Troop 301

On September 11th 2010, Troop 301 visited the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York

We started the day watching the Cadet Review on “the plan” on the north end of the campus. The “review” starts with an exhibition but the Black Knights precision drill team followed by a sea of cadets emerging from the beautiful stone complex onto the grass field known as “the plane”.

The cadets, dressed in their finest parade uniforms, marched as “companies” past the crowd.

The review concluded with seven members of the Black Knights parachute team jumping from a helicopter (4000 feet up) and landing directly in front of the crowd on the plane.

After the review we got to tour some of the grounds and visit with cadets showing some of the exciting things the cadets do in the ARMY academy.

Some of the boys got to drive the robotic vehicles…..

Some of us took in the beautiful monuments and…..

…..the incredible views from the campus of the Hudson River.

Then it was off to Michie stadium and the game. It is pronounced “MIKEY” There were pre-game activities behind the stadium with more demonstrations and some free give-aways as well as shirts and food to be bought. Many of us ate the lunch we brought with us along the reservoir before heading into the stadium.

We were diagonally opposite the cadets this year with a great view of the whole field and SHADE despite the fact that we were “way up there” this year.

The game ball was parachuted in by a female cadet with over 500 successful jumps. Unfortunately, the game started out badly for ARMY but they came back with 28 unanswered points to go ahead. With every score, all the cheerleader (including the girls) pumped out the same number of pushups as ARMY had points. (7 + 14 + 21 + 28 for a total of 70 pushups by the end of the game).

Halftime included a tribute to the police officer who raised the first flag over the collapsed towers on 9-11-2001 and the game flag had been flown over “ground zero”.

We were all given small American flags when we entered the stadium and we proudly waved them as we sang God Bless America, 40,000+ strong (biggest home opening crowd since 2002).

The game turned out to be a heartbreaker for ARMY, losing on a field goal with just over 10 seconds left in the game. This was not the end for some of the troop however as we were able to join with Colonel Jesse Germane (thanks to Mr. Madonia) and get a private tour through the 100-million-dollar athletic training center as well as other places the public is not generally allowed.

Colonel Germain runs the athletic center at West Point and is a graduate of Smithtown High School East. He started us off with the best view from the school and then moved to the incredible 40-foot+ tall rock wall.

We also saw one of two “almost” identical gyms. This one has a 4-foot taller roof so it is correct for NCAA volleyball.

When the complex was completely renovated in 1996, only one room was saved for its historic value and that was the obstacle course area and Colonel Germain shared a lot of information about it and moving events that happened there.

There was much more to the tour of this facility that I could not possible fit here on the website. From here, we were treated to a “sneak peek” at where the cadets live and where they eat….all 4000 of them…at one time.

It looked almost like something out of Harry Potter….

It was from this dinning hall that General Douglas McArthur delivered is inspirational speech from an area known as “the poop deck” (it is a balcony).

The Colonel was nice enough to take a picture of our group inside the hall before we moved to the finish of our tour outside by the statue of West Point Class of 1901 graduate General Douglas McArthur.

The inspirational speech that was delivered from the poop deck gave birth to a motto you will here many cadets voice. DUTY-HONOR-COUNTRY.

Colonel Germain left the boys with a motto to live by as this is what he said got him through West Point. He called it the “Three P’s” and it plays right off the SCOUT MOTTO.

Be PREPARED, be PROFESSIONAL and be PROUD.

It was a great trip. Click on any of the pictures to see a larger and higher resolution version.

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