A Bridge is a Boundary

Cadet Field Training Completed
Cadet Regimental Commander Sarah Fazio,(center)along with Brig. Gen. Michael S. Linnington, Commandant of Cadets (right) and Lt. Col. Stephen Michael, Commander, Cadet Field Training (left)leads the Class of 2011 through Washington Gate during the runback on Saturday, July 26. The runback is the culminating event for CFT. (Photo by John Pellino/DOIM)



Directly from a hotel in Saratoga in 1971, I hitched to Anandashrama in Harriman, NY. We soon travelled to San Francisco, a caravan. I did not participate in America much. I studied Vedanta, Yoga, Sanskrit and meditation. It has been a long road for me to many places and from many valleys and peaks.

Last month, with a crew of four other drivers, I particpated in transporting newly arrived Cadets in training from Central at Trophy Point out to their field trainings locations during The United States Military Academy BEAST Barracks. This year there are a good number of active duty officers, men and women, based stateside who are participating in the training of the young men and women who only two months ago were private citizen High School Seniors.

Now these young men and women are training to be soldiers. They have given their lives over. For this old ashram dweller, gardener, musician, questioner of every ideology that comes along, driving them was a privilege and an honor. The looks on their faces were inspiring: dedication, perseverance, courage, integrity. There was by and large no talking on the bus. The officers got on and said "This does not require talking". They were respectful to me, in a genuine manner.

They are not being brainwashed as far as I can tell. Yes, the initial phase is breakdown. Included in a continual process of respect for command authority hierarchy, today's West Pointer's are inculcated in valued principles that are inscribed in several places on base. They are taught to build cooperation and trust amongst themselves as well as individual leadership skills. We all know that the people fighting us are highly intelligent and many are educated. Symmetrical warfare has its place, which saddens me. Asymmetrical warfare is here though, and that saddens me even more.

However, if we are to meet it, we need people who can be creative, on a moment's notice, problem solvers who can deal with unexpected situations anywhere, anytime. The looks on those young men and women's faces and the few words we did exchange give me a sense that they get that. Hopefully, their instructors and the Cadets working together will create it in real time not just in mind.

The bridges we are crossing as a national culture and a world wide culture are monumental and transformative in a way that may never have occurred before on this earth. Boundary crossings are tricky. What's real? What's fantasy? Is that little girl there with her teddy bear my friend? Or something else? No one ought to have to answer that.

That's for another boundary crossing. For now, creativity, insight, teamwork, individual discipline and strength are being blended in the training at West Point. I am grateful I got to work there for a short while.