CAPER National Alumni Association
I'd like to welcome you to our website. Whether you've been here before or not, you'll discover a lot of information about CAPERS. I'm continually learning more myself and added the information that I find. The information is great, but one of the main reasons that this website exists is to find CAPER Alumni. If you are an alumni, please send me your contact information I'll be thrilled to hear from you.
Linda Grissette, CAPER National Commander, 1970-71
The Second Annual Reunion of University of Oklahoma CAPERS, Kaydettes and Pershing Rifles will be Thursday, October 21, 2011. Click here for more information.
We will be having our first ever CAPER National CAPER (and other coed group) reunion dinner at the Pershing Rifles National Alumni Reunion in Baltimore in conjunction with NATCON (the National Convention for the Pershing Rifles Actives. The entire event will be March 15-17, 2011. If we get enough of our alumni to attend, our dinner will be on Friday, March 16, 2011. More details will be available soon.
News!
In March 2011, Nathan Jurgens (the new 2011-12 Pershing Rifles National Commander) gave me temporary custody of something he found in the Pershing Rifles archives. It's a "book" called "CAPER Information and Records" that was put together in 1977 by the Auburn University CAPER National Headquarters. I have no idea of why it was put together. It contains a CAPER Constitution, three CAPER SOPs and four company lists from deferent times, as a well as a lot of letters and other items. It is about 3/4 of an inch thick and a little over half of it is from the 1970-71 school year (when I was National Commander). Whenever I have some spare time, I've been trying to dig through it more. I will gradually be adding the information to the website and my book about CAPERS. It first things I've updated is the CAPER Units page, the National Commanders page and the CAPER Awards page. The Awards page now has some names of members who received our awards.
About the CAPER National Alumni Association
The CAPER National Alumni Association is part of the official alumni organization for Pershing Rifles, Pershing Rifles National Alumni Association (PRNAA). In case you haven't hear yet, CAPERS are considered Pershing Rifles Alumni. Once we were a part of PRNAA, we made the decision to make this open to all alumni of Coed groups.
Eligible alumni include:
Those who were in coed groups affiliated with Pershing Rifles before CAPERS officially started in 1966.
Those who were in CAPER Companies when it was the officially recognized by Pershing Rifles (1966 to 1980).
Those who were in companies that continued as CAPERS or Pershing Angels from 1980 until 1990.
Those who were in Pershing Angels after 1990.
Those who were in any other coed groups affiliated with a Pershing Rifles Company at any time, even if they never chartered with CAPERS or Pershing Angels.
If you fit any of those categories, we'd love to hear from you. Use our Submit Contact Information Form and let us know who you are. We'll get back to you as quickly as possible. There is no dues to be a part of us, but you can join the Pershing Rifles National Alumni Association. There are a variety of options available to our alumni.
| CAPER National Staff in the spring of 1971 with our P/R local liaison, John O'Dell. | |
|
|
CAPERS in front row: Gwen Howell Kelly, Chief of Staff, Linda Grissette, National Commander, Paulette Kikugawa Lum, Deputy Commander Back row: Jessie Elder, G-2 (Expansion), Kay Johnson, Sharon Fancey. If you are curious out how some of the CAPERS look today, check out the pictures of the first Pershing Rifles Reunion at the University of Oklahoma. To see our offices in the OU ROTC Building (the Armory), take the Armory Tour off the reunion page. |
All CAPER Alumni should enjoy our "header" a picture of the CAPER patch. When starting this site, I had know idea if any of our patches still existed...until I found the picture of one of them on Photo Bucket.
The CAPER National Alumni Association is always looking for other CAPER, Pershing Angels or other coed alumni from around the country. If you would like to help Linda with this, please let Linda know..
