West Point does a pretty good graduation ceremony.
Saturday morning at 6 AM the USMA security line stretched about five miles up the road from their first gate for a 9 AM event. Local police eventually got the traffic divided among the gates (sentries, ID checks, sniffers, dogs, who knows what else) and into the shuttle lot. The stadium was tighter-- bag searches (no backpacks or large bags), metal detectors, and Secret Service everywhere. Dick Cheney, of course, had the helicopter drop him off at the back entrance.
The crowd was 1000 "just get me outta here" cadets, the Corps' underclass, and about 8000 families & relatives. The process ran like a well-oiled machine through the various speeches. The Academic Dean made a comment about the ones who managed to stay ahead of him and who were thus recommended for their degrees. (The "Anchor Man", the class's lowest-ranked graduate, had a 2.003 GPA and received about $2000 in classmate & alumni donations.) After the cadets picked up their diplomas, reps from the Class of '57 met them behind the stage and presented them with their first set of 2LT bars. Kids lined the back of the field for the cadet hat toss and had a mad souvenir scramble. Older kids saluted the cadets, hoping to be the first to do so and to be rewarded with a silver dollar. It was a great feel-good time all around.
The cadets were in their cadet graduation uniforms, of course, so they had their own scramble back to their rooms to change into regular Army commissioned-officer greens for their "barring ceremonies" scattered around the campus. My nephew and his Combat Weapons Team buddies chose to have their officer supervisor administer their oaths on the firearms range. They followed up by rapid-firing their last USMA pistol loads into their targets and we broke for a Subway lunch.
Cheney had one final chance to redeem himself in my eyes. He could've celebrated the cadets and their day by talking about them and their accomplishments with more bright prospects, but instead he chose to give a political "big picture" speech that attempted to rouse the rabble by warning us of the scary terrorists about to slaughter us in our beds. What a downer, and it should've just been read directly into the congressional record. Thanks, Dick, great way to start an infantry career, you have a nice life too. The Army Chief of Staff gave a much better (and more entertaining) speech at the Family Banquet the night before, so hopefully no one holds his performance against him.
We had a good celebration dinner with my nephew's girlfriend and her family (he's upgraded from dating midshipmen to dating fellow 2LTs). After he & she take care of a few weeks' leave he's spending about two years in training-- basic officer leadership, infantry officer's school, miscellaneous skills schools, Ranger School, and finally Special Forces training. His only reservation is that at age 25 he feels like he's getting a bit old for all this physical abuse…
We're spending the rest of Sunday rounding everyone up, moving out of the Greater Metropolitan Fishkill hotel, returning the cars, getting to the train station, and mounting our Manhattan invasion. What could possibly go wrong?
