At West Point, you take shockingly few classes solely directed toward your major, only around 10 classes or so out of around 40. This week the Plebes(freshmen) got to declare their majors. In a total reverse from what I have been saying for years(Mechanical Engineering), I declared as a Military History Major. I’ve fallen in love with the History Department here. During my history class last semester, History of the Army, we got to handle actual weapons from both world wars, talk about revolutionary war events while looking up the Hudson River to where they happened, and “wargame” major battles throughout history. The History Department also offers fantastic trips over Spring break and during the […]
71-Month West Point Experience
A big thing at West Point is the idea of your “47-month experience.” This takes place from when you show up in June until you graduate in May, 4 years later. At significant milestones, someone always mentions how many months are left. Of course, for the LDS cadets who leave on missions for 2 years, this number is totally insignificant so we joke about the 71-month experience. This week I started my mission papers .(Yah! More paperwork) On Saturday, we were able to go to the Hartford, Connecticut Temple to support a young woman from the YSA branch as she received her Endowment. It was a great experience for everyone involved. I was the Cadet […]
Exceptionally Clean Rooms
The first week of each semester at West Point consists of attending meetings and preparing your room for SAMI(Saturday Morning Inspection). There is a 50-page packet that describes exactly how everything in your room needs to be laid out. Preparation includes taping gloves and pieces of parade uniforms into place in drawers,folding shirts into perfect 8-inch squares, buttoning every single button on and inside jackets, making beds with duct tape, and dusting every nook and cranny to the extent that a white glove can’t find dust on even the most obscure surface. Due to timing, the inspection actually took place on Monday(MAMI?) then we had classes starting on Tuesday. My credit load this semester is […]