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                         November 21, 2001

USMA cadets 'branch out'

By Jim Fox
Staff Writer

The U.S. Military Academy held its annual branch notification ceremony at Eisenhower Hall Nov. 14. This much-anticipated event is where seniors receive their branch assignment notifications.

According to information released by the Department of Military Instruction, 86 percent of the 966 Bicentennial Class members received their first choice and 98 percent got one of their top three choices.

Infantry was the most sought after branch with 209 choosing the life of a ground-pounder -- a full 50 more than chose it last year.

Firstie Zac Miller said branching infantry fulfilled a dream he has had since he arrived at West Point.

"You really can’t get any better than infantry when it comes to leading troops," Miller said. "It is just you, your rifle and your platoon. That’s inspiring to me."

The next most sought after branch was armor, which edged out field artillery 117 to 114.

Cadet 1st Class Jonathan Childs said he chose the life of a tanker because of the experience he had while at Fort Knox during Cadet Field Training.

Aviation was next with 112, followed by 110 choosing the engineers corps.

Classmate Mariann Hop said she chose the engineers because she felt it would give her the widest opportunity to do different things and go to a wider variety of places in the Army.

"There are a lot of very diverse things that engineers do," she said.

Sixty-three cadets will branch military intelligence, followed by signal corps with 60, air defense at 51 and transportation with 27.

Twenty-five firsties will go on to the quartermaster corps and 24 to the military police and adjutant general corps, respectively.

Twenty cadets will be nominated for medical school.

Ten cadets will join the medical service. The same number will perform inter-service transfers, four to the Air Force and three each to the Navy and Marines.

Seven cadets will go to the finance corps and two branched chemical.

The cadets will receive their orders and postings in the spring.