France was the destination of choice for U.S. Military Academy cadets this year.

A contingent of the future officers attended the French Military Academy’s (St.-Cyr) bicentennial celebration as another group went in search of a literary experience.

Cadets 2nd Class Joy Cousineau, Haley Edwards, Timothy Crook, Robert Massey and Gary Jones recently returned from an Academic Individual Advanced Development opportunity in western France called "The First World War Literary Experience." Organized by the USMA Department of English, it featured two weeks of exploring former trench lines and bunkers of World War I while trying to uncover the source of inspiration for "poetry of pity," a type of poetry written between 1914 and 1918.

After completing a week of classroom work here, the group embarked for Verdun, France. Once there, the cadets began their experience by exploring nineteenth-century casements at Souville as well as the French strongholds of Forts Douaumont and Vaux.

As the future leaders toured the dark, musty tunnels of Fort de Vaux, they began to understand the desperation in the war poets’ verses. A company of French infantrymen held the fort for five days against numerous German regiments, poison gas, flamethrowers and artillery shell impacts by the thousands in June of 1916. A visit to the Douaumont Ossuary -- where 130,000 unknown soldiers from both sides of the conflict are interred -- reinforced the price of the coveted terrain at Verdun.

The site that most impressed everyone in the Verdun battle area was at Butte de Vauquois. After discussing Wilfred Owen’s poem, "Miners," the cadets explored the terrain upon which 539 different subterranean mines were detonated in 1915 by both the German and French armies. The most distinctive mine crater, which employed sixty tons of explosives dug under the French trenches, is still over sixty feet deep after decades of erosion.

"Rescuing someone from that crater would be like an event on the leadership reaction course (at West Point), except without any equipment but shoelaces to get them out," Crook said.

To pay their respects to the more than 114,000 American soldiers who lost their lives in World War I, the cadets analyzed American poet Alan Seeger’s poem, "Rendezvous," and visited the American Monument at Montfaucon d’Argonne. The group agreed that seeing 15,000 American white crosses and Stars of David was a sobering reminder of our country’s participation in the "war to end all wars."

Once the cadets had explored the tunnels of Froid de Terre and the Subterranean Citadel of Verdun, they moved on to the city of Albert, in the Somme portion of the Western Front. They traveled the twelve kilometers of terrain taken by the British and their Commonwealth allies, at a cost of 400,000 British and 200,000 French casualties in five months.

The cadets said a very impressive sight in the Somme region was the Lochnagar Crater, which is owned and maintained by Englishman Richard Dunning. The crater is the result of a mine tunnel packed with thirty tons of explosives and detonated on July 1, 1916 to kick-off the Somme campaign. The group found several memorials around the rim of the crater, including one to British poet Harry Fellows of the Northumberland Fusiliers Regiment.

Another favorite with the group was the Grand Guerre Museum in Péronne. The displays of World War I weapons, equipment and film loops, they said, helped them understand the war from the poets’ point of view. One of those poets, 2nd Lt. David C. Thomas -- whose grave is in the cemetery of the Royal Welsh Fusiliers -- was the inspiration for Robert Graves’ famous poem, "Goliath and David."

Wilfred Owen, the renowned British poet who wrote "Dulce Et Decorum Est," also fought at the Somme, and the cadets made a point of going to the location of Owen’s dugout in No-Man’s Land. It was here that Owen experienced a hellish night of German bombardment; his experience led him to write "The Sentry" before being removed from his unit for several months while suffering from shellshock.

After a quick stop at the ancient subterranean caverns at Naours, the cadets traveled to Ypres, Belgium, which was flattened entirely during World War I.

Ypres had much to offer the cadets in their search for literary connections to the First World War. The famous Cloth Hall building -- a wonder of Flemish medieval architecture -- now contains a museum with extensive literary references and displays.

The most touching portion of the Ypres visit was certainly the Last Post ceremony at Menin Gate. It was through Menin Gate that virtually every British soldier passed on his way to the front, and there were more than 54,000 British soldiers whose remains were never found during the defense of Ypres. To honor the missing Britons, buglers in Ypres have played "Last Post" -- the British version of "Taps" -- every day since 1929. The cadets were fortunate enough to see a special "Last Post" carried out by the Scottish Guards Regiment during the visit.

The final morning in Ypres was spent at Tyne Cot cemetery, which is the largest British military cemetery in the world. It is here, among over 11,000 graves, that the cadets said they learned the true meaning of the term "Flanders Fields" mentioned in the John McCrae poem of the same name.

The entire group agreed that the trip was a tremendous experience and helped them in their quest to become the nation’s next leaders of character.

"All leaders must learn from the mistakes and successes of the past," said Massey. "This trip definitely helped us in that respect and also gave us a new appreciation for the suffering that soldiers on both sides endured."