Does the Corps still force cadets to attend games/march ins on Thanksgiving Day? I always thought it was disgusting that Corps leadership did that. It gave me three options as a cadet: Go to the game, then drive back to Houston after the game (if it was an early game) on the most dangerous travel day of the year, or skip the game altogether and get a restricted weekend, or skip Thanksgiving with my family.

I was thinking today about how my last opportunity to see my grandfather before his unexpected death would have been on Thanksgiving 2008, but instead I was forced to drive to Austin for a march in. I wish I had the balls to skip.

As an active duty officer, I would NEVER force anyone under me to participate in mandatory fun on a family holiday. Make it optional? Sure. But family trumps football every time.

Sorry, I was just thinking about this today and it still makes me mad.

Yes, Cadets are required to attend the Thanksgiving game this year, regardless of distance from College Station.

Back in my fish year, if you lived a certain distance you were excused from coming to the game. However, now that policy is gone. All cadets will attend this game, or will be issued a restricted weekend. Some cadets had already purchased plane tickets home before being informed by their Chain of Command.

I don't know what will happen to these cadets. But yes, it seems silly.

Also, cadets are not permitted to go home tonight after the game, due to how late it is. Cadets may drive home tomorrow morning, and will need to be back NLT Sunday meetings time for accountability.

I understand the policy being there because of the recent deaths, but **** happens. Accidents happen, and statistically, people will die. We can't be put into a bubble to try to prevent every single chance occurrence of life.

I've always kinda wondered about this myself. We're not a big Thanksgiving family, so I usually just went home after the game, and it wasn't a big deal for me. I'm pretty sure anyone can get permission to miss the march-in if they really wanted to though. I could have gotten a ticket for this game today, but I decided instead to visit my parents since, like you said, family trumps football. I know some families join their kids at the Quad, but not everyone cane make it to CS for a day.

I think there are certain responsibilities that come with being a member of the Corps, and certain sacrifices you have to make, like getting your sleep boofed every now and again pulling a late shift in guard room, sweatting out a set of bravos a few saturdays in the fall, playing during halftime, and representing A&M and its military tradition when the school needs you to (although the school now appears to be willing to screw over the Corps when it isn't needed). But, again, I do agree with you that it does suck for some folks.

I've always wondered about the desire of having a game on Thanksgiving at all. I know a lot of people are like "I'm boycotting any business that opens on Thanksgiving," and then they turn around and say they want A&M to schedule a game on Thanksgiving. A lot of people have to leave their families and work for that to happen.

What year were you? It sounded like you were from the '90's in some of your other posts. I think you said you were an old marine pilot or something. But apparently you were in the corps as recently as 2008.

Edit: nevermind, apparently you can't get permission to miss the game. That kind of sucks, especially if you already bought a plane ticket.

CS_BQ15, the policy is there to protect you and your friends. Trust me, I know it can be annoying especially when you are young and invincible but it is for the best. You are right, "**** does happen.", but as a leader you are required to mitigate every unnecessary risk there is. I have come out of a week long FTX and been and been released at 0430 from weapons accountability, SI, etc. only to be told if you have to drive yourself you have to take a 4 hours nap or something. I lived less than ten minutes away and had to call my wife to get me. Rules are rules, safety measures are in place for a reason. My last field problem on active duty in September had a Soldier die from a mistake that could have been prevented in about 30 seconds. You don't want that nor does your leadership want that.

Also I am rather partial to the big game being played the day after thanksgiving. Gives most folks time to be with family on turkey day and still fulfill Corps obligations.

When you make the decision to join the Corps, much like making the decision to join the military, you give up many of your rights to do what you want when you want. That's just the facts of life in the Corps or any other military orginazation.

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When you make the decision to join the Corps, much like making the decision to join the military, you give up many of your rights to do what you want when you want. That's just the facts of life in the Corps or any other military orginazation.

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Ding ding ding we have a winner.

