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Shek Reply
"...look at their world frame of view when they applied...in 1997."
This is a fair point. That said, the class of 2006 will be the first class which enrolled fully cognizant of the GWOT. Their ROTC equivalents will be eligible to leave the service as early as June, 2009. It just may be that we'll weather the storm if we've seen a significant draw-down by June 2011.
Still, it would seem unusual to me that the expectations of young people choosing to attend U.S.M.A. would be so dramatically different in the intervening few years. Perhaps, but while the world may be different, the self-selection to a pathway as narrowly defined as West Point would suggest that these are very similar groups of young people sharing many common traits.
"Now, some of those in the post-9/11 matriculation classes will find themselves with a different outlook than when they entered due to marriage, kids, etc., but there will not be a mismatch in expectations."
I suspect that this may be critically important, actually. Offhand, I'd guess that 80% of the E-5 through E-7s that I knew were married. Fully half of the O-1 through O-3s. A nation perpetually at war can expect it's greatest erosion right there. The impact will be catastrophic at the small unit level.
My dad had 23 years by 1967 as an E-8. E-9 if he'd take a 'Nam tour plus two stateside. "No way", said my Mom-and that was that. He had an option when many didn't. Now everybody does.
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"This aggression will not stand, man!" Jeff Lebowski
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