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March 04 2016
Spring is upon us— Changes around campus follow Micah Giszack
We’ve all got Spring Fever. This week started off breezy and warm, both telltale signs of a quickly-approaching spring. Any former cadet can attest to the fact that this final leg of the year passes more quickly than any other segment. Just a day after we get back from leave, cadets will have their Term 4 midterm exams, and a short few weeks after that, they will be in their final class for the year. Spring sports seasons have begun, and the excitement is tangible among the cadets and faculty alike, because shortly after spring comes summer, and with that a new chapter in some of our
cadets’ lives. It would be too easy to smell the flowers or warm breeze and then forget that we still have a few weeks left. When cadets return, they’ll be making the transition from neckties and long sleeves to summer attire: blue collared shirts and cropped BDU polos.
son, which cadets will be practicing for. It’s true that this last leg is always the most exciting, but that brings changes with it. Especially for seniors who will be venturing off to college in the fall, keeping the blinders on until graduation is crucial. History will show us that teenagers tend to think in the short-term, which time and However, more than cadets’ uniforms time again has proven detrimental to will be changing come their return. lifelong success. We know that the Monday, March 14th will be the final young men at Fork Union are entirely club slot pitted for a Monday aftercapable of self-discipline, respect, noon. Starting on March 21st, that integrity, faith and character. After all, time will be occupied by a drill period. it’s who we are and what we do as a This is in preparation for parade sea- school, and that will never change.
The up-and-coming sport at Fork Union Captain Jon Greenspon
A new season is starting at Fork Union. That which was win-
Varsity Head Coach Nate Thiel. Coach Thiel is assisted by
ter is now becoming spring and with this seasonal sports
Head JV Coach Jonathan Greenspon as well as Assistant
change there is an excitement in the air. A new spring season Coaches Aaron Butt and Bennett Radinovic. Ms. Jenni Payne brings with it new hopes and an optimism that always seems will also be assisting this spring, working with the goalies. to be welcomed after the short dark days of winter. As practice gets underway, time seems to pick up pace. Spring Break is just around the corner. When rains stop long enough for the athletic fields to dry out, the smell of fresh-cut grass will fill the air. These fields will be lined for practice and for play. Clocks will be adjusted to reflect the change in time. Birds will continue to return to the area as the daylight hours continue to gain momentum. Lacrosse season is here at last!
This year, 2016 marks the return to Fork Union of a Junior Varsity Lacrosse team. For years we operated with only a Middle School team and a Varsity. Oftentimes in the past, players in the 9th or 10th grade would not have an avenue to improve their skills or prepare them for game opportunities. The addition of the JV should help to develop those players, as well as the 7th and 8th graders who make the team. One of Coach Greenspon’s goals for the JV Lacrosse team is to help
Players and coaches alike are excited about the prospects for build a foundation for the Varsity team. There are several this year’s lacrosse teams. Lacrosse continues to be the up
former middle school players on this year’s Varsity team
and coming sport at Fork Union with an emerging group
who are contributing talent to the Varsity, refining skills they
of talented young players. The Lacrosse Program is led by
first learned when they played in the middle school.
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Don’t forget to move your clocks ahead an hour on Sunday, March 13. This is the day cadets return.
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Myth or Maxim? Smartphone battery tips and tricks Cadets Zachary Miller and Micah Giszack
Nearly everyone has a smartphone. No matter which brand you
There are some tips, however, that just don’t hold up under testing.
choose to have, battery life is an issue that all owners have gripes
For example, you might compulsively close all of your apps every
over. Plenty of different sources have varying suggestions for how
so often, but iOS and Android are both designed to put those pro-
to make the charge last longer, but some of the tips are misleading,
grams to sleep when you aren’t using them, so closing them might
and can even cost you. First, I’ll discuss ways to elongate battery
not be all that beneficial, and can actually cost you if the app-in-
life, then the things you do that might cost you. Androids and
question was streaming music or needs to stay open in the back-
iPhones both share one major battery-drainer: the screen. On aver- ground. The batteries in phones are not meant to be discharged to age, your phone’s screen uses close to 45% of the entire battery.
