West Point Should be at least as good as ROTC
Tom Ricks takes a look at the military training accorded to college ROTC units, whose officers get reserve commisions, to the United States Military Academy at West Point, whose members get regular commisions and the lineage of the ‘long grey line.’
“Sir, West Point is the only place in the country where it is not only legal, but mandated, that 18 year old boys hide their dirty underwear … and 30 year old men go looking for it.” (For the record, he was referring to barracks inspections conducted by the “tactical officers” who oversee the cadets.) Of course, all of this is belied by the nearly instantaneous sentiment of nostalgic gilding applied by 95 percent of new Lieutenants the moment they see Highland Falls disappearing in their rear-view mirrors. But the bottom line about military training at USMA came as a shock to me…there is practically none, and what there is, is limited.
University of TN ROTC combat training….