PHOTO BY STUART VILLANUEVA — ILLUSTRATION BY GUY ROGERS • THE BATTALION
IDabney, Class of 1922, receives an award during the Corps of Cadets 125th anniversary Sept. 22 at Kyle Field. Dabney is the oldest living Aggie.
abney,
1940,
162
By BRANDIE LlFFICK
THE BATTALION
A in the
history, after
e at A&M
1993; E.
i watched
. the
98, all under
- d as a
-d C.
nalOI-year lifetime, Virgil Dabney,
s$ofl922. has worked his w ay through
lege, worked his way through 43 years
eachingand left behind a trail of gener-
«i$ofAggies who believe in the things
laught them.
on Dec. 2, 1899, Dabney was 18
sold during the height of World War I.
His family hardly had enough money to
jort the children, much less send one to
ge. He decided to pay for school him-
and after working with his father as a
penterforone year, he had saved enough
mend college for the first year.
With all respect to my mother and dad,
wived only a one dollar bill while I
is going to A&M. 1 worked my way
rough,"he said. “After high school, one
jitltmed to my mother, and 1 said,
tapa I'm going to A&M.’ Finally,
imaquit washing dishes and looked at
and said, ‘That would be nice.’ She
wlcouldn’t go there — we didn’t have
money. So 1 worked.”
: rom February to September. Dabney
rted as a carpenter at Fort Sam Houston
San Antonio to earn money to pay for his
I year at A&M. For every year that he
aided classes at A&M, he would take off
year to work and save money to pay for
next year of courses.
Dabney entered A&M as a freshman in
. Not long after settling into class-
andthe everyday grind of college life, the
of Cadets was conscripted into service
World War I.
During World War I, early in Sept, of
|I8, the entire military corps of Texas
was mustered into military service,”
ysaid. “At that time, there wasn’t a
senior on campus. The seniors had
ly received their assignments, some of
were even in France engaged in actual
ifare. The juniors were scheduled to go in
sophomores in the winter and us
slinien in the spring.”
gh Dabney was majoring in indus-
Jart education, his courses changed once
cadets were put in the military. Each
lei was required to take courses in infantry
iaing — specifically trench warfare and
thine gun fire.
On Nov. 11, 1918, the cadets were
tnicted to form a semicircle around the
lege President Dr. William Bizzell’s
me.
"Dr. Bizzell came to the front porch and,
a few words, simply said, ‘the war is
tr. ” Dabney said. “When he said that,
(could look around at that group of
leisandsee they were puzzled. You were
iding there at attention, but you couldn’t
help but glance to the left and glance to the
right and question yourself, ‘Did I hear what
he said?’ And finally, it dawned on the
Corps what Dr. Bizzell had said, and all at
once, that cadet corps burst into a yell. And
it continued so long and so loud, that you
wondered if it would ever quit.”
The armistice that ended the fighting was
signed Nov. 11, 1918, before the sophomore
or freshman classes were shipped out, and
World War I officially ended with the Treaty
of Versailles in June 1919.
Dabney said the influx of students con
tinued after the war’s conclusion, and at
times, as many as 300 students were placed
in temporary housing tents on the present
day Law-Puryear Field. The tents con
tained beds and a large wood burning stove
to keep the cadets warm.
“The tents were about 12 by 12, and they
had stuff in them fpr either two or four
cadets,” he said. “We didn’t have facilities,
like showers or water in the tents. It wasn’t
too bad, until the winter hit. It was an unusu
ally hard winter, and the snow would cover
our firewood.”
Dabney was assigned to Row One, Tent
One in front of the YMCA Building his jun
ior year. He roomed with a cadet from
Louisiana named Morgan.
“Life by that time had returned to nor
mal in the cadet corps, which meant that
there was a lot of heavy school work,
heavy assignments, and of course, fun,”
Dabney said. “Morgan and I went back to
our tent after supper one night, but there
wasn’t any tent there. It had been picked up
by the freshmen and carried over to the the
middle of the drill field. And it sat there for
three days and three nights, until Col.
Ashburn read out orders in Sbisa mess hall
that Dabney and Morgan’s tent was to be
removed from the drill field and returned to
its original location.”
In the winter of 1919, an influenza epi
demic hit the campus, and cadets housed in
tents were affected the most, Dabney said.
“Almost daily, there was some member of
the Corps taken by that influenza,” Dabney
said. “No Aggie will ever forget what he
experienced when he went to bed at ten o’
clock at night. All of the sudden, what would
you hear? Taps.”
“After all these years, I can still feel the
skin move on my arm. It was ‘Silver Taps’
playing, and that meant that another buddy
had died.”
Dabney decided to not take a year off to
work after his junior year, and instead, took
23 credit hours his last semester to graduate
in Sept, of 1923.
After graduating from A&M, Dabney
went back to Wichita Falls High School to
resume his teaching position. After only
three months, he was called back to
College Station to assume the role of an
assistant lecturer in the College of
Industrial Arts Education.
