West Point Military Academy Cutlery.

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West Point Military Academy Cutlery.

Post by New_Windsor_NY »

West Point Military Academy has a mint for striking coins. Can they manufacture anything else on campus? Did West Point Military Academy ever manufacture weapons or tools of any kind? Or were all weapons contracts, contracted out? ::shrug::
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Re: West Point Military Academy Cutlery.

Post by Gunsil »

West point does have a mint there, but that is all they make there other than military leaders. It is however a US silver depository and the US opium depository. There was a huge foundry across the river at Cold Spring where they made thousands of muzzle loading cannons, but no weapons were manufactured on the grounds. If you ever get back this way they have a really nice museum right outside the gates.
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Re: West Point Military Academy Cutlery.

Post by New_Windsor_NY »

On the Highland Falls end or the Cornwall end?
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Re: West Point Military Academy Cutlery.

Post by Gunsil »

The museum is on the Highland Falls/ Fort Montgomery end. It used to be inside the grounds but was moved to it's present location in the 1980s I think. There is a new visitor's center/gift shop in front of the museum.The mint is also actually outside the gates on the northern or Cornwall end. The opium and silver and gold depositories are not ever open to the public. One can now tour the campus again, it was closed for a while after 911. It is well worth a trip to the museum and a drive around the whole campus if you like American history. The only thing they ask when you enter the campus if you are driving your own vehicle is that you stop and let the guards look in your engine compartment, trunk, and glove box, and you and any passengers must show ID. There are also guided bus tours available for a fee.
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Re: West Point Military Academy Cutlery.

Post by New_Windsor_NY »

In the 18 years that I lived in New Windsor, N.Y., I must have visited or drove through West Point, hundreds of times. I had a nazi dagger that I bought at a garage sale, authenticated at the museum in the mid 70's. I had season tickets for Army football and I saw at least 6 or 7 rock concerts at Eisenhower Hall. Including Springsteen, Marshall Tucker Band, Peter Frampton, Blue Oyster Cult and a few more. When I would go back for visits, we would have brunch at the Hotel Thayer and walk the grounds for hours.
Then came 9/11........ ::td::
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Re: West Point Military Academy Cutlery.

Post by Gunsil »

I don't know if they have any great concerts there anymore, or maybe it's just the music has changed to that which I don't care for. I did see Joan Jett and the Blackhearts there. It was a little known venue for some great acts for sure. I used to go there a lot in the 60s and 70s just to study all the antique cannons and visit the museum and walk the grounds. I have been back three or four times in recent years as friends from out of state come by and need some sights to see. I'm down by Nyack, so it's still a close by place to visit for history nuts like myself.
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Re: West Point Military Academy Cutlery.

Post by kootenay joe »

Why do they store opium at West Point ? For peaceful parties ? or ??
Just seems odd to keep a store of an illegal drug and one you could easily produce from the correct variety of poppy seeds. Is the U.S. Gov't growing poppies and harvesting opium for storage at West Point ?
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Re: West Point Military Academy Cutlery.

Post by Gunsil »

They have near 10,000 metric TONS I believe. It is for making morphine for our troops in time of total war. They have had it for many years, the reason I know about it is that they did an inventory some years (15-20) back and they came up short several kilos and it made the newspapers. Turned out the discrepancy was chalked up to dehydration. There are HUGE underground storage facilities there, most of the US gold that had been stored in New York City vaults was moved there in the 1980s by train and the leftover silver bullion from when we were on the silver standard is still there. Some refer to the place as the "Fort Knox of the north". It is a great place to visit if one is a history buff.
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Re: West Point Military Academy Cutlery.

Post by kootenay joe »

Morphine is very cheap and stores well at room temperature. What could be the rationale for storing opium rather than morphine ?
Opium for smoking could be used to prevent the majority of Fentanyl deaths. You cannot cause a respiratory arrest from smoking opium. For those needing a narcotic it is a far safer option.
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Re: West Point Military Academy Cutlery.

Post by Gunsil »

Roland, I believe this stash was made in the 1950s when we were worried that in case of world war we could not access raw opium for manufacturing morphine. Regarding smoking opium rather than using morphine, come on!! Do you know of any hospital that has patients smoking opium for intense pain?? Regarding why we have it, isn't military intelligence an oxymoron?? I know you are an MD, but I doubt smoking opium for pain will ever replace liquid oral morphine or morphine injections for acute pain. My father was given liquid orally administered morphine while dying of cancer and so have thousands of others. There was little chance of cardiac arrest from an OD using the oral liquid as directed.
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Re: West Point Military Academy Cutlery.

Post by kootenay joe »

I was speaking of people using street Fentanyl who then die from respiratory arrest because the amount of fentanyl in street supply is variable. Here in B.C. Canada 3 people die every day from fentanyl o.d.. That is just in one province. Problem is even worse in USA. Fentanyl is such a strong respiratoty depressant that you can die from smoking fentanyl.
These people are addicts and need a safe supply of narcotic to live. You cannot O.D. by smoking opium because you fall asleep long before respiratory depression happens. When you are asleep you stop smoking and blood level of narcotic begins to drop until you wake up and smoke another bit of opium. You still have addiction but you don't die.
And for end of life care for pain control opium is far better than morphine for many reasons, one being it has a mood elevating effect, exact opposite of morphine. Long ago doctor's could prescribe opium or heroin for end of life care but they are so inexpensive, drug companies lobbied successfully to have them both banned.
There is more to it but this is a knife thread.
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Re: West Point Military Academy Cutlery.

Post by terryl308 »

Well I for one am glad they have, in case we need to make morphine, I was a Army corpsman and we had morphine suretes (spl?) we carried in our medical supplies. I believe when treating battle field wounds, that morphine is a lot faster working and that probably is why we had it. With someone with blown off legs, you don't have time to light up a opium pipe. As far as "end of life" meds, your probably right that opium is better, we are talking about two entirely different deals here. but then I'm not expert on drugs. JMO ::handshake:: Terry
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