This month has been filled with flying back and forth as I've visited the three service academies to decided on which one I'll want to attend. I will blog on all three, but I will start out with West Point.
I spent the first week attending Summer Leaders Seminar (SLS) at West Point, also known as the U.S. Military Academy, also known as Army. This was a program that had 4,000 kids apply, but only 500 were accepted.Ranked as the #1 college in America by Forbes magazine, West Point immediately sets itself apart as the best institution on paper, especially with the majors offered there. Not being a math lover, I want to major in either foreign relations, economics, or a language. Foreign Relations is only offered at West Point, with the other schools having
considerably less language options. Even before I went on campus I thought West Point to be at the top of my list.
View from the Hudson River
When I visited though, I was even more impressed. Set on the Hudson River an hour out of New York City, the campus is byfar the most beautiful I've ever seen. Trees covered the entire campus, with the river being set below you. The buildings were all amazing architecturally, and the statues of military heroes covering the campus were similarly incredible. The Lawn, or the place where the cadets march, is said to be the second most expensive piece of real estate in America. The first is the White House. Audrey put it best when she said that the whole campus looked like a castle.
Washington Hall (dorms) stand looking over the lawn (marching & parade grounds)
SLS exceeded expectations as well. The program was more or less to show you a scaled down version of Beast Barracks, or the summer Pleabs (freshman) spend at the academy before their fourth class year begins. Just like Beast, the Seminar is detailed (organized and carried out) by Cows (juniors) and Firsties (Seniors). The officers at West Point have little to do with the Seminar, just like Beast. One important thing to realize with the academies, is that if an
upperclassmen reprimands you as a freshman by giving you push ups, flutter kicks, etc., the upper classmen HAS TO DO THE PUNISHMENT WITH YOU. The movies (Annapolis mainly)
You see with kids getting yelled at while they do work is totally fictitious. And at West Point,
most upperclassmen will let you be if you don't do anything too stupid. Even during the year, the actual administration has little to do with overseeing day to day routines, as the upperclassmen are expected to lead the freshmen by example. At the Seminar, we had 5 platoons with about 8 squads in each (militarily inaccurate). You did most everything with your squad or your platoon, which is the case with the academy as well.
Dwight D. Eisenhower stands in front of the library
We arrived to have the cadets who were detailing yelling at us and giving us instructions that were designed to make us fail. For example, a cadet would instruct you to drop your bag, so you'd set it down. The cadet would then ask if he told you to set your bag down, so you'd pick it up. The cadet would then ask if he gave you permission to pick up the bag. He would then say, pick up bag and proceed to DROP the bag. Although this type of psychological game takes a toll, you realize the cadets have nothing against you and are preparing you for high pressure situations. We then had a crash course in marching, PT (physical training), military rank, and how to properly make your bed and wear your clothes. We then met up with our squads and went to formation in front of the dorms. In the military, you have a 12 man squad, led by a sargeant (enlisted man). There are 4 squads in a platoon, which is led by a lieutenant (officer).
Several Platoons then make up a company, led by an officer, and several companies make up a batallion. At the academy you are organized the same way, with cadets assuming the role of sargeants, leading the underclassmen.
The next morning we did the CFA, or candidate fitness assesment. This is something everyone who wants to get into the academy must pass. It includes basketball throw, pull ups, 40 yard shuttle, sit ups, push ups and a mile run, in that order. You must get certain values to pass the test, something you must do to get into the academies. I passed
luckily and have that out of the way for my application. The rest of the day was filled with a speaker and a cadet panel with our platoon, asking questions to the cadets who were leading us.
Thayer Walk
The next three days went as follows: Wake up at 5 and go to formation. From there you would go do PT, which was about an hour long with lots and lots of push ups (250 one day), sit ups,
flutter kicks, dips, air squats, etc. Or one of the days we did a 3 mile run, which wasn't hard as we paced it slow and ran it in marching columns. After this we'd shower and go to formation (we went to formation and walked in marching columns everywhere) to go to breakfast. This was served family style, with everyone standing until they're told to sit, and then the food is passed around your table of 12. We would then go and have a speaker, the Dean, Superintendant, or Col. over admissions. After that we would attend class. The class was prechosen and had 18 kids in it. They were taught by actual professors at the academy and were top rate. I had English, then Social Science, then History (we actually went to constitution Island and toured old revolutionary forts!) At the academy, the student to teacher ratio is about 16:1, with major classes being about 8:1. Classes CANNOT EXCEED 18 kids. After 3 hours we would go to lunch and then go back for three more hours. After this we would play intramural sports like ultimate, dodgeball, etc. followed by dinner. This would be followed by squad leader time, so w
e'd tour the library, go to Grant and hang out, etc.
Lt. Col Rayls teaches the history seminar on Constitution Island
Thursday there was military day! This was the most fun out of anything. We woke up at 5:30 and went to breakfast, after which we got on buses to go to nearby Camp Buckner, the camp where Pleabs spend most of their Beast Barracks doing drills, obstacle courses, shooting, etc. For us, we started with doing some woods marching, then getting to check out some armored vehicles like Hummers, Abrams tanks, and Howitzers. We then went and did Army combatives, which was challenging but fun. The combatives pit is manned by NCO's, the kind of guys you see in movies yelling at guys telling them they're worthless. These guys Don't have to do punishment with you, and won't hesitate to punish you for even the slightest infraction, like itching your nose while they're demonstrating. We started out running about a mile around a pit, continually diving into a pile of mulch and throwing it into the pit, just for fun :)! Then we learned combat moves, how to properly choke someone out, and how to pull arms out of sockets. After the combatives we went to a bayonet course where we learned basic bayonet moves, and then went on a 1/2 mile obstacle course through the woods using the moves. Tiring but fun, learning to use bayonets was pretty cool. After this we did two obstacle courses. The first was team building, so you had to figure out how to get over, under, around things, etc. using the few objects provided you. The next course was more confidence building and had odd obstacles you would never try in a million years if you thought about it too long. After this, we were done, having spent 10 hours in the woods. We drove back, showered (this felt sooooo good), and had a final massive dodgeball game of platoon vs. platoon. (so there were 3 games total, as 500 kids in a dodgeball game would've been a mess) After this we had pizza, bought by our sergeant, sergeant Mahon, and went to bed.
The next morning we all said goodbye, knowing some of us may see each other the next summer at Beast. But the experience was a great one and made me decide that the academies were definitely what I wanted to do!
