West Point

Author(s):  
Ingo Trauschweizer

In the opening chapter I introduce Maxwell Taylor as superintendent of the US Military Academy (1945-1949), where he placed greater emphasis on the humanities for a more balanced liberal education of army officers. This was to prepare them for leadership of a mass army made up of a mix of volunteers and draftees, which depended on one’s ability to communicate clearly and compellingly. At West Point, Taylor also began to formulate lessons of World War II, pondered the changing nature of strategy, which now had to encompass the full mobilization potential of the nation, and considered the effects of atomic weapons. Curiously, he concluded that limited war remained both possible and likely.

2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (7) ◽  
Author(s):  
G Dennis Shanks ◽  
Melissa Eslinger

Abstract Influenza rates for the US Army and West Point cadets showed that seasonal influenza was not necessarily an annual event, and there was little influenzal illness in the decade before 1918 except for 1911 and 1916. Annual records from 1862–1918 also indicated a similar paucity of influenzal illness before 1890.


1996 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 273-282 ◽  
Author(s):  
M V Klicka ◽  
N King ◽  
P T Lavin ◽  
E W Askew

2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (194) ◽  
pp. 190-195
Author(s):  
Ruslan Anatskyi ◽  

The article offers the analysis of the physical training Program for cadets in the US Military Academy West Point. Recently, Ukraine gained access to the best military experience of NATO. An important factor in strengthening the combat potential of the army is the future officers’ physical training. The analysis of the physical training Program for cadets in the US Military Academy West Point will allow the gradual implementation of NATO standards in higher military education in Ukraine. West Point accepts boys and girls, U.S. citizens, ages 17-22. Applicants are recommended to pass the camp Summer Leaders Experience. The governing body that organizes, implements and controls the entire process of physical education is the Department of Physical Education. The guiding document for the entire process of physical education is the physical training Program. The strategic goals laid down in the physical training Program are: cadet skills, teaching staff responsibilities, military skills, program implementation. The physical training Program consists of three sections: the physical education curriculum or "training course"; physical fitness testing; and participation in sports competitions. The first section in the Program has three main courses for cadets’ working: basic motor activities; basic fitness; and daily physical activity. The second section in the Program is regular physical fitness testing, it provides cadets the opportunity to demonstrate personal physical perfection and emphasizes the importance of physical fitness for a military profession. The third section in the Program is participation in competitions, it encourages each cadet during every semester to participate in competitions according to their own abilities and interests: team, club, Inter-academic. The physical education curriculum has four levels for cadets’ training. The transition to a new level is allowed only if a cadet meets all the standards from the previous level. The fourth level provides the development of self-confidence that gives cadets the opportunity to meet the requirements of the Academy and the army in physical training in the future. The third level ensures cadets’ development of basic competence in movement and water skills. The second level designs a final combat experience that is closely related to the Army combat program in the modern army. The first level provides the culmination in one of many cycles in cadet’s physical activity that is cadet’s physical movement throughout life.


2019 ◽  
Vol 116 (47) ◽  
pp. 23499-23504 ◽  
Author(s):  
Angela L. Duckworth ◽  
Abigail Quirk ◽  
Robert Gallop ◽  
Rick H. Hoyle ◽  
Dennis R. Kelly ◽  
...  

When predicting success, how important are personal attributes other than cognitive ability? To address this question, we capitalized on a full decade of prospective, longitudinal data from n = 11,258 cadets entering training at the US Military Academy at West Point. Prior to training, cognitive ability was negatively correlated with both physical ability and grit. Cognitive ability emerged as the strongest predictor of academic and military grades, but noncognitive attributes were more prognostic of other achievement outcomes, including successful completion of initiation training and 4-y graduation. We conclude that noncognitive aspects of human capital deserve greater attention from both scientists and practitioners interested in predicting real-world success.


2021 ◽  
pp. 002234332110108
Author(s):  
Andrew Bell

Can armed groups socialize combatants to norms of restraint – in essence, train soldiers to adopt norms of international humanitarian law on the battlefield? How can social scientists accurately measure such socialization? Despite being the central focus of organizational and ideational theories of conflict, studies to date have not engaged in systematic, survey-based examination of this central socialization mechanism theorized to influence military conduct. This study advances scholarly understanding by providing the first comparative, survey-based examination of combatant socialization to norms of restraint, using surveys and interviews with US Army cadets at the US Military Academy (USMA), Army Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC), and active duty Army combatants. Additionally, to better understand ‘restraint’ from combatants’ perspective, this study introduces the concept of the ‘combatant’s trilemma’ under which combatants conceptualize civilian protection as part of a costly trade-off with the values of military advantage and force protection. Survey results hold both positive and negative implications for socialization to law of war norms: military socialization can shift combatants’ preferences for battlefield conduct. However, intensive norm socialization may be required to shift combatants’ preferences from force protection to civilian protection norms. Study findings hold significant implications for understanding violence against civilians in conflict and for policies to disseminate civilian protection norms in armed groups worldwide.


2018 ◽  
pp. 199-238
Author(s):  
Montgomery McFate

This chapter concerns the wartime civil affairs experience of John Useem, a US Navy officer who became the military governor of a small island in Micronesia. While the post-World War II, military government established in Germany and Japan are often offered as examples of successful governance operations, the partially successful case of Micronesia better exemplifies the paradoxes at the heart of the military government enterprise. These issues which plagued the US military government in Micronesia, and which John Useem wrote about in the 1940s and 1950s, were the exact same issues that have plagued the intervention in Afghanistan and Iraq more than a half century later. What happens when the policy of democratization is incompatible with the existing social order? What happens when American social norms conflict with the society they intend to govern? What happens when the core principle of military government non-interference cannot be implemented in practice and outright contradicts the imperatives of ‘nation building’?


Physics Today ◽  
1993 ◽  
Vol 46 (7) ◽  
pp. 77-78 ◽  
Author(s):  
David H. DeVorkin ◽  
Bruce Hevly

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