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When you make the decision to join the Corps, much like making the decision to join the military, you give up many of your rights to do what you want when you want. That's just the facts of life in the Corps or any other military orginazation

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This is the cop out answer I was expecting. Like I said, even the military does not force mandatory fun on family holidays.

Just to set the record straight:

1. This game has been on the schedule for over a year. Every cadet in the Corps knew they had to attend - just as the Corps has attended every Thanksgiving game we have played in the past. That includes the Corps march-ins to Austin when we played tu on Thanksgiving. This was NOT a surprise. We even made it a point to tell parents at the New Student Conference about Thanksgiving and the requirement for the Corps to attend. Thankfully, we only do this every other year now. We no longer do the "home and away" Thanksgiving Day game with tu.

2. There were MANY cadets, especially several who live out of state, who were excused from the game to fly home for Thanksgiving. It was NOT an "all or none" event. We reviewed every request, and MANY cadets got to fly home to be with family for Thanksgiving.

3. We made it a point to mitigate the risk to our cadets by making them get a good night's sleep before driving home. You can complain about it all you want. I'd rather have the cadets HERE, complaining, than have any of them die in a tragic accident that could have been prevented by some common sense risk mitigation. Seven cadets have died in the 4 years I've been Commandant - all but one to car/motorcycle accidents. Sure, stuff happens, and we will NEVER be able to prevent all of it, but if we CAN mitigate the risk to our cadets, you can bet we will. They can complain about it, sure, but their parents and I are more than happy to have them alive and complaining than the alternative.

4. Military does not force mandatory fun on family holidays?? Really?? The military I served in for 31 years made me miss MANY Thanksgivings, Christmas's, birthdays, Easters, anniversaries, soccer games, recitals, concerts, plays, football games, etc. It came with the territory. Whether I was training at the National Training Center at Ft Irwin, CA, or serving in Korea unaccompanied, or deployed to Qatar, Kuwait, Iraq, or Afghanistan, I missed MANY Thanksgivings because the Army told me I needed to be someplace else. I had no option to say I didn't want to participate in the "mandatory fun." I was a soldier, I was a volunteer, and I had a responsibility to go where I was told to go, and do what I was told to do, when the Army told me to go and do it. Sure the Corps isn't the Army, but anyone that thinks that the military doesn't "force mandatory fun on family holidays" obviously hasn't deployed or spent training time away from home and family. But trust me, I've eaten a LOT of Thanksgiving and Christmas meals with my troops in places far from home, but fully understood that forced or not, that was where I was supposed to be.

5. I understand that there are many today who don't understand some of the traditional concepts of the Corps, like Corps Trips (also mandatory - especially since we got tickets for every cadet to attend the game) and Thanksgiving football games, but those traditions are still alive and well, and are part of being in the Corps. I don't make the football schedules, but as long as we continue to play on Thanksgiving Day, the Corps will participate, just as we always have in the past. I can guarantee that the vast majority of the cadets - and their parents - support it. And so do I.

As always, we may not agree on every issue, but I truly appreciate your undying love and support of our Corps. Thanks for all your support of our Corps and our beloved alma mater! Gig 'em!

I'm very sorry for the OP, and the missed chance to see his grandad one more time. But let's be honest. No one is promised tomorrow, and you should treat every interaction with family as if it may be your last. Especially if they are getting up in years.

General R has covered this well, but that doesn't stop me from throwing my two cents in.

I was discussing this with my (non-reg) Aggie wife, and she was a little insulted that I agreed that the Corps should be there for the game to support the team as 12th Man. Her opinion was that ALL current students should be at the game to support the team. I have to agree.

But I still think that when you sign up for the Corps, you sign up for extra crap. You know that going in, and if you don't think the extra crap is worth it, perhaps you should pursue a different way of being an Aggie, or a different school. You want something extra, it's going to cost you something extra.

