College can be a radical experience these days, full of brave protests by students who take time from their busy class schedule to show how virtuous they are. I saw something a lot more radical and in your face than tents pitched on campus or assaults on Jewish students on May 23 on YouTube.
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There was martial music playing when a single cadet appeared on the plain at the United States Military Academy at West Point. He was armed with a saber. Exactly five minutes later (and no one seemed rushed, every movement had been precise and deliberate), the entire student body, the Corps of Cadets, was standing at attention facing the reviewing stand. Then the color guard with the American, Army, and West Point flags, with two rifle-carrying guards, marched on. Six minutes and 16 seconds after the first cadet appeared, there were 4,400 cadets in perfect formation on the plain.
The 2026 graduating class and those who would step into leadership positions from the class of 2027 carried sabers. The rest of the Corps carried rifles with bayonets. After the band trooped the line, the Corps was given the order to present arms, and every cadet executed the present arms salute with either rifles or sabers. The national anthem was played, and afterwards the Corps was given the command to order arms. Rifles and sabers moved together. The graduating class sheathed their sabers and marched forward to the reviewing stand. The class of 2027 moved into leadership positions and passed in review to honor the graduating class, saluting with “eyes right” as they marched by.
The school motto is Duty, Honor, Country. After every football game, the team stands at attention as does the Corps and sings their Alma Mater that includes “let duty be well performed, honor be e’re untarned, country be ever armed, West Point by thee.”
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Before they finish their graduation ceremony, the graduating class takes an oath to support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic. When the ceremony finishes, and they throw their hats into the air, they are 2nd Lieutenants in the United States Army. My class was 706 strong and had 115 casualties in Vietnam. I hope 2026 fares much better, but they are ready to keep their country ever armed by doing their duty with honor.
I find all this to be more radical and in your face than any school takeover with uniform tents and professionally produced protest signs. Those 4,400 cadets have the guts to be unabashedly who they are, and that takes a lot more courage these days than it does to join a protest that your professor encouraged. These cadets, the cadets and midshipmen from the Naval, Air Force, and Coast Guard academies, should provide us hope for the future of the United States. If you want to get a boost, go to YouTube for the West Point Class of 2026.
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Image: Defense Visual Information Distribution Service