<p>Get in the best possible physical shape. You don’t want to be “that girl,” the one who cannot keep up and holds her company back. You don’t want to need any extra privileges because you are “too weak.” Above all, see young men as brothers. If you are a girly-girl who likes to flirt, learn to stop! This is just some of what I’ve picked up listening to my cadet and his buddies.</p>
<p>haha thanks for the info! i just started to work out again since I’m in off season for my sports! my parents keep saying the same thing about the boy thing too. personally i think ill be too nervous about workouts and grades.</p>
<p>This a lot of great information! Thanks so much Bzzt!</p>
<p>I just wanted to say I’m so proud of all of you. I started this thread in '06, and those New Cadets are about to graduate!!! I’m a captain now (scary thought), and thinking about heading back to Ye Auld Alma Mater for a job. Next update will be all about surviving in Afghanistan!</p>
<p>Positive attitudes, ladies! I’d love to hear about what’s changed and what no longer applies.</p>
<p>Also, this is from a while ago, but the new social rules (doors open at all times) irritate me. Y’all are adults…</p>
<p>bzzzt - Glad to see you are still checking CC once in awhile. Stay safe in Afghanistan! :)</p>
<p>Great to hear from you bzzzt! Our "09 grad will be headed to Afganistan with her brigade early next year–looking forward to hearing your report!!</p>
<p>bzzzt,</p>
<p>We’ve missed you. I don’t get here as often anymore, but am so glad to see you posting again. You always add value to the threads. </p>
<p>Stay safe.</p>
<p>i just wanted to know more about west point since my boyfriend is at beast right now but this was an amazing thread. so i wanted to bump it. </p>
<p>and if you are still answering questions, could you tell me the rules about civilians visiting cadets in their rooms?</p>
<p>thanks!</p>
<p>and good luck wherever you are in the world right now</p>
<p>visitors are not allowed into the cadet’s rooms except during Plebe Parent weekend when there is a time slot open for tours of the barracks----</p>
<p>is it really hard to get a nomination? im still confused on that whole part of it</p>
<p>collegekid2012 - you should start a new thread if you have specific questions about nominations since your questions will probably get lost in this thread, but I’ll try to help you get started…Are nominations hard to get?</p>
<p>The answer is complicated. It depends upon a couple of things: the state and congressional district you live in, and who you are competing against. To get basic information you should go to usma.edu under admissions and read this: [USMA</a> Admissions: Apply to USMA: Prospectus: Steps to West Point: 2: Apply For Nomination](<a href=“http://admissions.usma.edu/prospectus/step_02.cfm]USMA”>http://admissions.usma.edu/prospectus/step_02.cfm). Then you should find the websites for your state’s senators and your district’s congressman. They will have specific instructions on how to apply for nominations. It can be on the website in different locations so you may have to look around to find it. </p>
<p>For example the congressional district we live in is the most competitive in our state because it includes Joint Base Lewis-McChord and the surrounding areas. Lots of military families and prior military so many applicants to the service academies. There is district up around Seattle that rarely get more then a handful of applicants, very liberal area of the state and not much interest in the military.</p>
<p>Another resource for you is: [United</a> States of America Service Academy Forums - Powered by vBulletin](<a href=“http://www.serviceacademyforums.com/index.php]United”>United States of America Service Academy Forums), it has a sub-forum just for nomination questions.</p>
<p>So here I am in Afghanistan. I emailed my mom last night, and the opening line is “This feels like plebe year.” It’s very much Groundhog’s Day, and they all blend together. This has something to do with the amount of time I spend at work…crazy.</p>
<p>I’m on Brigade Staff, and on a fairly large FOB so my deployment experience is Afghanistan Lite…I live in a hard stand, my AC is excellent, I live across the sidewalk from Green Bean (the coffee shop). My biggest irritants are the dust (my allergies) and the helicopters that always seem to be in a low hover as I’m falling asleep…or the C130s taking off. </p>
<p>My parents send me care packages, mostly Starbucks coffee and cookies…my aunt likes sending me Starburst…Almost everything else goes to the Resiliancy Room, where other Soldiers can come and pick up what they need. When it gets too full, our chaplain packs up boxes of snacks and stuff and sends them off on the Ring Routes to the outlying FOBs. </p>
<p>One of my buddies stateside asked for an address to send care packages to for his daughter’s Brownie Troop. Um…three weeks and 50 boxes later, the chaplain was amazed. A bunch of those went out to the tiny, outlying COPs and FOBs on the next resupply. </p>
<p>Random question, for anyone whose Kaydet just finished Beast…are they wearing body armor over the summers now? What kind? With plates? I won’t lie, I’m about 130 in PTs, but in full battle rattle with just my basic load of ammo and water, I can tip the scales at 210, and that will wear. me. out. after a few hours. Just something you have to get used to.</p>
<p>Great to hear from you Bzzt. Our D (2009) will be headed your way in Feb on Battalion staff as an S-2. Currently she is at Graffewehr doing some pre-deployment training. Any tips I can pass on to her regarding stuff she needs to remember to bring? Stay safe!!</p>
<p>Just wanted to bump this awesome post!! Not only great info for girls going to WP, but for anyone going into the service academies!</p>
<p>This is an amazing thread to look back on!</p>
<p>Afghanistan stuff:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>Bring a Neti Pot, it really helped being able to rinse out my sinuses. Probably would have been an AWESOME thing at the Academy, with the pollen, but would have squicked my roommates!</p></li>
