Cadets face numerous obstacles during their tenure at the U.S. Military Academy, which forces them to overcome those plights — whether personal, academic or physical — while building a character base as future military leaders. As the USMA Class of 2021 cadets inch closer to their final objective at West Point by graduating at Michie Stadium Saturday, all the firsties were required to write a reflective essay on their readiness for officership as part of the MX400 (Officership) curriculum.  ...

Class of 2021 Cadets Collin Hahn and Griffin Hokanson would be the first to tell you West Point not only teaches you about honor, integrity and the importance of selfless service, but also strengthens friendships and creates lifelong alliances. ...

West Point observed a combined Earth Day and Arbor Day celebration April 22. Dirt Man, Dirt Woman and cadets from the Green Team Environmental Club (right and above) assisted in planting a tree in front of the Dental Clinic at Building 606. The Directorate of Public Works Management Agronomist Phil Koury and his team created a space and provided a tree for the planting. Dean of the Academic Board Brig. Gen. Cindy Jebb read an Arbor Day proclamation while cadets, staff and faculty from the Department of Geography and Environmental Engineering attended the event. Arbor Day began in 1872 as West Point has been a Tree City USA town, as declared by the Arbor Day Foundation, since 1998. ...

Exploring a cemetery may have an eerie aura to it as young men and women pace from one headstone to another during an intermittent drizzle, overcast day. On the contrary, despite the gloomy weather conditions, this day is not meant for melancholic thoughts but a sense of higher purpose in honoring fallen graduates and reflecting on the meaning and risks of a prospective future in the profession of arms.  ...

If one were to enter room D14 at Mahan Hall, perhaps an aspiring student would be humbled by the setting. What was once a relatively spacious storage room became a makeshift laboratory for Class of 2021 Cadets Andres Sayed, Sara Scales, Austin Fox and Jafar Stone. This cadet team underwent a complex process of building Warehouse Autonomous Robots, from concept to completion, within the span of the academic year leading up to Projects Day on April 29 at the U.S. Military Academy. ...

Instructors from the U.S. Military Academy can attest, profoundly, to the saying “show, don’t tell.” The act of leadership and its description are not always one and the same, as the officers would put it. It is not enough to simply bark orders or appear as if a person knows what they are doing. As Maj. Will Fuller would explain, a true leader not only “talks the talk,” as it were, but takes the proverbial leap into the unknown to show their cadets how to navigate uncertainty. ...

It was November 2008, during the 10th anniversary of the International Space Station (ISS). Robert Shane Kimbrough, U.S. Military Academy Class of 1989 graduate and National Aeronautics and Space Administration astronaut, went on his first space flight to the ISS. Class of 2022 Cadet Zachary Kimbrough was 8 years old at the time and could not fathom the magnitude of his father’s interstellar journey. ...

The weekends usually mean a time to catch up on sleep and relax before the next week ahead. For nearly 1,500 cadets, staff and faculty at the U.S. Military Academy, the weekend for them meant an opportunity to participate in the grueling Norwegian Foot March over the course of several days on April 3, 11 and 25. ...

When Gen. Douglas MacArthur articulated the phrase “Upon the fields of friendly strife are sown the seeds that on other days, on other fields, will bear the fruits of victory,” it fundamentally gets to the heart of being a competitor, through character, that goes beyond winning and losing, and the lessons learned through athletics leads to a confident, competent officer who has the mental and moral qualities to be a great leader on the battlefield. ...

To discover breakthroughs in engineering and give way to innovation in the military, the Warfighter Innovation and Science and Engineering (WISE) Challenge is the competing grounds in which the U.S. Naval, Coast Guard and Air Force Academies showcased projects they developed within the realm of Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) throughout the academic year. As the U.S. Service Academies worked hard on their respective projects to win first prize, creating a distinct, pioneering technology that is service-specific or joint mission-related was their ultimate goal and was displayed on Monday at West Point. ...