“I am a tenured university professor,
a published author and an internationally respected scholar. I have a wonderful,
loving family. I have lived life to the fullest since I left West Point,
encountering exotic cultures, acquiring a lifetime-and-a-half worth of
esoteric knowledge and embarking upon adventures across the globe that
I would have never known had I stayed on to graduate. But I would be lying
if I said there aren’t times when I lie awake at night and wonder how I
would answer if someone – or something – materialized at the foot of my
bed and said ‘With a wave of my hand, you’ll wake up at Camp Buckner in
the summer of ’81 as a nineteen-year-old cadet with another shot at that
class ring and no memory of any of this…What’ll it be?’…
The Academy is just as dominating a
presence in the psychological landscape of the former cadet as it is for
the graduate – perhaps even more so, as it is a legacy of pride and nostalgia
that is also tinged with longing and regret. And for better or worse, that
is something you wake up and go to sleep with every day for the rest of
your life...”
-Former
Cadet, ’80-’82, Class of 1984
The
AFWPC is an online community of former cadets who completed at least one
full academic year at West Point and were involuntarily separated before
graduation under honorable circumstances (i.e., for academic, medical or
other non-honor-related administrative reasons). If these qualifications
apply to your current status, or if you are a cadet who strongly suspects
that they may apply to you in the immediate future, it would behoove you
to read on.
If
not, then thanks for dropping by, and may I suggest that a more worthwhile
investment of your Internet browsing time would be to read all about how
Army is going to beat the HELL out of Navy at the next Army-Navy game.
