Word: cadets
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...training a cadet undergoes in Beast, some say, helps them cope with the vast amount of memorization that West Point classes require. If there is a frequent complaint, it is that classes do not allow one to get at the deeper concepts, that a school which aims at training leaders tells those leaders what the right answers...
...result of the requirements and rules is what one cadet describes as "what you'd expect when you put 4000 overachieving high-school presidents in the same place: competition and pressure." There is little privacy at the Point; vacations are limited to three weeks around Christmas and barely six weeks during the summer. When one is on post, the pressure to perform, compete and succeed is intense. "There is no substitute for victory," reads an inscription at the base of the statue of MacArthur which stands in front of the barracks...
...were allegedly singled out by officers for participating in exercises like biting the head off a live chicken. Although there remain those who refuse to accept women's presence at the academy, the atmosphere is much improved. "If you don't look for feelings of resentment," says one woman cadet, "you're not going to find them...
...minorities and the poor, the increasingly heterogenous nature of the corps has made things easier than before. The fourth class system makes those in the same class equal, regardless of whether they're rich or poor. And things have come a long way since Black cadets got "silenced" because of the color of their skin. An intensive minority recruiting drive has upped the proportions and eased the pressure. "When my father went here," one Black cadet says, "the pressure on Blacks to perform was greater than anyone else. If you didn't make it, you were living proof that...
...West Point's mission--to produce the nation's army officers--is much the same as it was when it began. And although a woman cadet in undershirt and trousers remarks that the full-dress parade she has just marched in was "a pain in the ass," few question the traditions. Fullerton puts on the plume that marks the second lieutenant rank he holds in the United States Army and straightens his coat for the parade. "We were all civilians once, too," he says. "It's not as hard as it looks." Another cadet who has less than a year...