Speaking of different schools, I don't know how all the Academies do things, but I heard frequent gripes from my Zoomie kid about "fundatory" this and "voluntold" that. And I saw for myself the roll call before march on to their football games, and the officers and NCOs who guarded the gates to keep cadets from escaping during the game. They played yesterday, BTW. High was 60, but there are plenty of late-November games at 7200' in Colorado that make any bad weather at Kyle seem like a picnic.

General Joe and I understood that when we signed up for the Band, we volunteered for a lot of extra crap that the rest of the Corps avoided. Would have been nice to go home for a weekend, rather than take a 12-hour bus trip to Lubbock, Little Rock or Fayetteville. It would have been nice to goof off or study instead of having to show up every time they dedicated a new crapper on campus and wanted the Band to be there.

And I have a different attitude from the OP on holidays, as well. I grew up farming. I have kids or their spouses who are in the military and new interns. They are low men (women) on the totem pole, so get stuck with the crappy duty. So what do they do? Same as we did on the farm. You have the "holiday" when the family is available. If work has to be done, you do it, then have turkey the day after. Or the Sunday before, which is what my doctor daughter-in-law and her friends did this year. Christmas and Thanksgiving are made-up days on the calendar. They can be moved.

Finally, I'll say from my experience, I'd much rather play the game on Thanksgiving than the Friday or Saturday after. That way you get a three-day weekend to go home and celebrate. My hometown was 8 hours from Aggieland. A Friday game, ain't no way in Hades I'm making a Thanksgiving dinner and back.

I will say those weekend games did give me opportunities to share Thanksgiving with Aggie buddies who graciously took me in for the day, as I couldn't drive home. Great memories. Even the one where Steve Hope flew us from Abilene to Austin in IFR conditions and tried to land us in the K-Mart parking lot. But that's another story.

Good to see the many cadets there for the game.
Can't imagine any person contemplating A&M who would not recognize the high likelihood of a Thanksgiving Day football game. Been going on for since the 1910s - so more than 100 years. Pretty good advance notice.
Can't imagine anyone joining the Corps who would not be aware of the game and the desire to attend.
Also glad to know that there is always a clear method to seek to be excused from an activity, which in the day we called a Military Letter. Had to use one to miss Bloody Cross to attend my parents' 25th Wedding Anniversary. Followed protocol and had no issues.

One more point....You're only a cadet for four very short years, and only 9 months of each of those years. I say savor ever moment, attend every game, participate in every Corps activity possible.

I appreciate the replies... I still think that they need to allow cadets the opportunity to spend Thanksgiving with their families. Nobody should have to sit a restricted weekend because they would rather spend the day with family members who flew in from across the country, instead of at a football game.

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Military does not force mandatory fun on family holidays?? Really??

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I think you misunderstood, sir. I have missed holidays with my family due to military duties (I am deployed right now and have missed birthdays, Thanksgiving, and will be missing Christmas and Easter as well). I have zero issue with this, I am just doing my job. But to tell someone "You can't see your family this Thanksgiving because you need to go watch a football game instead" is absolutely ridiculous. Seriously, just say it out loud and see how it sounds.

And to anyone saying "well you knew what you were in for when you signed up"... Does that mean that nobody who is/was in the corps is allowed to criticize corps policies, ever?

Anyways, sorry for the rant. I think the corps is headed in a good direction, and I wish I could have made it to a march in this season!

Aggieswyn I think you are missing an important part. When you sign up for the Corps, you sign up to represent the University and its image. Can you imagine an nationally televised event featuring A&M and the Corps not being present?

Being present at the march in and attending the game should not be seen as mandatory fun, it is part of the obligation that comes with representing A&M.

Thanks for your service, Aggieswyn! God bless you and all of our deployed service members. I hope you can make it to a game next year! Best wishes to you and all your troops! Proud of you!

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"You can't see your family this Thanksgiving because you need to go watch a football game instead" is absolutely ridiculous.

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You are correct. However, this is not what is said. What is said is:

"You can see your family the day after Thanksgiving and eat turkey then. And you can see them the next day, and the day after that, too."

