West Point Military Academy - Inside Scoop

School Slang

• Boodle - A term that refers to food of any sort. Usually the word boodle is used to refer to candy, ice cream, or pizza.
• Break Contact - A term used by a group of cadets when they go out to a bar and encounter members of the opposite sex that they ultimately find unattractive.
• Buckner - Buckner is a term that refers to the camp where all second-year cadets participate in advanced military training.
• Bugle Notes - Bugle Notes is a book that contains information on the history of West Point and the Army. All of the information in this book is considered required knowledge for first-years. Any upper-class cadet may ask any first-year cadet a piece of required knowledge during formations or during the normal duty day. The gift store sells this book.
• Eight-Up - A term used to describe a cadet who cannot seem to do anything right. Synonymous with the term chewed up. These terms describe cadets who lack attention to detail, self-discipline, and military bearing.

• Minutes - Five minutes before every formation, first year cadets are required to call minutes. The purpose of minutes is to allow first-year cadets to practice their command voices, while simultaneously announcing the uniform of the day for all cadets.
• Off Post - Anywhere outside of any one of the several gates.
• Recognition - Recognition week refers to the week before fourth-class cadets become members of the Corps of Cadets. This week is usually very stressful for the majority of fourth-class cadets. Recognition week concludes with a parade and fourth-class cadets becoming members of the Corps of Cadets.
• Spaz - A term used to describe a cadet who panics when placed in a stressful situation.

• Squared Away - A term used to describe a cadet who is extremely proficient in required knowledge and in carrying out his or her duties.
• Taps - Every day Taps is played by Central Guard Room to signify the end of the duty day. After Taps, cadets are required to be in their own rooms, with lights off.
• Tool - A term used to describe a cadet who operates by the book; someone who sees everything in black and white. Usually, a tool is a cadet who appears to make decisions that please senior leadership, instead of making decisions that appease other cadets.
• Uniform of the day - A particular uniform, announced by Central Guard Room based on the weather report that cadets are required to wear until they hear an announcement from Central Guard Room saying that the uniform has changed.

Things I Wish I Knew Before Coming To School

• As stated before, one of the best things that you can do is to study the Bugle Notes prior to coming here. Another thing is to ask a lot of questions, not only about West Point, but also about the Army. Before you come here, you have to make sure that this place is really for you.

Tips to Succeed

• Always give 100 percent, all of the time. Don’t take things personally. And when you fail—notice that I say when you fail at something—learn how to rebound quickly. Finally, ask questions, and show a sincere interest to learn, and take advantage of the limitless opportunities that are available.

Urban Legends

• A lot of people think getting into West Point is political. While this is true of some, the overwhelming majority of cadets are smart, athletic students who do not come from affluent families. They are driven people who have worked extremely hard and who want to make a difference. In order to make it through West Point, you first have to make up your mind that this is what you want to do.

• Taps - According to an old urban legend, a father and son were fighting on opposite sides in the Civil War, and they met one last time on the battlefield. As the father was holding his dying son in his arms, he looked in his son’s pocket and found a melody, which is now known as ‘Taps.’ Taps was composed in July 1862 at Harrison’s Landing in Virginia, but after that, the fanciful legend parts way with reality. There was no dead son, Confederate, or otherwise; no lone bugler sounding out the dead boy’s last composition. How the call came into being was never anything more than one influential soldier deciding his unit could use a bugle call for particular occasions and setting about to come up with one.

Traditions

• All cadets receive Christmas, spring, and summer leave, along with the four-day Thanksgiving break. Christmas leave is normally two weeks in length, following the completion of first semester final examinations. Spring leave is about 10 days, including the weekends. Summer leave is about three or four weeks, depending on a cadet’s military leadership training assignment. When academics begin, first classmen (seniors) get twice as many weekend leaves as second classmen (juniors). A plebe (freshman) will have only a few weekend passes. Plebes also may leave West Point for extracurricular, cultural, and athletic trips. There is also the traditional Plebe-Parent Weekend scheduled each fall. During Cadet Basic Training (six weeks long), new cadets do not have privilege periods because of the requirements of the intensive military training activities. There is a day set aside for a military family visitation, allowing new cadets a short time of relaxation. New cadets are also given time to call home on the weekend.

• Plebes have a rotating responsibility to announce 10, five, four, three, two, and one minute before formation, in a strictly formatted ritual known as “minutes.” This is a tough challenge when you have a class the period before noon meal formation. One young lad was hurrying back to do his duty when one of the tourii (the Latin plural of tourist, of course) asked him if he would pose with them for a picture. In a somewhat agitated state, he looked at her and said, “No lady, I got minutes!” Supposedly, she noted his name from his nametag and reported him to Main Office.

• Everyone would agree that the one thing that makes West Point so special is not the facilities or the resources, but the people who work here. West Point is very rich in culture and history, but it is the people—the cadets, civilians, and officers—that make everything come alive and come together. As a cadet, your life is literally built around traditions.