I arrived at West Point in July of 1990, just a little over one month after graduation high school. West Point was....different. Like the regular army, you go through basic training. Unlike the regular army, there aren't as many physical stresses put on you to break you. Instead, it's mostly mind games. Too many duties to learn too quickly, too many new rules, and too many things you are supposed to memorize (ie. the definition of leather - "If the fresh skin of an animal, cleaned and divested of all hair, fat, and other extraneous matter, be immersed in a dilute solution of tannic acid, a chemical combination ensues; the gelatinous tissue of the skin is converted into a nonputresible substance, impervious to and insoluble in water; this,sir, is leather.")
I also had a distinct disadvantage. My natural personality leads me to draw attention to myself, usually without thought. As a plebe (freshman) at West Point, there is nothing you want less. Needless to say, I had an unusually rough time of it. And, looking back, I have to say my extra stress was pretty much all self-inflicted.
Anyway, I made it through plebe year. As a yearling (sophmore), things got much, much easier. First, you spend the summer getting familiar with pretty much every branch of the Army. You do things like firing anti-aircraft guns, driving tanks, vehicle recovery, etc...almost every common job in the Army. Then, when you get back to the academic year, you are no longer bound by all the extra rules imposed on plebes. You are also placed in charge of a single plebe to help train them. All in all, this is likely the easiest year at the Academy.
Next summer, I got to take part in two incredible experiences. First, I went to Europe to study the battlefields of WWII. It is one thing to read about a battle. It is quite another to actually walk the ground. Plus, I had the chance to drink in lots of German...um..."culture". Final bonus, it was all at taxpayer expense. Yup, a paid and paid-for European vacation.
The other experience was training new recruits into the regular Army was a drill cadet. I was sent to Fort Leonard Wood in Missouri (fort lost in the woodin a state of misery). There I worked exactly like a drill sergeant. While there was a lot of yelling at the new joes, I didn't yell at anyone. One of the skills I'd picked up at West Point by this time was how to make a grown man cry without ever raising my voice. As an added bonus, they tend to cry a lot longer when you don't yell at them.
Then, cow (junior) year started. By this point, I'd had several knee injuries. None of them required surgery, but the accumulation was starting to impact me. Well, I had the most major of them in wrestling that year, a patellar sublaxation. In simpler language, a guy dislocated my kneecap by wrenching on it as I tried to bend my leg. While even this didn't require surgery, I did end up in a cast that ran from my ankle to as high on my hip as they could get it, effectively immoblizing the knee completely. Perhaps worst of all, my doctor also determined that it would be unlikely I'd be able to pass the Army physical.
Of course, by itself, that wouldn't have gotten me thrown out. It took two other things to finish my Academy career. The first was completely out of my control. President Clinton had begun the RIF (reduction in forces) which meant the Army had to cut personnel. The second was entirely my fault. I hacked the Academy e-mail server to figure out how it worked. Then, I sent joke e-mails using false headers that appeared to be from people other than myself to most of my friends. One of my friends had a very jealous boyfriend. Said boyfriend turned the letter in as "sexual harrassment". Fortunately for me, that charge was DOA. Not so fortunately, it brought me to the attention of the Academy administration. I was a cadet who probably couldn't be commissioned, with a penchant for getting himself into trouble, and the Army needed to cut personnel. Bye, bye, me.
The semi-positive side to my exit: Normally cadets incur a mandatory military service obligation the first day of the academic year of their cow (junior) year. I'd done that. But, between the RIF and my inability to pass the physical, I did not have to report to an active unit. Instead, I was placed on IRR (independent ready reserve) until May 2000. Of course, officers technically never leave reserve status, to I guess I could be called up even now. However, given that I really, really cannot pass a physical now, I'm not overly concerned about it. Besides, they've sent one of my brothers to Iraq twice. I don't think they need anyone else from my family.
(as a humorous aside here: you could say my brother really misses his wife while he's over there. Pretty much immediately after returning from both tours, he's gotten her knocked up.)(previous page)