0% more than every so often (though this practice can help cali-
Turning down the brightness can save you a lot, and even earn you
brate the percentage meter on your phone. This would be benefi-
up to a full hour of usage if you are smart with it. However, using
cial if your phone goes from 20% to 0% in minutes), and doing this
the auto-brightness feature, though it might help, can actually be
can shorten their overall lifespan. Some will tell you that leaving
less efficient than manually adjusting it, because the phone’s sen-
your phone plugged in overnight can damage the battery, but this
sors that measure ambient light use power, too (but using this
is not true. While leaving a LI-Ion battery at full capacity may
feature is better than nothing at all). Though you may have a bit of
weaken the cells, modern programming prevents overcharging,
trouble finding one, using an ad-blocking app can save you up to
which used to be an issue with flip phones. Moreover, it is OK to
20%, because there won’t be as much data traffic going in and out.
use your phone while it’s charging. As long as it’s just for quick
In addition to battery, using one of those apps can also decrease
glances, using your smartphone while plugged in will not have any
load times for web pages, and also they will make browsing use
adverse effects in the long run, though it will take longer to charge
less data from your plan over LTE. If you have a weak Wi-Fi con-
because the screen is on. Finally, be careful which type of cable you
nection, though, using LTE or 4G may be easier on your battery,
use to charge your phone. Especially with iPhones, using Lightning
because your phone uses a lot of power when it tries to maintain a
cables made by anyone other than Apple or a reputable brand like
weak connection to your router. If you don’t use your phone as a
Anker could damage your charging port and battery. There have
GPS often, turning off location services can help save some juice,
even been reports of the charging nub breaking off inside the
too. The same applies with push notifications. Disabling vibration,
phone!
especially can save lots of power.
Campus unscathed after bout with tornadoes Cadet John Graves-Marchand
On Wednesday, February 24, 2016 a dangerous storm system
East, snowstorms and heavy winds cancelled flights at Chicago
hit Fork Union, Virginia. Just miles from campus, tornadoes
O’Hare, and schools closed across many states due to severe
touched down and severely damaged some of the surrounding
weather. The reported fatality count is 5, with three of those
area. There were widespread reports of trees being uprooted
targeted at a single neighborhood. Fork Union cadets were
and flung or snapped. Structural damage was mainly related to
fortunate enough to deal only with the boredom of waiting in
downed trees, though some homes suffered wind damage.
buildings across campus as the campus was put into a Code
Power was out for over a day around, but not on, the FUMA
Yellow, a drill cadets practice every school year to prepare for
campus. We are considerably blessed to have made it out with
such events as these. In other places along the Midwest, build-
zero injuries, especially compared to what many others across
ings were torn from the ground and debris flew all over the
the East Coast endured. The system struck Southeastern states
place. In all regions affected by this particular system, over a
on Tuesday. These included Louisiana, Mississippi, and Florida. hundred individuals were injured. Damages are estimated to Though reports of tornadic activity remained isolated to the
run into the hundreds of millions of dollars in certain locales.
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Up and coming— Continued Captain Jon Greenspon
The 2016 Varsity Lacrosse Schedule includes 15 games during As the Fork Union Military Academy community honors the the regular season. The Junior Varsity is slated for 9 games
accomplishments and
this spring. Both schedules are available through the athletics
proud traditions of our
tab on the Fork Union website. Several games are being
athletes and the legendary
played at home this season. Come cheer on our teams as we
coaches who have men-
take the field this spring.
tored them through the
Lacrosse hopes to add to the reputation of successes found in the banners from other programs which adorn the Estes Athletic Center. Fork Union has fielded highly successful programs in Football, Basketball, Track/Cross Country, and Swimming. If you are interested in supporting the Lacrosse Program, or playing a part in the success of this up and coming sport at Fork Union, please contact Coach Thiel or Coach Greenspon to find out
ages, the lacrosse coaches believe it is imperative that we continue to build upon the foundation. As we prepare for a renaissance in our programs, never should we lose those intangibles which make us Fork Union. Our athletes are all cadets and must develop their talents and abilities within the culture, not outside of it. Academics must continue to come first. Respect, Integrity, Faith, Character, and Discipline will continue to be honed in the classroom, the barracks, and the arena. Fork Union’s biggest goal remains to produce honorable men of fortitude –the kind of men which our world needs now more than ever.
how you can help.
