Ray Odierno was a floppy-haired teenager who was recruited into West Point?s class of 1976 to play football. An average student, he spent his free time tailgating outside the military academy?s football stadium and leading excursions to an off-campus bar.
His classmate Stanley McChrystal came from a military family. His idea of a practical joke was mounting a fake assault on one of the campus?s office buildings using decommissioned weapons and ?grenades? made out of rolled-up socks. When the prank drew the attention of the military police, then-Cadet McChrystal?s career almost ended.
Thirty-three years after graduating, the two men are four-star generals running the nation?s two wars. Gen. Odierno is the top officer in Iraq. Gen. McChrystal recently took command in Afghanistan. It?s the first time in West Point?s 207-year history that graduates of the same class command two wars simultaneously.
The class of 1976?who left West Point at a low point for both the Army and its famed training ground?has produced a striking number of generals now influencing the shape of the U.S. military. All told, at least 33 active and retired generals, now all in their mid-50s, were among its 855 graduating members. Gen. McChrystal?s deputy in Kabul, Lt. Gen. David Rodriguez, was a classmate, as was the officer leading U.S. efforts to train the Iraqi army, Lt. Gen. Frank Helmick. Retired Lt. Gen. Dave Barno, who spent 19 months as the top commander in Afghanistan, was also West Point ?76.
?It?s really sort of unprecedented,? says Stephen Grove, a civilian who recently retired after 30 years as West Point?s official historian. ?The class of 1915 is known as ?the class the stars fell on? because of graduates like Omar Bradley and Dwight Eisenhower. But you could argue that the class of 1976 is becoming just as influential.?
West Point?s class of 1976 was the first modern generation of military officers to enter the army without serving in Vietnam. They succeed retired generals like Colin Powell and other senior commanders who all had Vietnam experience and spent decades trying to keep the military out of conflicts like Iraq, which they saw as a potential repeat of Vietnam. Gens. Odierno and McChrystal believe that the military will be involved in open-ended, low-intensity conflicts for decades to come and are devoting their careers to making sure that the Army is prepared to fight and win them.
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