West Point is home to me. I was born there and spent fifteen of my first twenty-two years there. During childhood, I thought it was idyllic. Five other Army brats from my high school were going to go to the Military Academy, and convinced me to go, too. I thought it would be extremely tough, but would make me a better person, and it did. West Point was a level playing field, where success comes through perseverance and hard work, not from status beforehand. Besides the Ten Commandments, it is also my moral compass as stated in the motto “Duty, Honor, Country”. From my work as an Academy Admissions Officer, I’ve seen firsthand the political side of getting into West Point in the first place. My father was denied a nomination three years in a row because he didn’t have political connections. On the fourth try, his congressman directed a freshman congressman to nominate my dad, which he did. Dad finished first in his class and ultimately became a general.
My brother was nominated because of dad’s status as an active-duty soldier—not political. When my turn came, dad knew the drill. I prepped for a Civil Service Exam, scored 100%, got my congressman’s principal nomination, though he wanted to shunt me off to the Air Force Academy, and was admitted with a waiver for height. There is an instant bond with any other graduate because, though we might have come from different backgrounds, we all went through a very rigorous program. I remember one Superintendent saying that West Pointers don’t just meet standards, they set the standards. I met my wife there and worked there for another eleven years as a Department of the Army Civilian. I must say that working there as a civilian is far different from being a uniformed officer. Throughout a career in the Regular Army and Reserves the knowledge that I was a West Pointer spurred me on to do the best I could for our country.
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