CAPER National Alumni Association
CAPER National Headquarters Alumni
...from the University of Oklahoma
If you were in CAPERS at the University of Oklahoma, we are glad you found us on the internet. This site is still being worked on, but we hope you enjoy it! We hope you enjoy seeing our patch at the top of the page. Until this picture was found on Photo Bucket, we doubted that one of these still existed. Most were left on uniforms. Because we never had a local company (and because we were the first National Headquarters), we get the Headquarters page. (It's also because when I started this website, I never expected to find anyone but our alumni, but I have. Linda)
If you were in CAPERS at one of our other headquarters locations (Kansas State University, Auburn University, Appalachian State University, Seton Hall University and St. Peters College), we are thrilled that you are here. Hopefully, you will be able to help us build the organization history for your era. If you go to the units page, you'll find the page for your school. Be sure on leave us your contact information so we will be able to contact you.
Remember the map we had in the office with the location of all of our companies? There is now a recreation of that map so we can see how what we worked on grew! OK, so the map is different.
Also, we now have a book, "CAPERS...Who or What Were They?", detailing our history and that of our companies. Click here to read it.
The University of Oklahoma Pershing Rifles Alumni Club had officially started. It's the first Pershing Rifles Alumni group that specifically includes CAPERS (and Kaydettes), It is also the first one started by a CAPER. We held our first reunion on September, 2010. Be sure to check out all the pictures and the Armory Tour. If you want to make sure you don't miss next year, please send us your contact information! Check the website for "our" PRs!
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At the 1971 Blood Drive
Gwen Howell Kelly, Chief of Staff Jessie Elder, G-2 (Expansion) Linda Grissette, National Commander Paulette Kikugawa Lum, Deputy Commander. Thanks to Charles Brantley for scan this and sending it to us! |
| More pictures of CAPERS at the University of Oklahoma, plus a page for some fake pictures! |
| Some newspaper clippings. Pictures of CAPERS at Conventions and on the road other places. |
| Memories page and some CAPER memorabilia. |
| Pictures of the first 3 years of Kaydettes. |
| CAPER History. Read it all the way through to find out how CAPERS ended. Because of how the organization ended, we are considered Pershing Rifles alumni. We are working on starting a University of Oklahoma Pershing Rifles Alumni group and CAPERS are part of it! In fact, this will be the first Pershing Rifles Alumni group started by a CAPER (Linda Grissette) and the first one without an active company. The group will be having their first get together in September 2010 at the OU ROTC Alumni and Friends Dinner. If you aren't getting our e-mails, please submit your contact information so you will get all the information. |
| A 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. This starts with the history that Pershing Angels had in 1999 when Linda Grissette talked to them. She has added her memories that sometimes really challenge what they had. Now it is your turn to challenge what is there if you want. Between all of it, we'll get more history! |
| I knew it would happen eventually, but I wasn't prepared for it. I have had to add a CAPER to the "Those We Have Lost" page. It was hard because it was one of my friends, Linda Turnbull, that I had lost touch with. Linda G. |
| How many of our uniforms do you remember? Check out our pictures of the uniforms. |
| Do you remember our liaisons (local and national)? We've got pictures of some of them, and not all the names. Maybe you can fill in the blanks! |
| Here's a list of all the CAPER National Commanders that we know about. We have pictures of all the commanders at OU! |
| Do you remember our awards? See if we got the list correct! |
| Do you still have your old ribbons? If so, we might need your help remembering what they all are. We have a start, but we're not really sure.... |
| Read the story of "An Old Soldier"...you'll like it. |
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We also have a website for Pershing Rifles Company H-7 Alumni. |
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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) |
| Here are some other links that may be of interest to CAPER Alumni: |
| University of Oklahoma ROTC Website |
| University of Oklahoma ROTC History Website |
| Check around on it. Quite a few years ago most of the historic stuff in the Armory was thrown out. In about 2005 a cadet got interested in the history of the Battalion and started the website. The content is based on the little amount of things he could find and on his understanding of the history of the times. There is a page about the 60's and 70's with some H-7 alumni pictured at the top of the page. There is a page about women in ROTC. When I found it, I discovered a picture of Iris Rodriguez that has obviously perplexed the cadet. The picture just said that she was promoted to BG by MG (and the name must have been unreadable), as he thought it must have been MG Westmoreland. I got it changed to describe CAPERS a little bit and stated that she was promoted to CAPER BG by Pershing Rifles MG Dennis Lambert. I also got them to add a page on CAPERS. After all that work, a young woman called into the ROTC department complaining about how that page described her grandmother. (Before Iris's picture it talked about the department honoraries, calling them debutants). She said that her grandmother was not a debutant and she was a BG and should not have been treated that way. The department executive officer took both paged down. Obviously it was Iris' granddaughter and she didn't realize that she caused them to take down a valuable link to this site. The department actually gets phone calls asking why the University of Oklahoma doesn't have CAPERS anymore, so those pages would have been invaluable for getting CAPER alumni to our website. I'm hoping that we'll find Iris soon so that she can tell the department to get them back up. |
| Our links page. |
Names of Alumni for CAPER National Headquarters at OU that we currently have. If you'd like to see who we've found and who is missing, go to the roster page for the University of Oklahoma Pershing Rifles Alumni Club.
