The Life and Times of Warren Hansen

Branch Night is one of the biggest things that happens as a cadet. It is when the Firsties (seniors) find out what their job will be after graduation. You rank your preferences and do some interviews then West Point works with the army to decide what job you get. The process is based mainly on class rank, so people at the bottom of the class often get put into their lowest-choice branch because West Point has to fill a quota. Like many things here at West Point, there is a lot of tradition that goes with Branch Night. The best part about Branch Night is what happens to the Firsties’ rooms while they are at […]

After finishing two intense academic days, I spent my break with a few other cadets at the senior mission couple’s house. I slept a lot, ate good food at a lot of families’ houses, and toured Revolutionary war-era sites with another mission couple and a student from Princeton. I spent a lot of time with returned missionaries and current missionaries, and it’s gotten me more excited to serve a mission. I’ve also discovered that the overlap between the army and the LDS worlds isn’t that big, meaning that everybody knows everybody. I’m thankful for all the people who opened their homes and kitchens for me this week.

Reading has made me who I am today. That’s not an exaggeration. There were undoubtedly other factors but reading is probably the single greatest factor in my decision to pursue a career in the army. Every week in elementary school, we would go to the library to check out books. Every week I would walk out of the library with a military book. These were barely more than picture books, but they had me hooked on the military. Around 4th grade, I got a book with 10 stories of Medal of Honor recipients from World War I and another from the Vietnam War. Reading the stories of these heroes only further strengthened my desire to […]

Two weekends ago, the LDSSA took a trip down to a Young Single Adult conference in Washington, DC. It was great to get away from West Point for a little bit and be able to mingle with other members of the church. Last weekend was Family Weekend. Families got to walk around the barracks, academic buildings, and cadet gym. Seeing my family was so awesome but I was dead tired from trying to get all of my schoolwork done before the weekend. The Fall Sandhurst Competition happened this weekend. Sandhurst is a military skills competition that West Point hosts. Teams from academies and ROTC programs from throughout the country and around the world come to […]

There are 4 different jobs that the Plebes(Freshman) rotate between on a weekly basis. You can take out trash every morning, sweep the hallways, get the company’s laundry to and from the laundry service, or call minutes – basically yelling what the uniform is, what we are eating, and where we are meeting for formations before breakfast and lunch. A Cadet In Charge(CIC) is appointed over the different duties each week and this week I was in charge of laundry. Normally laundry is the easiest duty, requiring only one early morning to collect everyone’s laundry and drop it off at the laundry service and about 20 minutes in an afternoon to redistribute it once it […]

Army football is a huge deal here at West Point. Attendance in the student section is mandatory for all cadets. We stand and cheer for the entire game, with the exception of a brief sitting break during halftime. It is actually a super fun atmosphere with all the things that cadets do to keep it exciting. Every time Army scores, the Plebes(Freshman) do however many push-ups our total score now is. This builds up pretty quickly and you get a lot of push-ups in some games. Pre-game taskings are also a big part of football weekends for cadets. Of the 4,000 cadets that make up the Corps, half march in a parade in the morning, […]

The YSA Branch took a trip to the Manhattan Temple. The upperclassmen have some privileges we Plebes (Freshmen) don’t, including wearing street clothes. If you chose to wear the dress uniform, or if you’re a Plebe who had to be in uniform, you could ride in the official club transportation. Most of the cadets going didn’t want to wear a dress uniform, so they carpooled down to the city. So the few of us Plebes going down piled into a West Point van with a couple of the Firsties(Seniors) who didn’t care to pay to park a car in downtown Manhattan. I was able to be the baptizer for several different people, then I was […]

Known as “the Father of the Military Academy,” Sylvanus Thayer was a member of one of the first classes to graduate West Point. He later returned as the Superintendent. During his tenure, he transformed the academic program into what it is today. His name is now synonymous with academics. If you have an intense school week, you are having a “Thayer Week.” If you have to run across campus from PE to Math in 10 minutes, you have a “Thayer Run.” Aside from his name, the other part of Thayer that stuck with the Academy was the Thayer Method. This method of instruction can be summed up as learning beforehand and discussion in class. I […]

Instead of just accepting Labor Day as a loss, it feels like 5 days worth of work were crammed into 4 already very full days. On top of the heavy academic week, it was also Branch Week. Branch Week is essentially a big job fair for all the different job types in the Army to bring out their cool toys and convince cadets to join their branch.It was awesome to be able to talk to officers who have been doing what I want to do, as well as to learn about the branches that I knew nothing about. Some of the branches I liked include:Field Artillery – Shoots massive cannonsInfantry – Quintessential soldieringAviation – Flying […]

It’s Labor Day weekend and it feels like 80% of the Corps is gone. The only people still here are the ones who live on the other side of the country. So here I find myself, alone for the first time in 10 weeks. So far, I’ve spent the weekend sleeping, watching movies, and piecing at homework. Here’s the view out my window. Super cool stone buildings in every direction. I know a lot of people are curious about how church works, so here it is: Every Sunday at 12:30 all the cadets pile into Firstie’s(Senior’s) cars and drive to the Chapel about two miles off post in Highland Falls for the YSA Branch meeting. […]