Military Academy Chapels

I belong to a little book club. Six old guys who prefer non-fiction stories. This month’s selection is Malcolm Gladwell’s latest, ‘The Bomber Mafia,’ the story of the first U.S. Army Air Corps Tactical School. It begins in 1930’s America and carries through to the end of World War II. The school’s leaders were the first to buck the hide-bound traditions of the two established military branches and promote the concept of precision bombing as a less-damaging way to win a war.

To illustrate the established culture of the three branches of our military, the book used the example of the chapels on the campuses of their academies. It was then I realized I had photographed the buildings in question.

United States Military Academy Chapel, West Point (7 June 2006)

One year into blessed retirement, I visited West Point. The chapel was dedicated in 1910. It is built of native granite and fits perfectly into the Gothic medieval fortress that has been on the Hudson River palisades since the school was founded by the winners of our war for independence in 1802. “We’re an independent nation now. It’s time we properly train our military leaders.”

United States Military Academy Chapel, West Point (7 June 2006)

The book uses these words to describe the chapel – “brooding power, solid, plain, unmovable, deeply patriotic, rooted in service to country.”

United States Naval Academy Chapel, Annapolis (29 March 2007)

The U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis is a short drive from my home. Designed in the Beaux-Arts style that was popular at the time, the chapel was dedicated in 1908. Its dome is modeled after the chapel at Les Invalides in Paris. The windows are large, allowing swaths of light to shine on the ornate interior. The book concludes this is all “...very Navy: arrogant, independent, secure in the global scale of its ambitions.”

Crypt of John Paul Jones, U.S. Naval Academy Chapel, Annapolis (30 December 2015)

John Paul Jones, the Scottish-born naval hero of the American Revolution, occupies this elaborate sarcophagus in the lower level of the Naval Academy chapel. He is called the ‘Father of the American Navy,’ but was out of the service and living in Paris when he died in 1792 at the age of 45. He was unceremoniously buried in a cemetery that was later sold off by the French revolutionary government. It was not until 1905 that his remains were found. With great fanfare, Jones was returned to the States and he has been in this location since 1913.

 

Cadet Chapel, United States. Air Force Academy, Colorado Springs (November 1989)

I guess it’s easy to infer much about the three branches’ cultures based on the appearance of their campuses and chapels. Armies have existed since the beginning of organized ground warfare. Most of that time, masses of men collided on the battlefields until weapons that could kill from a distance were invented. A safe country needs an established army to defend the homeland.

The same evolution can be seen with warfare on the high seas. Ships were rowed or sailed close enough to shoot at one another, harass other shipping, and raid waterfront sites by landing marine squadrons. A safe country needs a competent navy to protect its coasts and maritime interests.

The upstart fliers changed so much and the old school commanders were slow to change their ways. Early military pilots were still required to take cavalry training because that’s what Army officers did. From the cloth and wood biplanes of World War I to the end of World War II when jet planes were introduced and the Enola Gay could drop ONE bomb and obliterate a city, it was still the Army and Navy that controlled American air power.

That had to change. Fliers are not soldiers or sailors. The modern separate Air Force was established in 1947 and that branch opened its own academy in Colorado Springs in the late 1950’s. The Cadet Chapel was dedicated in 1962 and it’s easy to see how modern times and aerial thinking can affect architectural expression.

Cadet Chapel, United States. Air Force Academy, Colorado Springs (November 1989)

Its soaring shape and blue interior proclaim the ‘sky’s the limit’ attitude of fliers. The chapel boasts that it is the most visited man-made attraction in Colorado…or ‘was’ anyway.

Sadly, one is unable to visit the Air Force chapel now. The architect’s original plans called for a complex of gutters to manage rainfall. The Academy, citing costs, nixed the gutters and elected to caulk all the outside joints and connections. The caulking never worked in the high plateau climate and the chapel leaked from the beginning. After considerable water damage to the interior, the building was closed to the public and enclosed under a giant shroud (see this story from November 2021).

For $158 million, it appears the chapel will be rebuilt from the outside in. In addition to restoring the water damage, all the caulking (32 miles of it) will be removed, the original gutter plan will be retro-fitted, and all aluminum panels and stained glass will be removed, restored or replaced. Word is that asbestos remediation has added to the scope and will delay the completion beyond 2023.

Good thing I got there early.