Sorry, I just don't see the outrage in delaying for 24 hours a holiday that's simply assigned to a random day anyway.

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One more point....You're only a cadet for four very short years, and only 9 months of each of those years. I say savor ever moment, attend every game, participate in every Corps activity possible.

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Mentally I knew it was 4 X 9 months but like everything else, didn't truly understand that fact until Elephant Walk. Agree with savoring every possible moment. Time flies that last semester.

Some of the best Thanksgiving memories are of spending Thanksgiving my fish year with all my buddies and my outfit eating Thanksgiving dinner with our families in the dorm hallway. My PH year all the guys that lived too far to drive home went home with the local guys to stay before we drove to Austin for March In. I feel bad for all of New Army that will never get the experience of marching down Congress Ave in Austin.

You just mention the Corps having "to be there" for the Thanksgiving. What about the football team????
They ate (or used to) with their team mates at their position coach's house the night before Thanksgiving. No one got to eat with their families until after the game.

And even being a USACE civilian, you get to spend wonderful holidays in COPs and FOBs in God forsaken countries. I can tell you where and what I was doing and who I was with on each Thanksgiving that I was in Iraq and Afghanistan. Those are the most meaningful Thanksgivings I have ever had. You truely get to understand the meaning of the holiday.

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CanyonAg77 - there are plenty of late-November games at 7200' in Colorado that make any bad weather at Kyle seem like a picnic.

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I have an aunt and uncle who live in Black Forest at 7600' and they've taken me to two USAFA Football games. Both of them were in October (1998 and 2003, I think) and both had freakishly bad weather. The 1998 game didn't get much snowfall but was just cold. The 2003 game was cold but I was dressed for it because I lived in Highlands Ranch then. Got about 4-6 inches of snow during the game against Colorado State. There were definitely some Zoomies who were finding a way to bail on that game but the vast majority of them were there until the end.

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Rabid Cougar - I feel bad for all of New Army that will never get the experience of marching down Congress Ave in Austin.

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+1
I remember doing it 3x. Fall '88, Fall '90 and Gov. Ann Richards Inauguration.

As for the OP - oh man. Here's a good one. During my one weekend a month and two weeks during the summer part-time job as an Armor Officer, ready for this, I had my birthday 6 years in a row in a training area on Fort Hood. That's right. I turned 24, 25, 26, 27, 28 and 29 sleeping on my tank. Good thing I'm not a birthday person The Army should have been more considerate At least it wasn't as bad as my 15th birthday when I spent all day flying home from Dhahran to JFK to Houston Intercontinental.

As others have said, the Corps experience is only 4 short years. And from what GEN Ramirez said, it sound like these days, you're only required to attend 2/4 Thanksgiving Day March-Ins/Football Games anyway. Personally, my family and all my buddies managed to cope. In fact, one of my best memories of my Zip Ol' Lady's mom is when she brought us turkey and dressing from their house in Spring in a cooler bag to our dorm room (11-128) so we could eat before the t.u. game our Zip year. I think she even brought a crock-pot to warm it up.

Like Canyon's family, my family is working class folks. Plant Operators in Texas City, Law Enforcement, etc. Folks who often have to work shift-work on holidays. I've had numerous family events where one of my uncles shows up late or leaves early because he's got to go work (make that O.T.) at "The Plant". And then there were the times when my uncle would sneak off to his bedroom and few minutes later, a fully kitted out police officer would appear. Make the most of your time with your family when you can. I'm sure they'll make the most of their time with you. You never know when it's going to end like on a random day in mid-November for instance.

As somebody who has typically been the relative flying in from afar, I'm happy to see whomever I can. I'll often have family members who I haven't seen in 2-3-5 years due to schedule conflicts. But, I'm still happy to make the effort. The one I can't get over though is my cousin and her child custody battles from her first couple of marriages which require us to schedule around her so she doesn't have to give up her (kid) "free weekend". I'm spending $15K to bring my family over from Australia and I don't get first billing Kind of rubs me the wrong way. But hey, no big deal. My time's not that valuable.

