Duty First is a penetrating account of a year inside one of America's premier schools for leadership -- the United States Military Academy -- as it celebrates the bicentennial of its founding. Ed Ruggero, a former West Point cadet and professor, takes an incisive look at how this elite school builds the "leaders of character" who will command the nation's military. Writing with deep insight and superb narrative skill, Ruggero follows the cadet's tumultuous lives: the initial grueling training; the strict student hierarchy and intense classroom work; and the interaction between the lowly first-year plebes and the upper-class cadets who train them. Duty First also shows the role played by the majors, captains, and sergeants, who oversee everything that happens at this unique institution. “Ruggero vividly documents a sea-change in the academy’s attitude toward leadership training… He is a keen observer with a knack for penetrating cadet culture and individual lives.” - Washington Post “By turns highly informative and critical, Ed Ruggero’s Duty First is a fascinating and revealing look at America’s premier military academy.” - Houston Chronicle Duty First is a penetrating account of a year inside one of America's premier schools for leadership -- the United States Military Academy -- as it celebrates the bicentennial of its founding. Ed Ruggero, a former West Point cadet and professor, takes an incisive look at how this elite school builds the "leaders of character" who will command the nation's military. Writing with deep insight and superb narrative skill, Ruggero follows the cadet's tumultuous lives: the initial grueling training; the strict student hierarchy and intense classroom work; and the interaction between the lowly first-year plebes and the upper-class cadets who train them. Duty First also shows the role played by the majors, captains, and sergeants, who oversee everything that happens at this unique institution. Ed Ruggero is the author of Combat Jump: The Young Men Who Led the Assault into Fortress Europe, July 1943 and Duty First: A Year in the Life of West Point and the Making of American Leaders . He was an infantry officer in the United States Army for eleven years and is an experienced keynote speaker on leadership development. He lives in Wallingford, Pennsylvania. Duty First A Year in the Life of West Point and the Making of American Leaders By Ruggero, Ed Perennial Copyright © 2004 Ed Ruggero All right reserved. ISBN: 0060931337 Chapter One Day One: We're Not In Kansas Anymore West Point, New York June 29, 1998 A slim pamphlet published by West Point gives the following details about the United States Military Academy Class of 2002: Twelve thousand four hundred and forty applicant files were opened by the admissions office; 2,245 young men and women received congressional nominations (the first competitive hurdle) and met the academic and physical requirements of West Point. Twelve hundred and forty six were admitted. Of these, 74 percent ranked in the top fifth of their high school class. None were in the bottom fifth. Sixty-four percent scored above 600 on the verbal portion of the SAT; 78 percent scored that well on the math portion. Two hundred and thirty-three received National Merit Scholar recognition, seventy-eight were valedictorians, 732 members of the National Honor Society; there were 224 Boys or Girls State delegates, 222 student body presidents, 191 editors or coeditors of school newspapers, 556 scouts. Of these, 139 were Eagle Scouts (men) or Gold Award winners (women). One thousand, one hundred and twenty-one of them -- a whopping 89 percent -- were varsity letter winners; 774 of them were team captains. They are accomplished, educated, healthy, and willing to forgo much of what makes college life fun, including summer vacation. Today is their first day at West Point, and most of them are having trouble just walking and talking. In the concrete and blacktop expanse called Central Area, a young man puts his left foot forward, on the command of the upperclass cadre member who is teaching drill. Inexplicably, his left arm swings forward. Since this eighteen-year-old learned to walk, probably around 1982, he's been doing it one way: left foot, right arm. The right foot comes out; the left arm does, too. Not today. It's not that he isn't trying. His face is set, intense with concentration. He sweats, moves his lips as he repeats the commands. He doesn't look around, although he is a little disoriented. This day is meant to be disorienting "We want them to feel a little like Dorothy did when she landed in Oz and said, 'We're not in Kansas anymore, Toto," says Brigadier General John Abizaid, Commandant of Cadets. Cadet Basic Training, also called CBT, also called "Beast Barracks" or simply "Beast," takes up most of the summer before freshman year. Six and a half weeks to learn how to look, walk and talk like soldiers; to begin to absorb -- or