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Rockbridge Report
Friday, April 10

VMI cadets to participate in Obama's second inauguration

3 Mins Read
The VMI band also marched in the 2009 presidential inauguration, pictured above. Associated Press

By Michael McGuire

Cadets at Virginia Military Institute (VMI) are tuning up—and bundling up—for a trip to play at President Barack Obama’s second inauguration on Monday. This is the 14th time that the school has been invited to brave the cold Washington weather to welcome a president into office.  This year, all 1,500 cadets will make the trip. And despite a campaign promise of warmer weather, it looks like Obama’s second inauguration might be as cold as his first.

At a Colorado Obama campaign event in September, a prospective voter mentioned to the president that he had been one of the hundreds of thousands of people outdoors at the president’s bone-chilling first inaugural when the noontime temperature was an unseasonable chilly 28 degrees. Obama then promised: “This one is going to be warmer.”

But Monday’s Washington weather forecast includes a chance of snow and temperatures only in the 30s.  That won’t discourage the cadets, said Col. Keith Gibson, executive director of museum programs at VMI.

“You’re standing there,” said Gibson, “and you see the presidential reviewing stand and there is the family of the president and the vice president and all of the dignitaries, and you realize that this is the culmination of why you have been standing in the snow for several hours and got up at some unnatural hour of the morning.”

Gibson knows from personal experience. As a VMI cadet, he marched in the 1977 presidential inauguration parade for President Jimmy Carter. It was 28 degrees that day.

Just four years ago, the VMI cadets marched down Constitution Avenue the morning Obama was first sworn into office. But they do not always get to take part in the fanfare.

Col. Stewart MacInnis, VMI’s communication and marketing director, said that every four years, hundreds of groups submit applications to participate in the inauguration. But only a few dozen end up playing for the president.

Early Monday morning, all the cadets will pile onto 30 buses bound for the capital. A police escort will make sure they arrive on time.

Sarah Korash-Schiff, Chelsea Stevenson and the Associated Press contributed reporting to this story.

 

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