When graduates of West Point’s Class of 2016 go into their years of service as officers of the Army, they will be wearing something no other cadets have worn before - class rings that include steel from the World Trade Center. It hasn’t received mention in the press. But it was movingly noted in the introduction of the commandant of cadets, Brig. Gen. John Thomson III, at the military academy’s annual ring memorial ceremony. What a cure for the cynicism of a cynical age. It’s at the ring ceremony that seniors get their rings, which become a physical link between future officers and the West Point graduates who went before.
Each class designs its own rings. The ingots of the class of 2016’s rings were poured earlier in the year at the Pease & Curren refinery in Rhode Island. That ceremony, known as the “ring melt,” is a tradition begun for the rings of West Point’s bicentennial class in 2002. Since then, it’s not just any gold that goes into these rings. They’re made from gold from class rings that were worn by earlier graduates and that have been donated, melted and mixed with new gold to make rings for the following year’s first-class cadets. Read More