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Like any high church, West Point relishes pomp. On crisp autumn Saturdays, tourists flock to the vast greensward known as the Plain to watch the corps of cadets parade by in their gray swallowtail coats adorned with gold braid. The essential West Point, however, is never on public display. It is hidden behind stone battlements, in bleak inner courtyards of black asphalt. In these forbidding surroundings, the rite of passage into the Long Gray Line begins every July with a seven-week ordeal that is officially labeled Cadet Basic Training but is better known as Beast Barracks. Plebes are weaned from teen culture (TVs are banned from the rooms) and taught to be "warriors." "Not savages, but gentlemen," explains Cadet Captain Chris Borgerding. Plebes are constantly "corrected" by upperclassmen, but hazing is forbidden. For years, plebes were so busy reciting and saluting at mealtime that they went hungry and lost weight. The more famished cadets were known to eat toothpaste for bulk. Now, after a typical West Point reform, plebes are ordered to eat. "It isn't milk and cookies," insists Cadet First Captain Timothy Knight, the ranking cadet who is also known as the King of Beasts. "Plebes still feel the heat." Many find it too much to bear. Almost one-third of each class drops out, or is thrown out, before graduation.
In their first year, cadets "learn how to follow," says West Point Superintendent General Willard Scott Jr., '48. "In the next three, they learn how to lead." Management skills are taught so rigorously that a group of visiting professors from the Harvard Business School, after sitting in on classes last year, pronounced their own institution to be "the West Point of capitalism." Cadets learn leadership firsthand by giving orders to those they outrank in the cadet chain of command--their classmates as well as plebes. "It isn't easy ordering your roommate to shine his shoes," shrugs one cadet sergeant. "But you have to do it."
In addition to enduring military training, parade drill and required athletics, cadets carry a heavier than normal college course load that is long on engineering and math. Sleep, not surprisingly, is regarded as a luxury. To stay awake in class, cadets who begin dozing off in their seats are permitted to stand up by their desks. After lunch, entire classes are sometimes on their feet by the final bell.
The purpose of overloading cadets, says History Professor Lieut. Colonel Robert Doughty, is to "teach them to prioritize under stress, to learn what is important and what is not." The pressure also teaches selflessness by creating a kind of foxhole camaraderie in the corps. "Cooperate and graduate" is an unofficial cadet motto. The deep bonding between cadets has survived the entry of women, who now make up 11% of the corps of cadets. "At first, a lot of guys say, 'What are women doing here?' " says Cadet Borgerding. "But they become buddies."