 Last point, the United States Military Academy. For more than 150 years, it's been a national wellspring, from which have come young men fitted by training, education, desire, and character to become career officers in the United States Army. Appointment to the Military Academy is under authority of subsection 4342 of title 10 of the U.S. Code and Secretary of the Army allocation. But not all who want to attend West Point are able to get an appointment through their senator or congressman. Not all have the academic standing or preparation to win an appointment through nationwide competitive exams. Still, for the young American whose motivation is strong and whose academic potential is there to be realized, there is a way. The United States Military Academy Preparatory School is located a few miles south of the nation's capital at Fort Belvoir, Virginia. In August of each year, the members of the new class begin to arrive. All are in the Army. Some are combat veterans. Many have enlisted immediately after school graduation to attend this school. Some are from reserve component units. All have one goal to qualify for admission to the United States Military Academy. The prep school, or use maps as they will soon be calling it, is here to help them reach that goal. The Navy and the Air Force operate a similar preparatory program. The first order of business is to get checked in, deliver personal records, be assigned to companies in the two student battalions which make up use maps core of cadet candidates. Each man is also issued the distinctive shoulder boards and insignia which make of their Army uniforms the uniform of a cadet candidate. They are soldiers, but for the coming year they are students and each is issued, not field pack and weapons, but a briefcase and textbook. The records of each man's most recent full Army physical have been submitted already, but use maps gives him another check just to be sure. Since physical aptitude and ability are listed right alongside academics in the qualifications for admission, both to the prep school and to West Point. The 285 students who make up the use maps core of cadet candidates come from everywhere in the 50 states, but they all have at least two things in common. The potential to become a West Point cadet and succeed at it and second, the need for help in preparing. The first, they bring with them to use maps. The second, use maps is there to provide. As commandant of the U.S. Military Academy prep school, I'd like to take this opportunity to welcome each of you. The fact that you're here demonstrates on your part a good deal of dedication and effort. I can assure you that we will help you the rest of the way to make the grade at the Military Academy. What you set out to do isn't going to be easy, but few things really worthwhile are easy. Now, while the Army needs leaders with individual force, initiative, courage, and so on, it also needs these individual qualities expressed in terms of team effort. The object is not to stamp out your individuality, but rather to harmonize it, to make both it and the team identity more effective. This works, and if you haven't already learned how it works, you will. Now, what lies ahead of you? We have two terms. The first is aimed at preparing you to do your best on the college boards. These tests will be held in January. Those that make it will go on into the second term, which is designed to prepare you to make the grade at the Military Academy. As to your classwork here, your emphasis will be in two areas. One of these areas is English. And during the first term, emphasis is placed on the use of the language, a broadening and sharpening of vocabulary, exactness in using the sound symbols which convey ideas. Sir, I think the word means cloudy or unclear. Good, yes. It means unclear, ill-defined. It comes from the Greek word, which means, just as you said, cloudy, unclear. And if you've ever had a date who said they should be ready by 8 o'clock, you know what it means, perhaps, to have a statement which is apparently clear, suddenly become nebulous. What about the second word, Mr. Young? Sir, it's the opposite of nebulous. It means you really spell it out by the numbers. The other prime academic emphasis is on mathematics. Two subjects, trigonometry and algebra. You cannot do well on your college boards in January without a basic knowledge of these two subjects. These two subjects also lay the groundwork for your advanced algebra courses in the second term. Right here at the first year, let's stop and think how mathematics relates to you. What does all this trig, algebra, geometry, even calculus, mean to you personally? Do you need them? Well, as an officer, you may. Then again, you may not use any of them in your daily work. Yet, the mental benefits will reach into every phase of your life. Why? Because mathematics is not only a language of algebraic numbers. It is a language of logical thought. Any mathematics teaches you to reason out problems in logical sequence. Here, we are taking a group of sentences and changing those sentences into algebraic expressions. If this expression is correct and this expression is correct, then our conclusion is also correct. This business of logical, clear thinking goes to the heart of being an army officer and also an effective human being in any field. So for the next few years. From the beginning, the cadet candidates know that they are the focus of the preparatory schools mission, to help its students qualify physically and academically for entrance into West Point, to provide academic, military, and physical preparation that will help the average 170 each year who do enter West Point to stay there and succeed. An additional function of the school is to identify any who are not