USMAPS R-Day Report

The Commissioner

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R-Day at Ft. Monmouth was weather-delightful and impressive considering the small size of the school.

A few quick stats as I remember them:

243 cadet candidates were expected to show up. 2 were MIA and a TAC officer was assigned to track them down. One cc withdrew his acceptance to join air force prep instead. Three quit on R-Day. There are 97 recruited athletes in the class. 24 are already serving in the Army. 109 are minorities. The average SAT score M/V for the class is around 1100. One cc has a SAT score of 1500+ but was sent to MAPS because he's been out of high school for a while. More stats should be posted on the USMAPS website.

Lunch for my son was a couple little cans of chef boyardee meat/pasta, some crackers, and a cookie. He said it looked like someone was cleaning out the food pantry and threw food randomly into bags. I asked him what the worst part of R-Day for him was and he replied, "All the standing around."

Speaking of not calling attention to yourself on R-Day, one parent told us his son has a tattoo and during tattoo inspection the WP cadre asked him what it meant. The kid replied, "It means 'warrior'." The cadre said, "Oh, you like to fight, eh? Then fight me!" The cadre tried to get the cc to rise to the bait, but the kid was smarter than that!

One of the nice features of the parent's side of R-Day was the availability of the West Point admissions officers. They were eager to answer questions. Also, many of the WP coaches were there to welcome their recruits. Teams met before in-processing.

The oath ceremony was very nice. Lots of patriotic and martial music preceded the opening of the ceremony. A female chaplain did a nice job with the invocation and the commandant gave an inspirational speech before swearing in the new cc's. Family members got five minutes to spend with their cc on the parade ground after the oath ceremony. The hugs given and received were extraordinarily strong and heartfelt. Today we said goodbye to a kid and later in the fall we hope to say hello to a man.
 
Wow! R-Day already! Somehow I thought it was this coming week - the summer is flying -:smile:

Question - do you mean that 24 of the 97 recruited athletes are soldiers or that there are a total of 24 soldiers?

I wish your son the best for a great year - keep us informed! :thumb:
 
Best wishes to your son, Commissioner! I am sure he was ready and is doing well at USMAPS. Here's wishing he writes you at least one letter a week!
 
Thanks for the glimpse into R-day at USMAPS. Good luck to your son!
 
Question - do you mean that 24 of the 97 recruited athletes are soldiers or that there are a total of 24 soldiers?

I wish your son the best for a great year - keep us informed! :thumb:

There are 24 soldiers. Another 97 of the cadet candidates are recruited athletes.

He called his Mom today and the call was limited to five minutes. All of his sentences, except for one, were one or two monosyllabic words. The only time he said anything of substance was that he was really looking forward to going to Fort Dix for field training and getting away from the prep school. Sounds like the appeal wore off in less than 48 hours. Guess the cadre will do that, eh?
 
24 soldiers - wow. I thought that number sounded a little low. If the main mission of the prep school is to prep soldiers to attend West Point and only 10% of the student populations are soldiers - has the Prep school gotten away from it's primary mission? Or is there not enough soldier interest?

I wonder if maybe that low number is the reason that an admissions Officer told me last spring that the easiest way to get into West Point right now is to enlist.

Sounds like your son is suffering from shock and awe? I'm sure he will come through it just fine. :thumb:
 
24 soldiers - wow. I thought that number sounded a little low. If the main mission of the prep school is to prep soldiers to attend West Point and only 10% of the student populations are soldiers - has the Prep school gotten away from it's primary mission?

Low quotas of soldiers combined with extremely high quotas for recruited athletes makes me also wonder if they are on the wrong mission. Someone on "the other forum" seemed to mistakingly imply that the prep schools are a form of red shirting. It is statistics such as this which feeds that misconception (and got AFA in trouble with the NCAA a few years back).
 
From the CC website:

""Also, any clue what the percentage of combat vets is in the Corps?"

The percentage is small, but as the war continues the number is growing. 85 cadet slots are allocated for enlisted soldiers in the regular army each year. Unfortunately this allocation is never filled (not many know about the WP option)."

I can't comment on the "mission", but I don't imagine it would be anything but beneficial if AT LEAST 85 combat vets are admitted each year, and perhaps many more. If West Point is indeed not filling the combat vet quota, there's something wrong with the way this opportunity is conveyed to the forces in the field.
 
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