The new Armor School at Fort Benning is looking for memorabilia from cavalry regiments to decorate classrooms in Patton Hall in Harmony Church, where all lieutenants and many NCOs will receive training. The intent is to name one room the "Blackhorse Room", where all the decorations would be 11th Cavalry-related. Of course, we would want to make it much better decorated than any of the other classrooms, so the students would be well aware of "the best damn regiment you will ever see."
Our initial idea is to get prints that represent the regiment through most of our years:
- The Last Charge – Don Stivers (Mexico)
- Find the Bastards and Pile On – The Dietz print of Hal Fritz in Vietnam (they actually have one of these in Patton Hall already – we would move it to our room)
- Freedom’s Frontier – George Finley (the Border Years)
- A Good Night’s Work – a Dietz print of the Blackhorse in Iraq
- Point of Penetration – the Blackhorse at Fort Irwin
- In Peace and War – the print that Glenn Allardyce had made for the Houston reunion
The Armor School already has the Blackhorse print that was done for all of the regiments as part of a series several years ago (depicting various points in our history); it would also go nicely.
Other memorabilia that may be appropriate are coins, guidons, and other things from people’s attics and the Blackhorse store. Items from the museum and the active regiment at Fort Irwin-or the German museums near Fulda or OP Alpha-would be fantastic.
Jim Tankovich, our Association Vice President, is heading up this project. Please contact Jim at tankovichj@nullcharter.net or 757-357-2168 with other ideas for appropriately decorating this classroom in Patton Hall; let him know of any items that you may wish to donate to this effort. Please do not send him any items at this time. Our initial efforts will be to get a list of items from our members and the other organizations previously mentioned, decide on what we need, and finally contact those who we will ask to send items.
Clint Ancker, our Director of Communications, has a specific request. He wants to put up a collection of Regimental Challenge Coins (or any Regimental Coin). He has already started this project with a number of his own coins, but knows there are many, many more out there. Anyone who is willing to donate one or more coins to the collection can send them directly to Clint at 17946 156th Terrace, Bonner Springs, KS 66007
He will collect the coins and put them into a suitable case to be placed in our classroom. If there are duplicates, he will put them up for the silent auction at the next Reunion – so either way, you will be contributing to the Regiment’s history and legacy. Please dig deep and find those coins you have secreted away. They’ll end up doing the Regiment a great deal of good!
