Background
Garey was born on a small farm near Tuckahoe Neck, in Caroline County, Maryland.
Garey was born on a small farm near Tuckahoe Neck, in Caroline County, Maryland.
Young Garey attended Saint John"s College in Annapolis, Maryland (class of 1903), and then West Point Military Academy.
Garey was also a military expert and author of the book The Plattsburg Manual: A Handbook for Federal Training Camps. After graduating in 1908, Garey served in the army until 1923. His service included World War I, in which he led a combat patrol that penetrated enemy lines and returned with four prisoners without casualties.
Major Garey collected valuable information while being exposed to machine-gun fire and grenade fire from a superior number of enemies.
In 1923 Garey became president of his alma mater, Saint John"s, narrowing the military scope of the college so students could concentrate on getting a bachelor"s degree. He abolished compulsory military training, replacing the cadet corps with a voluntary Reserve Officers Training Corps. In September 1924 Garey brought the nation"s first Naval Reserve program to Saint John"s as a pilot program to test the scheme for the Navy, (The United States Naval Academy in Annapolis would not begin issuing bachelor"s degrees until 1933).
Program graduates were appointed as ensigns in the Naval Reserve. This initial program"s success was enough to convince the Navy to establish six full-scale Naval Reserve Officers Training Corps programs at Northwestern, Harvard, Yale, University of California Berkeley, the University of Washington and Georgia Institute of Technology in 1926.
Thus, the 1924-1925 catalogue was correct in saying, "This is the only college at which such a unit is maintained.
In the future there will be many other colleges having such a course, but Saint John"s has the honor of being the first."
In 1926, though, Garey left Saint John"s and the voluntary Reserve Officers Training Corps program folded. By 1929 the Naval Reserve unit and Department of Naval Science had also disappeared due to lack of interest, despite the longevity of the six regular programs that had succeeded the Saint John"s College experiment (which all still exist in 2013, albeit with significant historical gaps at Harvard and Yale). After Saint John"s, Garey became involved in the One of his most memorable experiences was on February 8, 1936.
While attempting to deliver the food, a fellow Sergeant named William V. Hunter got stuck in the frozen ice of Chesapeake Bay and died of frostbite and exposure.
He and some other members of his police force attempted to deliver food to the people of Tangier Island during a terrible ice and snow storm.