1. There has just been a change of the Commandant at USMA.  Robert Caslan '75, the former Commandant, has been promoted to Major General and has departed USMA to take command of the 25th Infantry Division in Hawaii.  His replacement, as of 6 May 2008, is Brigadier General Mike Linnington '80.   General Linnington comes to West Point from his previous position as a Special Assistant to the Army Vice Chief of Staff in Washington, DC.  BG Linnington is the 71st Commandant of Cadets at USMA.
 
2. This summer much has changed for cadets at West Point.  The formal academic year has been reduced by two weeks commencing next August and the summer training period has been expanded to twelve weeks, further broken down into three four week sessions.  Cadets are required to take a minimum of 15 days of leave during the summer but, otherwise, they may fill up the remaining time on individualized schedules.  This change was made to allow more individual scheduling for cadets during the summer, recognizing that some of the cadets were being forced to repeat mundane subject matter training that they had already experienced either in actual combat or in the military before coming to West Point.

Camp Buckner training for new Yearlings has been reduced to four weeks and the "Best Summer of your life" has become much more of a military exercise with no free time for anything else.  In fact, the place is now designated as "FOB Buckner".  FOB in today's army speak means "Forward Operating Base".  Cadets are required to have their individual weapons with them at all times and there is a constant cadet guard detail securing the FOB, just as you would find at an actual FOB.  There are even IED's planted along the roadways that cadets drive over that are set off randomly giving cadets the experience of a sudden attack.  There is still a lot of small unit training and exposure to various branches of service but it's not as long as in the past.  Also, 180 ROTC cadets are being brought to FOB Buckner to train with the Yearlings.  It's to give the ROTC cadets some valuable summer training and to give both groups (ROTC and West Point cadets) some cross cultural acceptance to each other.
 
With the additional time in the summer schedule and with a shortened Buckner experience Yearlings are now able to take part in military training at Army military schools such as Airborne, Air Assault, Sapper, etc. during the remainder of their summer.  Remember that when Buckner took up the entire summer this was not the case.
 
Firsties will see the biggest change during summer training.  In an effort to give them some military training closer to graduation there is, starting this summer, a four week mini-ranger type field training exercise for them.  The Firsties will stay in the field that entire time, except for coming in to the post for one night to reorganize and go back out again.  This is an extended field training experience to prepare them for small unit leadership.  The training is set to mirror the conditions being experienced by the Army in Iraq and Afghanistan.  FOB's will be set up, Arabic language actors (some tending goats) are on hand to provide "civilian" experiences, and in general the environment is set to offer a mirror into the life of units in contact in the Middle East today.