USMA Bicentennial

Expand the idea to include all 200 years. Open the door to outside quilters. Specify dimensions, colors and deadlines. In less than a year, make history.

August 17, the night prior to USMA’s bicentennial kickoff, the West Point Quilters, a group of eight women from the community, presented The Long Gray Line Bicentennial Quilt to the academy prior to a dinner held in Eisenhower Hall.

It was November 2000 when Susan Roeder came up with the idea to create the quilt and shared her thoughts with her small group of quilting friends.

"Leaving behind a quilt when you move every few years is a way of leaving a part of yourself. Being involved in the bicentennial is a great way for our quilt group to always be a part of West Point," she said.

But being a small group, they decided to solicit help from others with West Point ties.

Word went out via the Association of Graduate’s e-mail newsletter, "Gray Matter," inviting "other quilters who loved West Point to become involved," Roeder explained.

With instructions to create a 3-, 6- or 9-inch pieced quilt block using only light, medium or dark gray fabrics, responses from grandmothers, mothers, wives and even husbands were received, according to Roeder.


	Speakers at the ceremony were (left to right): Char Mulyca, West Point Quilters; Colonel Pat Kane, Bicentennial Office; and Tony Ferraiuolo, Association of Graduates

Bonnie Genetti, of Rockville, Md., was one of those respondents. Her husband (USMA ’63) and two of his brothers (USMA ’65 and ’75) were her inspiration.

"I decided almost immediately that I would do a ‘log cabin’ block. Since I knew it [the quilt square] would be in the background, I thought the block would appear to be part of a gray stone wall which is so indicative of West Point," Genetti said.

Nearly 40 outside quilters sent in single or multiple blocks to be used to make the quilt. They did it as a dedication to their "West Pointer" from as early as the Class of 1933 through the newly-arrived Class of 2005.

"The uniqueness of this project and the amount of pride in West Point and what it represents is evident in every stitch used to hold it together," said Col. Pat Kane, USMA bicentennial officer. "Duty, honor, country from the family members’ perspective is still duty, honor, country. And it’s that sense of family commitment that helps hold the Army together."

Family commitment is what excited Genetti, not only at the thought she added to a small piece of the academy’s history, but because she is a proud Army wife.

"I am so pleased that I could publicly pay tribute to my husband who has, as so many other graduates have, dedicated his life to a career of 36 years to an Army he loved and served so well," she said. She and her husband were on hand for the unveiling Saturday night.

The Long Gray Line Bicentennial Quilt is now on permanent display in Eisenhower Hall.

Another Army mission successfully accomplished.

Bicentennial Quilt

A "quilt"essential tribute to USMA