PASADENA – Throughout their 13-year friendship, Steven Longfellow and Dennis Lowe have attended the same elementary school and risen through the ranks of the Boy Scouts together.

With the end of their high school days approaching, the two teens – who live down the street from each other – now will attend West Point Military Academy together this fall.

Longfellow, 18, will graduate from Polytechnic School and Lowe, 19, from Flintridge Prep. They met at Chandler School in kindergarten and have been friends ever since.

“It’s going to be great for moral support,” Lowe said of them attending West Point together. “Just to have someone you’ve known for a long time there … it’s kind of difficult to relate to if you have not been through it.”

Both say they want to serve their country.

“There is something I need to give back,” Longfellow said.

In preparation for basic training camp, which begins at the end of June, the teens are following a strict workout regimen – running and doing push-ups, sit-ups and pull-ups. Several times a week, they train with a former Marine in La Crescenta, who tries to instill discipline and give an early introduction to what military life will be like.

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The head of the U.S. Military Academy thinks it’s time to replace the “men” and “sons” in West Point’s two most beloved songs with more gender-neutral lyrics.

Lt. Gen. Franklin “Buster” Hagenbeck, superintendent of the nation’s oldest military academy, told a congressional oversight committee Wednesday that with more than 3,000 women graduating from West Point since 1976, the change is long overdue.

During a presentation Wednesday to the academy’s Board of Visitors meeting in Washington, Hagenbeck said he wants to change the words to the military academy’s alma mater and its companion piece, “The Corps.” Both songs date back about a century.

In “The Corps,” the proposals include changing “The men” to “The ranks,” and “We sons” to “The Corps.”

The superintendent said the changes aren’t being pushed by female cadets, but it’s a commonsense move considering the role women play in today’s military.

“When are they going to be recognized for what they’re doing?” he said.

Hagenbeck said he got the idea for the revision two years ago at a ceremony commemorating the 30th anniversary of women being admitted to West Point. He listened as the female alums sang lyrics from the songs that included, “We sons of today, we salute you.”

Hagenbeck has spent the last few months discussing the possible changes with alumni, Army brass and cadets. He said he’ll make the final decision, possibly after graduation ceremonies on May 31 and before the Class of 2012 arrives this summer.

The academy’s Board of Visitors, made up of presidential appointees and members of Congress, voted unanimously to back whatever decision he makes. Three New York congressman — John McHugh, Maurice Hinchey and John Hall — are board members.

Francis Marion Military Academy is looking for a few good teenagers – specifically, boys and girls who will enter ninth and 10th grades in August.
The students must be drug-free if they hope to enroll at the new charter school, which opens Aug. 18. Monday marked the first day of enrollment for the academy, which will be the second of its kind – behind Sarasota Military Academy – in Florida. Officials hope to have 100 ninth- and 10th-graders when school opens.

The school is the brainchild of members of the Ocala-Silver Springs Rotary Club, who spent nearly three years seeking a charter. Morrey Deen, a former Ocala police chief, and Skip Archibald, a former superintendent of schools, spearheaded the quest.