<p>Interesting article...</p>
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<p>August 08, 2006 </p>
<p>Taming West Point's Beast </p>
<p>By Greg Bruno
Times Herald-Record</p>
<p><a href="mailto:gbruno@th-record.com">gbruno@th-record.com</a> </p>
<p>West Point - Six weeks ago he was a Middle Eastern anomaly, the first Iraqi cadet to attend this prestigious Hudson River war college. Fuzzy hair and broken English betrayed him.</p>
<p>But after nearly two months of cadet basic training at the U.S. Military Academy, the Baghdad native was just another guy in green yesterday.</p>
<p>"Look at us," new Cadet Jameel said, his exhausted classmates spread out on the West Point ski slope. </p>
<p>Jameel, who asked that his first name not be used to protect family members still in Iraq, had just completed a 12-mile ruck march. </p>
<p>"We're all from different backgrounds, but we wear the same uniform," he said. "We're here for the same objective - to fight for freedom."</p>
<p>Cadet summer training - Beast Barracks, as it's known - has been transforming U.S. civilians and their international counterparts for decades, a virtual military crash course for new recruits. </p>
<p>Graduates will tell you the marching, training and constant psychological attacks are among the toughest hurdles in a young cadet's Academy career. </p>
<p>For the Class of 2010, the initial test ended yesterday. </p>
<p>Freshmen from the across the country - 1,264 in all - marched down Washington Road just before 9 a.m., as sign-waving friends and family lined the same grounds where Patton, MacArthur and other historic figures once stood.</p>
<p>Margie Taijeron of Cornwall was there to cheer on her niece, Kathryn Tabunar of Guam. </p>
<p>"They've completed Beast - this is where they become plebes," said a glowing Taijeron as she waited for cadets to file past. "They are now part of the Corps."</p>
<p>Not everyone made it back the Academy unscathed. Of the 1,321 who entered West Point on Reception Day earlier this summer, 57 handed in the towel before Beast ended.</p>
<p>Rachel Walker, of Kirksville, Mo., certainly thought about it.</p>
<p>"There was one part I was so homesick," said Walker, 18, who was checking her gear at the ski slope. "I thought I was going to quit. Everybody feels that way at least once. But you just keep going, one meal and one day at a time."</p>
<p>That's Jameel's philosophy. Then again, the 19-year-old carries a burden unlike most cadets aspiring to the Long Gray Line.</p>
<p>"I can't quit," Jameel said. When he graduates, the international cadet will join the fledgling Iraqi army as an officer. </p>
<p>"I'm setting the standard (for future Iraqi cadets at West Point). So you can either hate it or love it. I choose to love it."</p>