<li><p>OTC drugs, because having exactly what I wanted to take, on hand, was much nicer than hoping the PX had it on hand.</p></li>
<li><p>A Green Beans card. Breaking away from the endless emails and RFIs for a double espresso then heading back was a lifesaver. Why yes, I was a pogue this deployment, why do you ask? My BDE has had it bad, with lots of stuff in the news about us and our deployment, but I’ve been relatively lucky and very safe</p></li>
<li><p>Lots and lots of sportsbras. The laundry dudes lose / steal underwear (No, I wish I was kidding) and…ick. I’m not interested in getting them back!</p></li>
<li><p>Socks and other stuff to toss…really, I’m not taking much back in the way of tan tshirts, black socks, or underwear, I’m just throwing it all away. Profligerate waste? Not so much, it’s about 10 tan t-shirts, some that I’ve been wearing since graduation, six pairs of socks, similarly aged, and a few other bits and pieces…time for all new stuff! Captains shouldn’t be running around in the stuff they bought as LTs! Basically, instead of adding to my stash of tshirts and stuff, I just didn’t buy new stuff before I deployed and have been tossing as the holes, etc. got too big… </p></li>
<li><p>Amazon.com, Drugstore.com, and Target.com were LIFESAVERS. Anything you could think of, delivered, in 10 days.</p></li>
<li><p>I shouldn’t have cut my hair…the haircuts here are awful, and I finally ended up giving up trying to keep it short and just struggling through growing it out. Cutting it the FIRST DAY I get back.</p></li>
<li><p>A Kindle! AWESOME deployment present.</p></li>
<li><p>Bose noise cancelling earbuds. Amazing to create at least a little mental space. Yes, $100 a pair, but totally worth it, and under warranty for two years? As in take them in to the Bose shop, hand them over, and get a new pair.</p></li>
<li><p>A really big (high capacity) iPod</p></li>
<li><p>Rite in the Rain pens, totally worth $13 each, I’ve had the same one for months…</p></li>
<li><p>Oaklies. Because it’s all about the cool guy sunglasses! Not off the economy, go with <a href=“http://www.usstandardissue.com%5B/url%5D”>www.usstandardissue.com</a>. Registration by active duty military, but much, MUCH cheaper, and within regs for wear in uniform.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>Any current cadets want to weigh in with new knowledge? For some perspective…everyone who graduated with me, and did not ADSO, is eligible to get out in fifty-three days. Amazing to think this Fall is “Homecoming.” Don’t know if I’ll go, lots of other trips planned for my single deployed Captain money, but it’s a possibility. </p>
<p>Five years…they fly. Promise.</p>
<p>Bzzzt, so good to see you’re doing well! You are my idol! I’m planning to go to WP, class of 2017. Your info from way back when was fantastic! I still read it to refresh my memory. I was wondering, what branch are you in?</p>
<p>I’m a very happy MP Captain, and 51 days from my 5 year mark.</p>
<p>That’s great! Congrats! What a coincidence, I want to be an MP too. Can you tell me about the job from a woman’s perspective? What kinds of things do you do in Afghanistan?</p>
<p>Thanks for the list Bzzzt! She took a kindle loaded with material with her and loves it! Our D has been in Afghanistan for abt 3 weeks and we sent her a box of goodies this week now that we finally have a firm address for her. Unfortunately her Brigade has already lost 2 soldiers in that time. Some Afghan policeman turned his weapon on them while they were all providing security for a meeting. She is leading an MI platoon with an Engineers Battalion. Glad to hear you are well, and now a captain!</p>
<p>I know exactly where your daughter’s BDE is! We had a similar incident a few months ago with the Afghan Border Police. It’s terrifying for the partners, and really causes a lot of unease and unrest on both sides for several weeks.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, the Koran burning in Florida would have gone fairly low level, until Karzai talked about it last Thursday…various mullahs picked up up for Friday service…then protests and violence everywhere. There was an awesome editorial about the “religion of peace” leading to so many deaths. </p>
<p>Sorry, off topic. </p>
<p>On a daily basis…I go to a lot of briefs, read and respond to email about EVERYTHING, make Powerpoints, track data, do Excel spreadsheets, enter reports in databases, write FRAGOs and memos for my boss…basic office work, mostly about the Afghan National Security Forces. And then we go and do operations and I get to do my five MP functions! Mostly detention operations. That’s about as specific as I’m comfortable getting in this forum.</p>
<p>See, I’m living the dark side of the Army…it’s fun, and dirty, and you go to the range, and you go on patrol, and you’re with Soldiers…until you hit staff and then you sit in an office, with a huge coffee pot, and you turn all that DATA that those Soldiers are out there collecting, into INFORMATION, that drives decision making. It’s a lot more academic and thoughtful than some people think…or it can be. I’m a bit more ivory tower than some, because I find it fascinating, but it gives meaning to the daily grind. Putting the pieces together into a cohesive whole is actually a rare skill, as is the ability to write, be it email or a briefing, or briefing notes, or a memo.</p>
<p>From a female perspective…I’m ready to get out of the Infantry World. I’d like to actually be assigned to an MP unit, and I should be, next. The machismo is getting to me, and the uphill battle to prove myself and my branch has gotten wearing. This is my second assignment in a row as a Brigade Provost Marshal. I’m also looking forward to being in the States for a year or so, settling down, maybe get serious with my boyfriend, and think about my Mom’s not so subtle hints about grandkids.</p>
<p>Oh, also? The day after I wrote that, I lost my Rite-in-the-Rain pen!</p>