command the Aviation Cavalry Squadron of the 24th Infantry Division after which he was assigned to the Department of the Army ODCSPER in 1984. He attended both the Naval War College (1976) and the Industrial College of the Armed Forces (1985). Though his direct accomplishments as a military leader and AOG President are remarkable, Seth will be remembered by his contributions as a lifelong supporter of the United States Military Academy and its mission to educate, train, and inspire cadets. From 1972 to 1975, he served at West Point as the Tactical Officer of Company F-3 and then from 1979 to 1981 as a member of the Staff and Faculty. He returned for a final time in 1986 to serve as the Chief of Staff of the United States Corps of Cadets and the Deputy Commandant from 1987 through 1989. Having distinguished himself as a cavalry officer and combat pilot and having earned a Master's Degree from Syracuse University, he was a natural role model as well as source of inspiration for West Point Cadets. Throughout his extended service to our country, his time in uniform and beyond, Seth's dedication, willingness to sacrifice, his character and integrity have become a model worthy of emulation by his Class, members of the AOG and future members of the Long Gray Line. And when our work is done, Our course on earth is run, May it be said, "Well Done; Be thou at peace."

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