Personally, I'm glad that the Corps gets to participate in the Thanksgiving activities and I'm also glad they're taking steps to encourage safety. It's amazing how vehicles get safer, road quality improves yet vehicle fatalities are still as big a factor as ever. I guess on the other hand maybe I'm surprised we didn't have more back in the days of a 2-lane Hwy. 6 between Riesel and Hearne.

Here's a thought for those of you who live in Aggieland . . .host a corps member or two or three for Thanksgiving dinner. I hosted several this year since we had Thanksgiving on Friday because of the game. It was a very rewarding experience - these young people are extremely polite, clean and helpful. I am already sorry that we cannot host anyone next Thanksgiving, but am planning on doing it again in 2016.

There are always corps members who cannot leave town over the Thanksgiving break - even if the game is out of town - usually because their family is too far away to make the trip feasible or it is just too expensive to buy a plane ticket in November and then again three weeks later in December.

The boys at my dinner took small portions until I basically ordered them to take seconds, made pleasant conversion, played with our dogs, and were suddenly in the kitchen cleaning up. I did not touch a dish. And then they suddenly collapsed for a couple of hours.

If you have a spot at your table, please consider inviting a couple of corps members who may not have a place to go. They can stay in the dorm, but I think Duncan was closed for some, if not all, of the holiday and weekend. Not fun to be an 18 year old kid away from home for Thanksgiving.

Duncan is closed for the entirety of the Thanksgiving Holiday. Cadets that could not go home were encouraged to travel home with a buddy.

Duncan to my recollection has never been open for Thanksgiving Holiday weekend. Some of these whiners amuse me about compulsary attendance and formations. The gentleman who refers to the military as a copout obviously has no experience in the mililtary or missed out on the "selfless service" part of our creed of character.

The Corps of Cadets is THE face of TAMU. Like most televised games, lots of references during the LSU game by theannouncers, two shots of Rev and a shot of a cadet (guess he was a junior)
waiting to 'suck face' with his date if we ever scored (those were the announcer's
words, not mine) proves that point.So, a mandatory appearance at the game is not a bad thing,and, like the military, sometimes you miss events for the greater good. Not comparing 4 years in the Corps tomilitary service (I've done the Corps and so far, 28+ years in the Army both Guard
& Active Duty, plenty of missed birthdays, weddings, etc), but there are
parallels. And it looks like there weresome exceptions made (Commandant's point #2).BG Ramirez is spot on regarding risk mitigation. I appreciate that my son is a junior and he'sbullheaded enough (gets that from his mother's side) to have driven from CS to
Austin after the game. Instead, he droveto Austin the next morning and crashed for 2 hours at my parent's house. The wife and I did drive from Austin to CSThurs morning, had some tough brisket at his outfit BBQ and drove back for her
to go the t.u. game that evening.CanyonAg77 is right, these cadets should savor every moment I'm living my second Corps of Cadets 'tour' through my son and I miss it.(BTW my favorite Thanksgiving memory was eating on theflight line at Sharana in Afghanistan waiting for a flight, then eating another
meal an hour later at BAF with a few of my buddies. No relatives, no cleaning up, no little kidsthrowing footballs at my head. Just dust,jet fuel and bad DFAC food).

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Duncan to my recollection has never been open for Thanksgiving Holiday weekend. Some of these whiners amuse me about compulsary attendance and formations. The gentleman who refers to the military as a copout obviously has no experience in the mililtary or missed out on the "selfless service" part of our creed of character.

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Shoot, Duncan's not open a lot of the time now, holiday or no......

Back in the day, there was a saying... "You knew it was rough when you signed on, cadet".

Anybody that really wants to spend 2 days flying on a 4 day weekend...well.... Thanksgiving is the absolute worst travel weekend of the year, bar none.