Yes, CAPER (and all coed group) alumni are Pershing Rifles Alumni!
| CAPER National Headquarters at the University of Oklahoma. | |
| Pictures of CAPERS at the University of Oklahoma. | |
| Pictures of CAPER Representative at the 1969 National Convention....and some of National Staff at other events. | |
| Check out the FREE on-line book, "CAPERS....Who or What Were They". Get it here. Check back regularly, as it is updated as more information becomes available. | |
| We've also got a map of all known CAPER companies...as well as other coed groups affiliated with Pershing Rifles. I remember a map on the wall of our National Headquarters office at the University of Oklahoma and wanted to re-create it on the website. | |
| Pictures of the first 3 years of Kaydettes: If you remember a little bit about CAPER history, you will remember that the Kaydettes from the University of Oklahoma were the ones who organized the first National Headquarters for CAPERS. | |
| If you were in CAPERS or Kaydettes at the University of Oklahoma, you will be pleased to know that there is now a University of Oklahoma Pershing Rifles Alumni Club. The membership is open to all alumni of Pershing Rifles Company H-7 (or any other designation it may have had) and their honorary sponsors, as well as CAPER and Kaydette alumni. | |
| CAPER memorabilia. | |
| Do you still have your old ribbons and awards? Check out these pages and see pictures of some of them. If you can get better pictures or have some different ones to add to the page, feel free to send them in. If you think any of the ribbons or awards are for different things than what we have down, let us know....and we'll put what you think it is on the page. It's been a lot of years and we all need some help remembering all of these! | |
| CAPER History: | |
| There are still some mysteries that we know of in our history. We would love to add information on the later years of our organization. There is also page where you can add your memories of our history in more detail...and even with emotion! The memories don't have to agree, they just have to be yours. Finding and documenting the history of CAPERS and other coed groups affiliated with Pershing Rifles, is something that Linda, the founder of the CAPER National Alumni Association is working hard on. She started it in 1999 when she received a copy of the history that Pershing Angels had. Then she added her memories of the time when she was active in CAPERS (1867-1971). She has been getting more information on our history....but would love to find more. Also you'll learn about how CAPERS ended and about the amazing legacy we left behind. | |
| Here's a list of all the CAPER National Commanders that we know about with pictures of all the commanders at OU! As we get them, other pictures (and names) will be added! | |
| How many CAPER Companies were there? What about all the other coed groups? | |
| Check out the list of all of the CAPER Companies, but it is probably not complete. There is a link to a page for each company. The hope is that as we find alumni from different companies, they will use their page as a place where members of their company can find each other and build their own alumni community. | |
| In 1970, we divided CAPERS into Regiments. | |
| Other coed groups affiliated with Pershing Rifles companies. | |
| Other interesting pages: | |
| Learn how this website started! | |
| Read the story of "An Old Soldier"...you'll like it. | |
| Updates from the 2010 Pershing Rifles National Alumni Reunion and National Convention (NATCON) | |
| CAPER and Pershing Rifles Links You can find out if your Pershing Rifles Company still exists. | |
|
Submit your contact information. |
| Submit a name of someone you remember who isn't on the list. |
| Find out how to submit pictures. |
| Submit your memories of CAPERS (and P/Rs) |
A Little About Linda Grissette, creator of this website and founder of the CAPER National Alumni Association
Linda pledged CAPERS in the fall of 1967. After she was initiated in December, she became a member of National Staff as G-1, Adjutant. She was active in CAPER National Headquarters all 4 years she was in college. She also helped with G-2, Expansion Officer, G-4,Supply Officer and Finance Officer. In the fall of 1969, she became Chief of Staff, then was the first Deputy Commander in March 1970 and then was named the 1970-71 National Commander in May of 1970. Her ranks went from Captain and Brigadier General.
Linda is not asking for any money to help support this project. Her reward will be finding people she remembers and learning about other former members memories. If you appreciate the effort, please use her for all of real estate needs. If you aren't in the St. Louis area where she works, she can find a great agent in your area and will receive a small referral fee. Contact Linda about real estate. See Linda's main real estate website.
