The Life and Times of Warren Hansen

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. […]

What a week! School has really been getting into the swing of things,I started working out with our company Sandhurst team (explanation below), I donatedblood, and we had another big tradition this weekend. School has been getting more manageable, and I’ve really tried to stopworking at 10:30pm so I can get more sleep. Sandhurst is a militaryskills competition hosted by West Point where a bunch of differentacademies from the world send teams to compete. I have a spot on ourcompany’s team and we started working out together this week. For thesake of keeping this short, I’m not going to dive into this, but knowthat donating blood was a total comedy of errors, but I did […]

My first week of college was only slightly overwhelming. Chemistry has been an absolute beast and I can’t remember how to do u-substitutions to save my life but other than that it has been great. We have day one classes three times a week and day two twice, but teachers have the same classes both days, so day one classes get dropped about 10 times throughout the semester to balance out the days. We also have study days every other week which are just a time to get your feet under you. I’ve been going to bed around 12 and getting up around 6 for morning formation which isn’t super sustainable, but weekends are almost […]