The West Point Class of 2005

James Robbins:

...

A 1992 grad said that the current class differs from hers. They are more serious, she said. They looked sharper at the graduation parade, and seemed more focused at the ceremony. Guest speaker General Richard B. Myers noted that this class entered with a nation at peace, which had transitioned to war. Yet the members of the class had kept with it, even though they could leave voluntarily any time before the beginning of their third year. When General Myers made this observation the crowd, parents, siblings, and friends, began to applaud. It was a great moment, not a response to an obvious applause line, but a spontaneous tribute to a spirit that deserves respect. These new officers (and service members in general) know what they are facing. Stories of the occasional deserter or recruitment shortfall become chum for the media; that reenlistments are up, particularly in the theaters of conflict is not generally reported. Moreover, at West Point, the washout rates are down significantly. Those with doubts, questioning their commitment or ability to meet the challenge, the marginal applicants, are not showing up. Those who answer the call today are aware, determined, motivated. They are not coming just to get an education. They know they will probably soon be in harm’s way, and they are preparing themselves, physically, mentally, and emotionally.

...

When MacArthur graduated at the head of the Class of 1903 he had no concept of the two world wars that awaited him, or of Inchon, or after. Likewise, the members of the Class of 2005 cannot know what the long term holds for them. The graduates of the early 1840s thought they would be fighting Indians in Florida, but wound up in Mexico. Graduates of the 1850s saw their future in plains warfare against the Comanche and Sioux, but ended up fighting each other, led by the veterans of the Mexican War. Grads of the 1950s who prepared to fight World War III with the Soviet Union found themselves in Vietnam. Those of the 1990s who were told that history had ended and the future was peacekeeping are today dismantling the global terrorist network. And the war on terrorism will not last forever. New challenges will arise as the old ones are overcome. The Class of 2005 will soon have a chance to see and do things they could not have anticipated, but from those I have gotten to know over the past few years I am positive they are up to the challenge.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Should Republicans go ahead and add Supreme Court Justices to head off Democrats

Washington Post: Some Democrats eye adding more justices to the Supreme Court to change its ideological bent The once-remote idea has gained the attention of liberals angered by the GOP push to remake the federal courts. Probably the easy way to defeat this court-packing scheme is for Trump to propose doing the same thing now.  It would lead to Democrat denunciations and claims that it would be wrong, thereby blowing up any attempt by them in the unfortunate event of Democrats winning a presidential election.
Read more

29 % of companies say they are unlikely to keep insurance after Obamacare

Conn Carroll: A new survey of 368 midsize to large companies found that 29% of them are considering terminating their active employee health care plans when Obamacare is full implemented in 2014. Only 71% of employers surveyed said they did not expect to drop their health coverage, while 20% said they did not know and 9% said they were planning to exit. The latest survey, conducted by Towers Watson, echoes an ealier survey by McKinsey & Co. finding that 30% of private-sector employers were planning to drop their employee health insurance coverage by 2014. When the Congressional Budget Office crunched Obamacare's spending numbers, they estimated that only 7% of employees currently covered by employer-sponsored plans would lose their plans. ... This means the cost of the health care fiasco will be hundreds of billions more than estimated by the CBO and Congressional Democrat. It is also clear that Obama's pledge that you could keep your health care plan if you wanted t...
Read more

Is the F-35 obsolete?

Headline USA: Pentagon Fires Back after Musk Calls Its Most Expensive Project ‘Obsolete’ 'Yeah, as I'm sure you can appreciate, Mr. Musk is, currently, a private citizen, I'm not going to make any comments about what a private citizen may have to say about the F-35....'   ... ... Drones appear to be replacing jets for many operations.  The Russia-Ukraine war is an example of that.  Drones are often hard to detect and can be used for intelligence operations as well as for attacking enemy targets.  It would not surprise me to see drones engaging other drones in combat.  They also cost much less than manned fighters.  
Read more