fully qualified. These people are returned to normal duties in army units. So far, they fill the bill. They are United States citizens, are of good moral character, are at least 17, but must not have reached their 22nd birthday by the 1st of July prior to entering the academy. They are not now and never have been married, have a high school diploma or its equivalent, and are classified medically fit. While the prime emphasis at use maps is on academic instruction, the military program includes certain essential types of classes. Gentlemen, when you're using this weapon, either on the rifle range or in combat, you're going to have to know how to clean it, which means you're going to have to know how to field strip it. The first step is to push this here and break it. Now, check it. Check the springs. Check the springs here. Now, what type of oil are you going to use for this weapon? LSA. That's right. You use LSA? The leader's basic responsibilities are the accomplishment of his mission and the welfare of his men. Should a conflict ever arise, the mission must come first. There will come a time in the lives of all leaders, regardless of how persuasive we are, that we must resort to the use of power and authority to get the job done. The hand salute is done in this manner. Wrist and fingers in one line. And thumb along the side. It's something to be done with pride, sharpness, precise high sign from one professional soldier to another. So remember, grew tan hard. Present hugs. Cadet candidates get a good grounding in drill and ceremonies, including the not-in frequent occasions on which students who have combat service behind them receive awards. Even more than once in the school's history, the Medal of Honor. The school's high emphasis on physical aptitude and condition is evidenced in the fact that part of every day is devoted to vigorous physical activity of one kind or another. Use Maps offers 13 school teams and nine intramural sports. And every student will be involved and active in at least one of these each season. A vital part of each year's activities is the time, early in the opening term, when the whole core of Cadet Candidate spends a few days away from school on the annual orientation trip to West Point. Cadet Academy on a Thursday afternoon and are assigned in groups of five to their selected escorts from the core of Cadets, who will be their hosts and guides during the visit. Before they head back to Fort Belvoir on Sunday afternoon, there's much to see. This is a time for getting the feel of West Point at first hand. And what better way is there to get the feel than by asking questions? Lots of them. Any questions asked by the prepsters are answered thoroughly. These sessions result in much planning by the visitors for next year. This visit is enjoyable, but it is also purposeful. The Cadet candidates have a chance to live among the Cadets, see at first hand what West Point life is like, see for sure whether this is what they want. They learn in this 72 hours or so a lot about West Point. The prime key to the quality of the core is the honor code. This code, which every Cadet is expected to live by, is a very simple one. A Cadet does not lie, cheat, or steal. Now, this code does not come down as regulations from higher headquarters. It had its origin in the core among the Cadets themselves. The core originated and administers this code and keeps its spirit alive. A brief look into what to expect in the way of instruction during their years at West Point is shown to the future Cadets. Opinions are being formed. Conclusions are being drawn. It's calculated to let them know it's not going to be easy. But if they make it, it's an accomplishment to be proud of. We asked on this visit to West Point, how is a man trained to lead? In several ways, I think, through our broad academic program, through the constant four-year developmental program in character, and through physical and military training programs that the Cadet undergoes. I think it's important also to appreciate that how we teach is as important as what we teach. By this, I mean the excellence we obtain through the man in uniform on the platform, giving the example as a leader, as well as being expert in the academic discipline which he teaches. I also have reference, in this sense, to the participatory type of instruction we use, where instead of the individual parroting facts from a text or merely absorbing the instructor's opinions, he partakes of the discussion and helps teach the other Cadets. In this way, we obtain and insist upon critical analysis, logical reasoning powers, and the ability to express oneself orally and in writing. The military leader is going to face many problems after he leaves West Point. Social problems, political problems, economic problems, sociological, even spiritual. We try to prepare him to face these problems, an ever more complex task. Our program is broad, and it combines the social sciences, the sciences, and the humanities. It has some military overtones inspired at the intellectual level as well as the purely vocational level. It's a unique program because West Point is trying to produce the professional, the career army officer. We, of course, here at West Point, educate the man looking beyond that period of second lieutenancy, platoon leadership. We look, of course, toward that period when he goes into increasingly, progressively more responsible positions. An army officer's education, we realize, never really ends. He is always involved in the period of self-study. But during that period, of course, it is building upon this broad base he builds here through the applicatory process he's applying the theory. Now, more formally, we know or we anticipate that about 75% of our graduates will go on