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Welcome to the U.S. Military Academy, where, as a popular T-shirt proclaims: "The history we teach was made by the people we taught."
And if there is one thing West Point has, it's history.
On this fortified granite plateau commanding the most spectacular stretch of New York's mighty Hudson River, the past marches crisply into the present and on into the future.
The Long Gray Line, as the unbroken 188-year procession of cadets is known, reaches back to our nation's very roots; cadets enrolled now will lead the U.S. Army into the 21st Century.
From its ranks have come our greatest warrior chiefs: Douglas MacArthur, Dwight David Eisenhower, George S. Patton, Ulysses S. Grant, Robert E. Lee. All were groomed for the mantle of leadership here, in the unforgiving crucible of America's Sparta.
The days of cruel hazing as a form of initiation are gone. Plebes, as freshmen are called, no longer endure paddling, forced feedings, sliding naked down splintered boards or running gauntlets of upperclassmen with buckets of ice water at the ready.
But there is still something unyielding in the chill granite walls of West Point. The place is grimly serious, a monastery for the military.
Every shoe is shiny, every posture perfect, every salute snappy. On the parade grounds, men and women become machines in full dress uniform, marching with the precision of a Swiss watch. And they must, because their every misstep is noted by a grandstand team of cadets with binoculars and scorecards. Tradition is all.
Sited in the heart of the Hudson Highlands, West Point is hemmed in by mountains: Bear and Breakneck, Storm King and Anthony's Nose knuckle down to the river like opposing stone linebackers.
This spectacular setting frames the academy's Trophy Point, where the so-called Million Dollar View is cheapened by some gleaming white eyesores upstream at Newburgh. But it's still a stopper.
Studded with booty from wars, captured cannons mostly, Trophy Point hosts outdoor concerts on summer Sundays. The open band shell's backdrop, the Million Dollar View and the crumbling ramparts of Revolutionary War-era battlements, is unbeatable.
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