| First Name | Maiden Name | Married Name | Pledge Year | Highest Rank | Highest Position |
| Mary Ellen | Hamilton | 1966 | CPT | G-3 Training | |
| Tanya | McDonald | Miller | 1964 | COL | National Commander, 1966-67 |
| Peggy | Horn | Booker | 1966 | CPT | G-1, Adjutant |
| Patricia Gail | Todd | Kish | 1966 | COL | National Commander, 1967 |
| Rebekah (Becky) | Boone | Patton | 1966 | CPT | G-4, Supply |
| Kathryn (Kay) | Sykes | 1966 | COL | National Commander, 1968 | |
| Eileen | Beindorf | Meyer | 1967, fall | ||
| Susan | Carlton | 1967, fall | |||
| Claudia | Dixon | Davis | 1967, fall | ||
| Patricia | Evans | 1967, fall | |||
| Linda | Grissette | (Grayson) | 1967, fall | BG | National Commander, 1970-71 |
| Linda | Hallett | 1967, fall | |||
| Judy | Hobson | 1967, fall | |||
| Terry | Hunt | (Epperson) | 1967, fall | ||
| Teresa | Onyshczak | 1967, fall | |||
| Myra | Rider | 1967, fall | |||
| Kathy | Robertson | Hammon | 1967, fall | ||
| Karen | Sobel | 1967, fall | |||
| Janet | Ward | 1967, fall | |||
| Gwen | Coley | 1968, spring | COL | National Commander, 1969 | |
| Nina Rose | Jacoby | 1968, spring | COL | National Commander, 1969 | |
| Pam | Wright | Hunt | 1968, spring | ||
| Marianne | Burke | 1968, fall | |||
| Gayle | Cluck | Pestonje | 1968, fall | ||
| Sally | Helmstetter | 1968, fall | |||
| Susan | Putroff | 1968, fall | |||
| Iris | Rodrigeuz | 1968, fall | BG | National Commander, 1969-70 | |
| Linda | Salmons | 1968, fall | |||
| Pam | Srigley | 1968, fall | |||
| Pam | Thrasher | Sheehan | 1968, fall | ||
| Linda | Turnbull | Hamilton | 1968, fall | deceased | |
| Jamie | White | Ramsey | 1968, fall | ||
| Elaine | Adams | 1969, fall | |||
| Carolyn | Cothrum | Ciupak | 1969, fall | ||
| Bonnie | Gateswood | 1969, fall | |||
| Joanne | Hendershot | 1969, fall | |||
| Gwen | Howell | Kelly | 1969, fall | BG | National Commander, 1972 |
| Paulette | Kikugawa | Lum | 1969, fall | BG | National Commander, 1971-72 |
| Carol | King | 1969, fall | |||
| Becky | Smith | 1969, fall | |||
| Jerry | Walker | 1969, fall | |||
| Carroll | Webster | 1969, fall | |||
| Jessie | Elder | 1970, spring | |||
| Sharon | Fancey | Johnson | 1970, fall | ||
| Kay | Johnson | 1970, fall | |||
| Carol | Perkins | 1970, fall | |||
| Yolanda | Scott | 1970, fall | |||
| Leslie | Singer | 1970, spring | CPT | local commander | |
| Charlene (Charley) | St. John | 1970, fall | |||
| Joanna | Whitley | 1970, fall | |||
| Grace | Hale | Atwood | 1970, fall of 1971, spring ?? | Grace was the first coed in ROTC at OU..before they were officially allowed! After the headquarters moved, she was made a member of Pershing Rifles Company H-7...and was an officer several years later as a "civilian" member before the Pershing Rifles Constitution was changed to allow "civilian" members. CAPERS definitely had an effect on Company H-7! | |
Click here if you'd like to contact someone.
The creator of this website, Linda Grissette (the 1970-71 CAPER National Commander) 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.
