New Cadet Visitation Day

This Sunday we had an excellent opportunity.  Each summer a new class of West Point cadets begins their service.  This summer the class of 2017 began with R-day (reception day) on July 1st.  R-day is supposed to be a fairly traumatic experience, as the new cadets are given a short briefing with their families, and then suddenly they have two minutes to say goodbye.   They're shuffled out, shaved, and forced to dress in PT shorts, a t-shirt, dress shoes and black socks. 

From this point, they're in Beast, or Cadet Basic Training.  For 6 weeks they aren't allowed to speak unless spoken to, eat until given permission, or have "hands" (they have to keep their hands in a fist unless actively doing something).

"Look, Ma, no hands!"  (Yes, it's not USMA, but you get the idea)

Three weeks into Beast, the faculty get the opportunity to participate in New Cadet Visitation Day, AKA the Cadet Ice Cream Social.  Each faculty member is asked to host at least two new cadets at their house for a Sunday afternoon.  The purpose is to give the new cadets a chance to relax, spend time with a family, use the phone or internet, and generally feel like a real person again.

Since we don't have a house yet, it makes it difficult to do this, but we teamed up with some friends in the branch, and joined them at their house.  When I went to pick up our cadets, they had them all lined up alphabetically, according to the host who was picking them up.  They called my name, and then literally "issued" me the cadets assigned to me. 

"Do I get a hand receipt for these?"

 
Altogether we had three new cadets.

We prepared hamburgers and hotdogs, and each of the new cadets at between three and five hamburgers... Then topped it all off with banana splits. 

It was a great opportunity to meet some of the interesting people who are here to study, and to get some insight into what the new cadets go through during Beast.  Mostly, though, it was fun to see them relax and smile and enjoy themselves.