Norovirus outbreak at Ohio college Cadet Luke Antesberger
A Western Ohio college has been dealing with a small epidemic
lion people each year in the U.S. and also causes 570 to 800
scare recently. In a sudden outbreak, a strain of norovirus has
deaths annually, according to the CDC. Locations this virus are
been sweeping through the school. An estimate of 200 students
known to thrive include hospitals, cruise ships, universities, and
are sick with the virus in just a few days. Norovirus, according to
most other places where people eat or interact in close quarters.
the CDC, “...is a very contagious virus that can infect anyone. You can get it from an infected person, contaminated food and water, or by touching contaminated surfaces.” Several symptoms of this virus include stomach pain, nausea, diarrhea, and vomiting. Norovirus is known to be one of the most frequent causes of foodborne disease in the United States. It affects 19 million to 21 mil-
"We have been very diligent in our cleaning [and sanitization], and are using products that combat the virus in our residential and dining halls," said Carole Johnson, a university spokeswoman. Across the last several months, norovirus has been reported in restaurants in Kansas, and in Chipotle locations across the U.S. Let’s just hope it doesn’t find its way down to Fork Union.
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Fork Union Military Academy Phone: 434-848-3212 Address: 4744 James Madison Hwy Fork Union, VA 23055 Comments for Sabre Now: Sabre@fuma.org All back issues can be found here
Editor’s Note We are almost there! It’s almost the point of the year in which cadets’ mouths begin to water at the prospect of summer vacation. It really seems like just two or three months, rather than six, that we’ve been in this academic session. The third leg of the “marathon” begins on March 14th. This is already the fourth edition of the Sabre Now, and though I myself may be partial, it seems to have been successful thus far. Although only time will dictate the future of Now, all signs point toward a bright future. We have only attained increasingly greater support from cadets and faculty for not just readership, but also contributions toward this newsletter. This edition was filled with high-quality writing from Sabre staff members, and FUMA faculty, with a special thanks to Captain Greenspon for his excellent lacrosse piece. on In the boxWeb! above, there We’re the is a hyperlink to Sabre Now’s online example.com library, and this is a secondary link. We encourage anyone who enjoys this newsletter to share it with absolutely anyone interested in keeping up with events both on campus and the ones that are happening elsewhere, but intrigue our writers. The Sabre wishes all cadets and their families a happy spring break, and we look forward to seeing this school year through with all of you. Until next time.
Meet one of Earth’s toughest living creatures, Tardigrade Luke Antesberger
What is the world’s strongest creature? Many would say that it’s a rhino or maybe a crocodile. But I do not think anybody would assume a microorganism could be any stronger than one of those fierce beings, but one of them is: the tardigrade. To test its strength, a Swedish researcher named Ingemar Jonsson from Kristianstad University sent some samples of tardigrade into space. They were launched into a Low-Earth orbit, LEO, in 2007 on the spacecraft FOTON-M3. Despite being exposed to outer space and its harsh conditions, most of the Tardigrades survived the trip.
Tardigrades after 30 years of deep sleep in temperatures many degrees below zero Fahrenheit. In November of 1983, several moss samples were collected in a Japanese Antarctic expedition and were stored at -4 degrees. Not too long ago in March of 2014, researchers unfroze the very same moss and, to their great surprise, found two living Tardigrades. The researchers named them Sleeping Beauty-1 and Sleeping Beauty-2. An egg was also extracted and named Sleeping Beauty-3. The second one died after 20 days, but Sleeping Beauty-1 recovered. Sleeping Beauty-3 eventually “hatched” from its egg, too.
Now that scientists know tardigrades can “The goal of the undertakPhoto Cr. NASA. Scanning microscopic ing is ‘to unravel the mechsurvive space, why not imagery of Tardigrade anism for long-term survivstick them in a freezer and see what happens? Well, they did that, but al by looking into damage to tardigrades' DNA and their ability to repair it," says a researcher, the freezer they used was far more frigid than per the BBC.” SB-1 laid a total of 19 eggs, but the one you might have at home. Several Japaonly 14 hatched, and SB-3 laid 15 eggs, but only nese researchers have effectively awakened 7 hatched.”
March and April’s Events CORRECTION: The last issue marked March 19th, rather than March 13th, as the final day of Spring Leave. We apologize for the error
March 16th: Term 4 Midterm. March 4th: Spring Leave begins. Cadets may leave campus directly following class’s termination and appropriate procedures. ***Note: There will be wintry weather in our region on March 4th. Stay alert for any notices from the Commandant’s Department regarding Leave
March 13th: Cadets will return to campus from leave at no later than 1930 March 19th: Saturday class. This is Alumni Speaker Day April 9th: ACT administered on-campus. April 11th: Term 4 final exams. Term 5 begins
A full 2015-2016 Academic Calendar may be found on our website. A PDF is available for all parents to download here. The 2016-2017 Academic Calendar will be available soon. All information hereto has been verified. Modifications to preserve accuracy were taken when necessary.