By Desrae Gibby ’91, WPAOG Staff
“Stand up! Hook up! Shuffle to the door! Airborne!” Now imagine taking a long walk toward, not away from, a mine or IED and diffusing it without a bomb suit or robot, instead with what could be jumped in: rope, scissors, and explosives. Fire in the hole! Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) combined with Airborne—that’s courageous, selfless service. In 2022 after her company commander was relieved, then-First Lieutenant Delanie (Weliver) Devine ’19 assumed command of the 722nd Ordnance Company (EOD), supporting the 82nd Airborne Division. Their company motto—“No one is coming. It’s up to you”—had new meaning. The values Delanie learned from West Point and her family helped her command successfully. Her parents, Lieutenant Colonel Scott Weliver ’85 (Retired) and Devrie (Lafreniere) Weliver ’88 (one of 25 graduates married to graduates with multiple USMA children), said, “West Point trained us to develop leaders who would serve the nation, so that’s how we parented.”
West Point and the Army, particularly the 82nd, have been a big part of their family. Scott retired from West Point. All six of the nuclear family, plus Delanie’s husband, Captain Sean Devine ’19, and two other close relatives are West Pointers. Four additional family members are or were soldiers. In all, the Weliver-Devine family has served 100 years in the Army and Army Reserve. Five served assignments with the 82nd. Scott was serving at Fort Liberty (Bragg), North Carolina when Delanie was born. Besides Delanie and Sean, three other family members have recently served in the “All American Division.” A combined West Point-Airborne motto could describe this unique family’s selfless service: Duty, Honor, Country—All the Way!
Each family member has embraced these values in diverse training and leadership assignments. Scott was the Inspector General at West Point. Devrie was as an ordnance shop officer supervising 200-plus soldiers. Major Casey (Weliver) Kilpatrick ’12, Delanie’s sister, is assigned to a Mission Command Test Directorate with the U.S. Army Reserve’s 87th Training Division. Caleigh Weliver ’14, another sister, commanded the 602nd Area Support Medical Company at Fort Liberty. Captain Andrew Weliver ’19, Delanie’s brother, was a Field Artillery platoon leader and later served in 1st Space Brigade.
According to Delanie, her parents also taught her “attention-to-detail and to drive-on,” which prepared her for rapid-deployment EOD and to motivate her troubled soldiers after their commander was relieved. At that time, one soldier asked, “Ma’am, what are we going to do now?” Delanie remembered her father’s words that helped her through Beast: “Keep driving on.” She told her soldier, “We are going to get back to work.” She refocused her company on their upcoming joint operation with the United Kingdom and their Joint Readiness Training Center rotation.
Many Welivers and Devines have shown courageous selfless service. Several have been in rapid deployment units and on multiple deployments. Delanie, Scott, Devrie, and Sean are Airborne (Delanie was the honor graduate: she has Thai jump wings; she and Sean have Italian jump wings). Andrew, Scott, and Sean are Air Assault. Delanie and Sean now have a “Rendevous with Destiny” in the 101st Airborne Division: Delanie is preparing to take command again, and Sean is deployed to Europe. Yet there will still be a representative tangentially tied to the “Eighty Deuce”—Andrew is enroute to Fort Liberty (home of the 82nd)—and the family will always be dedicated to West Point.
Read the complete Summer 2024 edition of West Point magazine here.
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