John Hanlin
Mon, Sep 16, 5:43 PM

My name is John M. Hanlin. I attended Greenbrier Military School from 1950 to 1954. In that time I was promoted from Private to ROTC Captain. I was Commander of the GMS Band in 1954. I was also Editor of the 1954 Brier Patch, among other achievements. My years at GMS were good ones.

My connection to GMS goes back to 1922 when my maternal grandfather, Joseph L. Martin applied to GMS for a position as an instructor and was accepted to teach Bible classes. His wife, my maternal grandmother Eliza Abigail Martin, was also hired to teach elementary education at GMS and one of her primary school students was W. John Moore, who later became my high school Headmaster. (Many cadets remember him as Col. John Moore). My mother was 14 years old in 1922 and remembered taking her meals with the cadet corps in the Dining Hall. She also remembered taking organ lessons at the Old Stone Presbyterian Church from a teacher employed by the Lewisburg School for Girls which later became known as Greenbrier College for Women. My grandfather told me that when he was there, GMS had a farm associated with the school and some cadets were able to pay part of their tuition by working at the farm. There was a dairy herd that provided milk for the school, flocks of poultry for meat and eggs, beef cattle provided roasts and steaks, and swine gave them bacon and chops. There were apple orchards, gardens and field crops producing tomatoes, melons, beans, okra, and corn. It was nearly self-sustaining.

I don't remember a whole lot about my first three years at Greenbrier except that they were good years. Fried apples for breakfast is a fond memory. I found that I could get out of Night Study Hall by going to the Old Stone Presbyterian Church for choir practice on Thursday nights and sing in the church choir on Sunday. I was also a member of the Co-ed Glee Club that included girls from GCW. We practiced and sang at GCW. That was fun!

I was a member of the Band for four years. I played the trumpet and the baritone, now called a euphonium. Under the baton of Capt. Charles Hill, the Band learned and played some very good music. We traveled to the campus of WVU in Morgantown for an all-state Band competition where we garnered honors for our school. It was a lot of fun! The Band played for Pep rallies in the auditorium, all home football games and for all of our dress parades. Our drum section beat the cadence for the battalion's Sunday evening march through Lewisburg to the Old Stone Presbyterian Church. When it snowed, some of the town boys would try to pelt the bass drum with snowballs and it took good discipline to keep the battalion from breaking ranks to chase them. The cadet corps filled the church sanctuary on Sunday nights and I always thought our voices sounded good as we raised the roof while singing the hymns with gusto in triple forte.

I was often the Duty Bugler. I remember having to keep a wedge of lemon in my room so I could use it to pucker my lips for morning Reveille, sounding once in the quadrangle for Companies A,B,C and Band and once again for Companies D and E (down the hall). That was especially difficult on freezing winter mornings. When I had the duty, I sounded the calls for all formations from Reveille in the morning to Taps at night.

I was tall and skinny. My dress shirts were 14-inch neck and 35-inch sleeve length. The department stores didn’t stock that unusual size so my mother had to special-order them from a Sears Roebuck catalog. On the GMS intramural basketball court I was known as “Canary-Legs Hanlin” or “String-bean McPole”. No one ever passed me the ball and I found it was exhausting to just run back and forth from one end of the floor to the other…I gave it up.

One year we had a Field Day with various events happening all over the football field. I entered the 440 foot race. My plan was to start out strong and keep ahead of the other runners. I knew nothing about pacing or conservation of energy or final sprint. Three quarters of the way around the track guys were overtaking me and I was spent; I fell to the grass in the infield gasping for breath; I never made it to the finish line. So much for foot racing. I entered the pole vault. Two of us were given three chances to clear the bar. I said to myself, “How hard can it be? Run down the strip, plant the pole in the ground, clear the bar and land on the mattress.” I missed the first try and so did my opponent. I missed the second attempt and so did the other guy. He cleared the bar on his last effort but I blew my last chance. The bar was raised and the other guy was given three more chances. He failed to clear the bar. He got the trophy for 1st Place and I got a certificate for coming in second. (Second best pole vaulter in the school? That’s a laugh!). I gave up pole vaulting. My best sport was chess. I was GMS chess champ three years in a row.

After leaving GMS, I took a year of college -- but didn't like it. So I enlisted in the U.S. Coast Guard. I put in a year of duty at the Coast Guard Receiving Center/Alameda in the Drum and Bugle Corps, a year at the San Pedro Coast Guard Base/Terminal Island, and two years at the Captain of the Port Office in Long Beach, California. In 1959, I was discharged and flew to Honolulu on one of Pan American’s first Boeing jets, the B707. I worked for Hawaiian Airlines for a couple of years, then taught school for a year on Majuro island in the Marshall Islands, came back to Honolulu and got a Bachelor's Degree in Tropical Agriculture from the University of Hawaii. I married my girlfriend and got a two year contract as the Staff Entomologist and Evening Television Project Coordinator for the Government of American Samoa, returned to Honolulu and changed vocations. I became a radio operator for Aeronautical Radio, Inc. I worked for ARINC for 32 years, talking on high frequency radio to pilots of all the airline companies that flew throughout the Pacific, foreign and domestic, civilian and military. We have two children; our son, a graduate of the U.S. Air Force Academy, is a retired LtCol in the Air Force, our daughter works in Honolulu at Punahou School as Administrative Assistant for the Luke Center for Public Service.

In retirement, my wife Carol and I traveled the nation visiting 54 of the 58 National Parks; we took 18 ocean cruises and 3 river cruises and have now settled in a retirement community in Kaneohe on the island of Oahu. I’m 89 years old. Life has been good to me and I give much credit to Greenbrier Military School for a superior education from stellar instructors and great friends.

I add to this post a photo of a saber display that hangs in our son’s home. The left handgrip belongs to the saber my great grandfather, Ephraim L. Hanlin, who carried it as a mounted cavalryman during the Civil War. The right handgrip is the saber I wore as a commissioned officer at Greenbrier Military School. The middle saber is the one our son carried as a member of the Air Force Academy Saber Drill Team.

(Unfortunately I am not able to post the photo here. The photo can be found at the GMS Facebook page. https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=9143825708966235&set=gm.8599642380070012&idorvanity=1078021748898817)