Word: greg
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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Three cadets squeeze into a booth along a wall. All three belong to the same company. They have labored through the same obstacle courses together, passed the same calculus exams and are just weeks from graduating from West Point as commissioned officers in the U.S. Army. Greg Zielinski came to West Point from his Connecticut prep school to become an officer and a gentleman but fell in love with the mud and marches of the infantry. Tom Pae, the son of Korean artists, feels his parents' pride in his success and their fear about what comes next. Kristen Beyer...
...look at Greg Zielinski--Z to just about everyone on post--and for a split second you wonder whether he is actually built out of some material other than flesh and blood. Everything about him shines--his nearly shaved head, every buckle and boot, his manner. His father says if Zielinski hadn't gone to West Point, he probably would have been president of a fraternity. He is pathologically social, both liked and looked up to by fellow cadets, especially those who bleed Army green. "Z?" they say. "He's huah," delivering the words with the appropriate Southern drawl--"heezoowah...
...officers in the department of military instruction puff up at the mention of his name. "Z--that's my guy," beams a broad-chested major. Another says, "Greg Zielinski is the kind of cadet that makes you love teaching here." For them, Zielinski has molded himself in the Army's image of the proto-officer: strong, blunt, earnest, demanding. Even with four years to shape cadets, West Point has mixed success installing their program of warrior ethic in teenagers from so many walks of life. So when they see Zielinski adopt it all so naturally--chin out, eyes front, shoulders...
...Greg Zielinski rebelled against the preppies of Fairfield, Conn., and came to West Point to be the toughest infantryman he could be. Tom Pae came from Newark, Calif., just east of San Francisco, as the son of Korean artists, to better himself and give back to his family's adopted country as a soldier and a leader. Tuscon native Kristen Beyer knew nothing about the army and entered West Point mainly to swim for its Division I team, but she stayed to pursue a new dream of flying Blackhawk helicopters...
...Kristen and Greg shared their lives at West Point and their thoughts about what lies ahead with a remarkable openness and generosity. The latter is especially remarkable since the West Point workweek is a grueling mixture of academic instruction, military training, and physical fitness. Yet by this point, in their fourth year, the three have earned free hours in the day and other privileges - Kristen has a car she takes into town with her friends, Greg visits old high school buddies in Boston on the weekends, Tom finds his way to New York City with classmates when he gets...