Posted on 09/12/2009 12:18:06 PM PDT by Saije
An e-mail from my friend Michael Anton, who gave me permission to pass it on:
I visited West Point today for a series of business meetings, mostly with faculty and some with Cadets.****
It was of course the eighth anniversary of 9/11, which was on my mind as I listened to the NY radio stations' remembrance shows on the way up..*****
They feed the entire Corps (4,400) plus much of the faculty and staff in one sitting, every day, in a gigantic building shaped like a six-pointed asterisk.*****
About halfway through the meal, there was another announcement from the poop deck. This was surprising, as I had just assumed that these things were done before the meal...I also assumed that they were always festive. Not so.
Cadet First Class (i.e., fourth year or senior) _____ _____ announced the death in Afghanistan scarcely a day earlier of 2nd Lt. ______ _______, West Point, Class of 2008. The dead soldier's brother is a Cadet Second Class (i.e., third year). A minute of silence was observed. 5,000 people absolutely shut the bleep up. You could have audiotaped the sound of a single ant's footfalls in that hall. The announcement was unexpected, jarring, like a punch in the gut. I almost cried. The Cadets -- none of them older than 22, I would guess -- did not flinch.
The dead soldier was probably 22 or 23. He sought out this career knowing he might get shot in some awful desert, and eagerly went anyway. There were 4,400 kids in that hall who might meet the same fate. 1,100 might meet it in less than a year. No one at my college ever thought of such a thing, nor did they have any reason to. Those 4,400 live with it every day.
(Excerpt) Read more at weeklystandard.com ...
Go Navy! Beat Army!
Through my son I understand the reverent silence. He stays in, works hard with and for his buddies, lives on less than it should take and soldiers on. None of these young people at the academies is a slouch, most could excell anywhere.
thanks for posting this. I have a friend who’s son attends West Point.
Go Army Sink Navy
Go Navy, Beat Army, again and again.... ;-)
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