|
"West Point Bicentennial"
A Pictorial History of the First Two Hundred Years of the United States Military Academy
Preface |
1776-1817 |
1817-1833 |
1833-1848 |
1848-1865 |
1865-1890 |
1890-1919 |
1919-1939 |
1939-1950 |
1950-1970 |
1970-1980 |
1980-2002 |
Bicentennial and Beyond
"West Point: Bicentennial and Beyond"
Today’s Military Academy continues to evolve, constantly
reassessing itself and striving to improve. Over the years,
West Point has tried to balance cherished traditions with
the need to educate officers for an increasingly complex
world. The success of the aca-demic program is only
partially reflected in the academy’s top-five ranking in
numbers of Rhodes, Marshall and Hertz scholars. (West Point
and Princeton are the only institutions in the nation that
rank in the top four for both Rhodes and Hertz
scholarships.)
The Military Academy’s success is reflected in the quality
of the leaders it has produced for the nation. Military
leaders like Ulysses S. Grant, William T. Sherman, Emory
Upton, Philip H. Sheridan, Robert E. Lee, John J. Pershing,
Joseph W. Stilwell, George S. Patton, Omar N. Bradley,
Dwight D. Eisenhower, J. Lawton Collins, Matthew B. Ridgway,
Douglas C. MacArthur, Henry H. Arnold, Creighton W. Abrams,
James M. Gavin, Maxwell D. Taylor, Benjamin O. Davis,
William C. Westmoreland, H. Norman Schwarzkopf, Wesley K.
Clark and current Army Chief of Staff General Eric K.
Shinseki are only some of the thousands who have claimed
West Point as the well-spring of their professional
development.
The academy has also developed leaders whose contributions
have extended beyond the military arena. They include
individuals such as Benjamin L.E. Bonneville (explorer and
cartographer of the American West), Oliver O. Howard (head
of the Freedmen’s Bureau and founder of Howard University),
George Washington Goethals (architect and builder of the
Panama Canal), Leslie R. Groves (director of the Manhattan
Project), Frank Borman and Edwin E. "Buzz" Aldrin
(astronauts) and Thoralf M. Sundt (pioneering neurosurgeon
at the Mayo Clinic).
Although many things have changed at West Point in 200
years, the tradit |