August Second Saturday Lecture

In early July 1977, at just 17 years old, Holly (Zarfoss) Gumke became a cadet in the Class of 1981 at the United States Military Academy at West Point. This was just the second class to accept women since the Academy’s inception in 1802. What was it like to be one of just 104 women in a class of 1500 at a school that was all male for all but one of the previous 175 years? What was cadet life like from “Beast Barracks” to Graduation? What were the highlights and difficulties of those four years? What issues did the academy face as they navigated having women in their ranks? Told though pictures and personal stories, this is an opportunity to hear an insider’s view about one of the most prestigious military academies in the world at one of its monumental points in its history.