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July 23, 1999

A cadet from El Heróico Colegio Militar negotiates the water obstacle at Camp Buckner.

Twelve cadets from Mexico’s El Heróico Colegio Militar arrived at West Point July 14 as part of a 10-day program to observe cadet training and visit cultural and historic sites in the region.

The Mexican cadets, accompanied by Maj. Ray Gaud, an assistant Army attache from the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City, and Mexican Army Maj. Augustin Vallejo , will be in the country until Saturday. This is the third year that cadets from the Mexican military school have traveled to the United States Military Academy.

"The purpose of the trip, first of all, is to show them West Point, to show them our military academy, our system of education, " said Lt. Col. Phillip Pierson, a Spanish professor in the Department of Foreign Languages here. He added that the overarching purpose of the trip is to allow West Point cadets and their Mexican counterparts to "gain a greater understanding and mutual awareness."

The trip is a reciprocal visit. USMA cadets traveled to Mexico and El Heróico Colegio Militar during spring break as part of the Academic Individual Advanced Development Program administered through the dean’s office.

"This is an improvement of bilateral, military-to-military relations between our two nations," Pierson said. "It’s part of our U.S. and Mexican army contact, which both nations have been working to improve for the past three years. These military-to-military, academy-to-academy exchanges are the basis to continue to build and improve our relationship with our neighbor."

Immersion in West Point culture includes a wet period of training for the Mexican visitors.

"It opens and maintains the communication between both countries and both academies," said Capt. Rene Rodriguez, a DFL Spanish instructor. "The cadets can end up working with each other after they become officers in their respective armies."

And the hope, Pierson added, is that the relationships and contacts they form will grow as the cadets progress through their careers.

Building that relationship is a three-phase program.

"We do more than teach language here; we also teach culture," said Lt. Col. Steve Koebrich, a Spanish instructor.

"The first phase is our Foreign Academy Exchange Program," Pierson explained. Through the academy’s FAEP, two cadets spend 10 days in Mexico to learn about the country and El Heróico Colegio Military.

AIAD cadets were hosted by El Heróico Colegio Militar and traveled 2,800 kilometers visiting military bases and Acapulco, Taxco and Cuernavaca, Pierson said. They met Mexico’s subsecretary of national defense and the superintendent and commandant of El Heróico Colegio Militar.

"The AIAD is probably the best and most intensive type of in-country training through language and cultural immersion that you could receive in the Army," Pierson said.

The third phase is the visit by the Mexican cadets.

So far, the group has toured West Point sites, experienced USMA cadet life, observed cadet training and even got to participate in some of that training at the water-obstacle site at Camp Buckner. They traveled to Baltimore, Philadelphia and Gettysburg to learn more history and visited the War College at Carlisle Barracks, Pa. Trips to New York and an amusement park added further to their understanding of American culture.