and do formal graduate work at civilian institutions in this country and abroad. That's to prepare themselves to enter into the 100 or more fields that the army has a need for, specialized fields. And finally, of course, there's the army's military schooling system that the officer can look forward to being involved in as late as 16 to 20 years of service before he's through it. West Point is rich with traditions. The cadets know this and want to instill in the future plebes that these traditions are expected to be carried on and that the motto duty, honor, country is not to be taken lightly. The prepster's visit to West Point includes time for reconnaissance in other vital areas of cadet life, in addition to academics, traditions, and history, including a typical cadet pep rally on the night before a football game. Of course, there's the game itself, always a highlight of the visit. Really enables the prepster to see what it is he has started preparing for. To reinforce, if such is needed, his decision that this is what he wants. Saturday review of the Corps of Cadets. The prepsters know that some 10% of the marching cadets have traveled the road they themselves are beginning and have done well. Use maps graduates, though they make up only 10% of the West Point Corps, hold 20% of the cadet officer position. It's only three days, but it's a full three days. A chance to see and ask at first hand, time to sleep and eat and listen and walk around to feel what it's like. Then back to use maps. On their return from the West Point trip, the cadet candidates really get into the swing of the daily round at use maps. A typical day starts with a hearty breakfast. The daily schedule is an active one and calls for good nourishment. Use maps operates its own dining hall. And if the prepsters uphold the soldierly tradition of knocking the chow, they rarely leave any of it on their plates. In the morning, a typical day holds two periods of English and one of mathematics. Then lunch. One more session of math after the noon meal completes the typical day's academic instruction. The rest of the afternoon, some three hours of it, are devoted five days a week to physical education and organized athletics. Not only for the conditioning, but for the sharper focus it gives to each man's feeling for effective teamwork. After dinner is a time for relaxation among friends. Conversation about the important things of life. How's it going with the math? What are you doing this weekend? The typical use maps day ends with a period of study from 7 to 9.30 in the evening. Those whose classwork is up to standard study on their own in the barracks. For those who have problems and need help, special help is provided. The use map students life is purposely made as similar as practical to that he will face as a cadet at West Point. He becomes familiar with the demerit system and with the results that can follow if he accumulates too many. The West Point system of peer ratings or evaluation of student performance by fellow students is also followed at the preparatory school and with good results. Two, a change of course. The chain of command in the use maps military structure is also patterned after that of West Point. And positions of command responsibility are rotated several times in the course of the year to give as many as possible a first-hand experience in the function of command. Then in January, the college boards, the great dividing point of the school year. Since August, the prepsters have been undergoing a comprehensive review of high school level English and math, how well they've done, and whether they'll go on to the second advanced term at use maps is determined here. The college board's exam results identify many of those who simply are not up to the required standard. These soldiers return to regular army units. For those who remain the equally strenuous, if not more so, second term lies ahead. The emphasis will still be English and mathematics. But now the courses are an introduction to college level work, plain and spherical trigonometry, solid geometry, advanced algebra, analytical geometry, and an introduction to calculus. The focus is no longer on preparing for the college boards. It is on preparing the students for the demanding academic work that will face the ones who qualify for entrance into the military academy at West Point. The months of the second term, the advanced course, are still a time of getting ready, and frequent tests provide the milestones through winter and into spring, keeping the students on their toes and giving a running index of their progress. Then, suddenly it seems to some, after an eternity it seems to others, it's time for graduation. Graduation time at USEMAPS, as it is at most any prep school, is a time for shining up and taking a pretty girl to a dance. It is also time for standing a final review with the people who've worked together for so many months, together again. But the next time will be on the wide parade ground known as the Plain at West Point. When a cadet candidate reaches the point to the final congratulations and handshake, he can well feel a sense of accomplishment. Many who started with him in August did not make it past the college boards in January. Since then, others who lack one or another of the required qualities have returned to regular duties in the Army. He has made it. It's not over. Now he's ready to begin. But first, it's home for 30 days' well-earned leave. The next fall, we'll find him here, where he made up his mind he would be. With the help of the United States Military Academy preparatory school, his determination has paid off. USEMAPS continues to prove that for the young American who knows what he wants and knows that this is what he wants, there is a way.