USMA IN THE NEWS

By Kevin Maurer, Staff writer
Fayetteville (NC) Observer
August 8, 2005

WEST POINT, N.Y. - Cadet Molly Byrnes enrolled at the United States Military Academy at West Point mostly to play college soccer.

Until last month, Byrnes had never fired a gun. She didn't even know how to hold one.

Since then, she has found herself throwing live grenades and squeezing off bursts from an M-16 at a firing range in the rolling New York countryside. She has learned the procedure for decontamination after a poison gas attack and rappelled down a 75-foot cliff.

Byrnes and the other 1,200 freshmen - they'll be called "plebes" through their first year - have spent the last four weeks tearing through the woods of upstate New York learning how to be soldiers. All of it is taking place under the watchful eyes of paratroopers from the 82nd Airborne Division.

Last week, as a machine gun fired blanks in the distance, Byrnes and her partner, Chin Lin, dodged from cover-to-cover as they ran the assault course, which teaches the cadets how to use grenades in combat.

82nd Pvt. Joshua Sparling was right behind them, offering advice the whole way.

"Always have two hands on your weapon. That way if you see anybody - boom, boom," he yelled at Byrnes as she ran for cover, her M-16 flailing at her side.

Lin dove behind a stump as Byrnes covered him. He rolled over on his back to fish a grenade out of a pouch on his belt, exposing his head to the machine gun fire.

"You have to keep down below that cover so you don't get popped in the head," Sparling yelled. Lin quickly tucked his head back behind the stump.

Last grenade

The West Point cadets continued to move down the course, fighting through a trench and finally coming to a bunker. Byrnes, slightly out of breath and covered in sweat and dirt, threw her last grenade into the bunker's window. With the explosion, the course was over.

Sparling gave the teenagers, who in a few years could be leading him in the field, a brief pep talk pointing out what they did well and what needs improvement.

As they walked off, he shook his head. They still have a lot to learn.

"We are just trying to get them to know the basics," he said.

Enrollment condition

About 1,200 paratroopers from the 3rd Battalion of the 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment have been training cadets at West Point since May.

New cadets must complete the Cadet Basic Training before they formally enroll at the academy. The course covers soldiering skills, including everything from rigorous physical training to tactics and rifle marksmanship. The cadets also fire artillery, learn to use communications equipment and are introduced to survival skills.

When they finish the course, they can join West Point's Corps of Cadets. The Acceptance Parade for the class of 2009 is scheduled for Saturday.

While the newest West Pointers were getting basic skills, the Fort Bragg paratroopers were refining the knowledge of rising seniors. The seniors are being trained to be platoon leaders. The majority of their training focused on leadership; they led platoons against paratroopers playing the role of insurgents in large field exercises.

The seniors have had plenty of exposure to the Army over their three years at West Point. For the newcomers, the summer course with the paratroopers is their first taste of military life.

"We're civilians, and we don't know anything about this," said Byrnes. She is an 18-year-old from Massachusetts. "The fact that they've been in combat really makes this experience more legitimate."

At the mountain-climbing station, the cadets watched a demonstration based on a mission the paratroopers carried out in 2003 near Shkin, Afghanistan, on the Pakistan border. A squad of paratroopers ambushed a group of Taliban fighters near a weapons cache.

At West Point, two paratroopers playing insurgents marched down a dirt road. As they approached the cache, they were shot by a sniper. Then, two paratroopers - Sgt. Josh Tolbert and Sgt. Alan Hays - rappelled down a 20-foot rock face, searched the bodies and blew up the cache.

The demonstration was greeted with applause by the cadets.

"We just wanted to show the action is taking place over there," said Tolbert. He and Hays served in Afghanistan.

Point of competency

The point of all the training is to make sure the young cadets know what they are doing when they earn their commissions and start leading soldiers.

"We try to make it clear to them that this is a wartime Army," said Capt. Paul Grant, the battalion's assistant operations officer.

Grant, a 1999 West Point graduate, remembers when he was going through Cadet Basic Training. Then, the focus of the training was peacekeeping.

After class

The cadets gave the 82nd soldiers good marks for this year's training, especially for the informal talks about conditions in Afghanistan and Iraq. Upperclassmen serving as cadet leaders during the course bombarded the paratroopers with questions.

"Whenever they are done with the class, we always have story time," said Christian Merz, 20, from California. "We want to know and hear what it is like."

In between drinks of water, Lin and Byrnes talked about the assault course, and about how they are likely to be sent to Iraq or Afghanistan when they graduate.

Byrnes said the training has shifted her focus from sports to soldiering.

"It is less about soccer now," she said. "You have to give something back to your country."