“I didn’t like the position, and after six
months, I quit,” he said.
Dabney spent the next four years working
as a carpenter on a contract basis.
“After all that work, I finally decided I
was going to go back and teach,” Dabney
said.
He spent the next 38 years at San Jacinto
High School teaching wood shop and later,
mechanical drawing.
“Some of the things that didn’t mean
much to me then mean a lot now,” he said.
“The biggest reward that I received in teach
ing came to me one year when a girl came to
me, and she asked me if 1 would give her
away in marriage. It didn’t mean much to me
then, but I think of it now and it is one of the
greatest rewards I received.”
Dabney retired from San Jacinto High in
1965 and moved to Kerrville, where he and
his wife of 65 years, Katie Mae, ranched.
Dabney now resides in the Veteran’s
Administration Retirement Center in
Kerrville. He says that students from San
Jacinto High School still visit him.
“I remember them only as boys — 14, 15
and 16 years old ... They’ll come in the door
and say ‘My name is so and so.’ Now those
boys are 70 and 80 and even 85,” he said.
Travis Dabney, Class of 1996, and Virgil’s
grandson, said his grandfather taught him
that college and hard work were not optional.
“It became unacceptable not to graduate
from college after him,” Travis Dabney
said. “He instilled a work ethic in all of us.
He would put me to work driving his truck
and tractor at the ranch when I was only 8
years old.”
Looking back, Dabney speaks about
things he wished he had known as a young
man entering A&M.
“1 wish that they had told me the impor
tance of learning the English language,”
Dabney said. “And of studying your diction
ary one page a day. Study your Bible one
page a day.”
Both of Dabney’s sons, Robert and
Thomas, Class of 1960 and 1962, respec
tively, attended A&M, along with Travis
and two of his siblings and several cousins.
Dabney says he likes the thought of his
great-grandchilden — of whom there are
seven, so far — following his lead and
attending his alma mater.
“One boy is a natural-born Aggie — his
great-grandaddy, his grandad and his mother
and father are all Aggies of Texas A&M,”
Dabney said. “He’s a pedigree Aggie, and
one of these days. I’ll give him this ring.
This is the mark of my college education.”
Sommer Bunce contributed to this story.
Completion of 12-dormitory and
lining hall complex, now known
as The Quadrangle and home to
the Corps of Cadets.
1939
Universal Studios movie We've Never
Been Licked is filmed at A&M.
1943
A&M celebrates 125th Anniversary of the Corps of Cadets.
Anniversary activities and a reunion of former cadets,
sponsored by the Corps of Cadets Association, are held
Sept. 21 to 22.
2001
First permanent reviewing facility on
O.R. Simpson Drill Field is constructed.
2001
1999
Aggie Bonfire stack
collapses, killing 11
students, one former
student and injuring
27 students.
President Bowen's Vision 2020 task force issues report
containing recommendations aimed at placing A&M
among the top 10 academic institutions in the nation
by year 2020. Among these recommendations is the
mandate to raise Corps strength to 2,600 cadets.
1999
Cadet Erica Smith, Class of 1999, is the first
woman to command the Texas Aggie Band.
1998
1994
Dr. Ray M. Bowen,
Class of 1958 and a
former deputy corps
commander, is
appointed president
of A&M.
America eiiters Persian Gulf War.
More than 300 Aggies serve, with
three killed. Air Force Lt. Col.
George Walton, Class of 1971,
leads first attack of the war
against Iraqi forces.
Women admitted to Texas Aggie Band.
1985
Ruth Ann Schumacher, Gayla J. Briles and Gretchan
Ann Looman, all Class of 1977, are the first women
commissioned through the ROTC program.
Schumacher also is the first woman cadet to command
a Corps unit, Comany W-1.
1977
First military commissioning of
an A&M woman graduate, Collette
Boyd, Class of 1975.
1974
1975
Women admitted to Corps of Cadets.
1973
Parsons Mounted Cavalry unit established. Named for
commandant. Col. Thomas R. Parsons, Class of 1949.
1972
Naval ROTC program
established, making
A&M the only campus
in the nation where a
student can obtain a
commission in any
branch of service.
Corps membership becomes
non-compulsory.
1942
Muster held by 26 Aggies
during the siege of the
island of Corregidor
provides inspiration for
annual, worldwide Aggie
Muster program.
America enters Korean War.
More than 1,900 Aggies serve;
58 are killed, six missing.
1963
Women admitted
to Texas A&M.
World War II hero Maj. Gen. James
Earl Rudder, Class of 1932, appointed
America enters World War II. Texas A&M provides more officers
(14,123) than any institution, including the U.S. service academies.
Altogether, 20,229 Aggies serve during the war, 953 were killed,
ben Aggies receive the Medal of Honor.
CHAD MALLAM * THE BATTALION