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National Geographic : 1936 Jun
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THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE five minutes after a plebe reports for duty and continue until the day of his graduation. When a scion of a European royal family, a soldier, visited West Point on short notice a few years ago, all the upper-classmen were away from the Post on summer duties, ex cept a handful retained for instruction of the new cadets who had entered but three weeks before. And when royalty appears it must be honored with a military review. Could these new plebes, still in the throes of basic instruction, meet the emergency? They had to and they did, so effectively that the royal visitor, when told the truth after the last company had filed by, refused to believe it until he had questioned the cadets themselves. Does so strenuous a life hurt a youngster's health? On the contrary, a cadet, during his first ten months at the Military Acad emy, gains on the average nine and a half pounds in weight and nearly two inches in chest measurement. Nor is a youth's initiative destroyed, if cadet pranks are any criterion. An inno cent-looking dictionary may be cut out in side to hide a radio set. Recently, one cadet with an eye to profits took advantage of high laundry prices to smuggle in ma chinery and set up a laundry business in a forgotten basement storeroom. Months later the slump in the regular Cadet Laun dry's intake led to a search which disclosed "Cadet Washings, Inc." THE CADETS' THREE BIG MOMENTS Perhaps the three highest moments in the career of a cadet are recognition, furlough, and graduation. The first comes at the end of the arduous plebe year. As each of the twelve companies, march ing from the parade ground at the conclu sion of graduation parade, halts at its dis missal point, the company commander gives the command, "Front rank, about face!" The next moment "Mr. Ducrot," "Mr. Dumbguard," and similar titles denoting the hapless plebe die in the general happy handshaking. Plebe life is over, yearling days have begun. In less than 24 hours many of these new-born yearlings will be sporting a corporal's chevrons. Yet another day, and they will begin a twelve-month campaign of howling on every possible provocation, "Yea, furlo-o -o -o -ough!" To realize how much that ten-week fur lough at the end of the third-class year means to them, one has to witness their pell-mell dash from ranks after the last graduation-day formation. There is a gayety, too, for the graduating class, but one sees under it a serious note. For months the first-classmen have been assembling equipment for their career as officers and struggling to attain a standing high enough to enter the branch of service they covet. Choice of branch and station are based strictly on graduation standing. Not a few, heedless of the practical ad vice they have had on the matter of the Army officer's budget, plan to be married shortly after graduation (Color Plate VIII). They have need for serious thought. And for all of them there is a sobering touch in the realization that the close asso ciations of four years are at an end. Even the class scapegrace, calloused of foot from his steady round of punishment tours, wishes now that his spirit had a like protective armor. Like the rest, he discovers his vulnerabil ity in those closing hours: Alumni Day with its assembly of Corps and graduates at the foot of Thayer Monument and the roll call of the honored dead; Graduation Parade, when he stands with his classmates in the reviewing line as the Corps marches by. He has marched in those ranks for the last time! Company after company files by, saluting him with its "Eyes Right." But he cannot see it clearly. There is a mist before his eyes. In the long gray line no longer, he is still of it, and always will be. Sunrise next morning brings an even greater day. It is ushered in with a cere mony which the Corps alone witnesses a reveille bouffe at which the graduating class appears in a wild medley of costumes, too bizarre for adequate description. A few hours later solemnity replaces gayety as graduates receive their diplomas (Color Plate V), and at last, standing at attention at the foot of Battle Monument, take the oath of office which carries with it their commissions as second lieutenants in the Regular Army. With their country's blessing, yet another West Point class goes forward to duties which will scatter its members to many corners of the earth. Peace or war, the country knows that it can count on them to live up to the fullest implication of the West Point tradition - "Duty, Honor, Country." 788
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