R-Day has come...

scoutpilot

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...and mostly gone. A lot of high school heroes just got slapped in the face by the stone hand of reality!

Any tales of any bolos yet?
 
Walked Away on R-Day

DS is at Buckner today, he said an officer was commenting on today's R-Day activities and reported a cadet candidate refused to move forward after the 90-second goodbye, turned around and left for home. First I'd heard of anyone not even making it past the 90-second clock... kind of a "Runaway Bride" moment I guess.
 
That is a shame. My son at Buckner told me the same story on the phone today. Some great candidate did not get an offer because of this person. However, it is common that a few quit the first week. Clearly, no admissions process is perfect.
 
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DS is at Buckner today, he said an officer was commenting on today's R-Day activities and reported a cadet candidate refused to move forward after the 90-second goodbye, turned around and left for home. First I'd heard of anyone not even making it past the 90-second clock... kind of a "Runaway Bride" moment I guess.

Wow. That's a whole new level of quitting.
 
Oh, there are always those that don't show up at all.:rolleyes:

USNA, for whom I-Day was last week, had zero no-shows and only one refuse to take the Oath this year. That apparently is a record. Hope it went as well for USMA; as noted, it's always a shame when a kid quits almost before he/she starts.
 
We heard from our RC that there were 2 no shows overall yesterday - one from PA and one from CA. Wasn't a big issue since they were over the target class size of 1150 anyway. I heard 1193 reported, counting 15 international students (who don't count towards that target) so the class was already 28 or so above what they were hoping to end up at. So even if "Runaway Bride" had made that decision a couple months ago, it still most likely wouldn't have gotten someone else in.

Probably the reason that they'll be seriously limiting LOA's this year so that they can control that from the beginning rather than hoping candidates decline later in the process!
 
I don't understand just not showing up for R-Day and I really don't understand refusing to line up after the 90-second good-bye. If you said "yes" to West Point, then why didn't you prepare yourself mentally to take the next step?:confused:
 
My guess on not showing up for R Day is that they just never bothered to officially decline but didn't intend to come, not just cold feet.

Back in my day, we weren't allowed to do the "changing your mind" thing so early. Once you showed up, you signed that you wouldn't leave for a minimum of 4 weeks (so that you had time to get settled in, plus a week into the second detail cadre, just in case you just had a bad personality conflict during first detail or somehow started totally off on the wrong foot). I guess that still wouldn't have prevented the leaving at the 90 second goodbye mark, but I've been surprised with AF the past few years how many basics leave during those first few weeks then end up regretting it. It IS the military - I think it made sense to "make" you try more than a few minutes/hours/days before making a decision. Even my son, who'd grown up with 2 WP grads as parents and had wanted USAFA for years, wrote a couple letters in the first two days saying "WTH am I doing here?" :wink:
 
And IF you're not planning to show, at least do WP (or any other SA) the courtesy of telling them in advance. Although this year, WP was "oversubscribed," there could be years when that information could open up a slot for someone who would show. I know USNA this year called one person two days before I-Day and offered a slot, which was happily accepted.

In the past, USNA has had up 10 folks not show up for, or quit on, I-Day.:thumbdown:
 
Agree with 1985 completely. Every year at USNA we have a few who won't enter those doors or who don't stand up to take the oath. I remember as detailers we had to comb the sidelines where plebes were sitting and see if any of them didn't take the oath. Not sure on rules now, but we could not request to drop until after 2 weeks at USNA. The only ones who were removed earlier were kids who mentally were breaking down and were often on suicide watch. For kids who DOR the outprocessing took 5-10 days and that Plebe spoke to anybody and everybody to include coaches, parents, other Mids, officers, chaplains, senior enlisted advisors the Tango Company Detailers could find to ensure they fully understood the gravity of their decision. A few kids once they get a day or two of distance do go back. Most don't. With all the information out on the Internet it is hard to imagine kids do not know what they are in for, but for some kids it is not until they get there that they realize it was the wrong choice, aren't doing it for the right reasons or just honestly get too scared.
 
Some that quit during Beast are ones that had a parent or some other family member/influencer pushing West Point on them. They really didn't want it for themselves. As FFRs, we are very careful with candidates that have Old Grad parents and try to discern who it is that really wants the candidate to go to WP.

I bet the cadet candidate that left after the '90 second goodbye' had serious doubts before that point.
 
I'm just curious and I hope you don't mind me asking this question. I have 2 son's, one just graduated through AROTC and the other will be entering his sophomore year, so while I am in tune with ROTC, WP is still a bit of a mystery to me.

When you talk about "R" Day is that the first day of what you call "Beast" or have the prospective cadets already gone through Beast prior to R Day.

I commissioned as a Mustang so I never had the exoerience of the Academy. I do however remember the look in the eyes of many of the new Boots when they first got off the bus in Alameda Ca., it was sort of a "Holy Crap!! What have I gotten myself into" look. Most got over it pretty quick....but there were a couple, well lets just say we had two guys try to swim off the island, not a smart idea.
 
When you talk about "R" Day is that the first day of what you call "Beast" or have the prospective cadets already gone through Beast prior to R Day.

Yes, R-Day (Reception Day) is the first day of Beast, or Beast Barracks, or CBT (Cadet Basic Training) at USMA.
 
R-Day always brings out the best on Facebook from Old Grads. It's like an extra holiday.

A gem from the Old Grad community...

"Don't worry, you'll spend the next four years b****ing about how much fun your friends are having at civilian schools. However, your civilian friends will never get to enjoy cigarettes made on slave barges in the Persian Gulf that only cost a dollar a pack nor will they ever enjoy Wild Tiger or the visceral life-altering buzz of surviving multiple attempts by others to kill you. Class of 2016, welcome to the machine."
 
A Regional Admissions officer told me about a year ago that one person from his region did not show-up for R-Day because he thought the summer training was optional. He said the candidate was very surprised when he was called and told he was late. The candidate asked if he could immediately come to WP the next day.
WP told him to implement his Plan B. True story!
 
A Regional Admissions officer told me about a year ago that one person from his region did not show-up for R-Day because he thought the summer training was optional. He said the candidate was very surprised when he was called and told he was late. The candidate asked if he could immediately come to WP the next day.
WP told him to implement his Plan B. True story!

I hope plan B wasn't anything to do with the military. Hate to think of this kid leading others in combat.
 
During the briefing prior to our 90-second goodbye, we were told that there were 1,183 new cadets. Later in the day, during the briefing prior to the oath ceremony, the Superintendent said that there were 1,178 new cadets in the class...not sure what happend to the other 5.

Sometime in the late morning, we also saw a young man and his father walking AWAY from the Ike Hall area. The father was carrying a full duffle bag, and both of them had troubled looks on their faces. We don't know their story, but it appeared to us that the young man had changed his mind. It was sad on many levels.
 
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