The Class of 9/11

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And that very nearly became the truth. Cadets have two years to decide whether military life is right for them before they take their affirmation oath. Up to that point, they can still transfer out and owe the Army nothing. Those who stay serve five years of active duty after graduation and three more in the Army Reserve. Like many other West Point athletes, Beyer had not grown up with visions of military glory. In fact, she had barely heard of West Point until its swim coach flew out to recruit her and offered a chance to compete in Division I, get out of Tucson, test-drive military life for a couple of years risk free. She did find things to love about the place. A natural color coder, she appreciated the daily structure that challenged cadets to make the most of every moment. That West Point life recovered its routines quickly after 9/11--albeit with a new, underlying urgency--seemed right to her: the civilian world got too wrapped up in sorrow and memory and nerves rubbed raw. "I think one of the things that made people so sad outside of West Point," she says, "was that they simply were kicked off of their routines."

So for the next two years, she swam and marched and studied and argued with herself about the course she should choose. And as Oath Day approached, so did a war that for some cadets changed their calculations for going to West Point in the first place. The "five and fly" kids who hoped to pass through the Army on their way to riches now found that the road to Wall Street might include a detour through Baghdad. Their families had some strong feelings--strong but by no means uniform--just as the cadets did. Parents who were once proud that their kids would enter adulthood with great skills and no debts now told them, "Hey, we sold our house at the top of the market. We can afford to send you anywhere you want to go. Maybe we should talk about a transfer to someplace ... safer." "The class of 2005 is different from the classes before because, really, they had an opportunity to leave after we were in the war," says Colonel Michael Jones, West Point's director of admissions. "All of these kids are true volunteers."

In the shadow of the Iraq invasion in April 2003, one of Beyer's two best friends arranged to drop out. Another ally, Lisa Huntington, also started the paperwork. Please, Beyer told her as Commitment Day approached, please don't leave me here alone. They talked, day after day. "I was either going to convince her to stay," Beyer says, "or convince myself to leave with her." On Aug. 17, 2003, in the cavernous Robinson Auditorium, Beyer and Huntington stood together among their classmates and took their oath. "We were bawling," Beyer says, "but we made it through."

The day after Beyer made her pledge to stay, she went to her first PL300 class on military leadership. The instructor started off by congratulating the cadets on their decision. They were all great Americans, he said. Then he opened the discussion up to the class.