West Point: campus or base?

Factual Questions
1

I had the chance to see the Military Academy at West Point last year and was very impressed. It’s a great campus… urr, I mean base.

Hmm… I spoke with a cadet at the time who corrected me when I called it a campus. I’m not certain what she said the correct word was. It might have been base, but I’m pretty sure was something else. (e.g., “We have to be back on base by 11 p.m.”)

Can anyone confirm what is the proper name is?

2

Numerous West Point websites seem to refer to it exclusively as The Academy. (See http://www.usma.edu/ ) However, given the military culture of the place, I would not be surprised if it is referred to informally as a base.

There is a West Point Base in Alaska, but it does not seem to be military. (See http://www.airnav.com/airport/KWP )

3

Probably, the word was post, not base.

The Army has posts.
The Navy & Air Force (and probably Marines) have bases.

West Point is an Army post, with a post exchange (think Target). Since the USMA is the predominant, if not only, activity there, it has the look and feel of a campus, but make no mistake, the cadets understand the difference.

4

Here is the definition of base from the DoD dictionary of military terms at http://www.dtic.mil/doctrine/jel/doddict/

base (DOD, NATO) 1. A locality from which operations are projected or supported. 2. An area or locality containing installations which provide logistic or other support. See also emergency fleet operating base; establishment. (DOD) 3. Home airfield or home carrier. See also base of operations; facility.

IMO, “base” is not a very appropriate term for the USMAWP. I think the cadets just use “base” a convenient term for “military installation” which is what the USMAWP unquestionably is.

here is the definition of military installation:

military installation (DOD) A base, camp, post, station, yard, center, or other activity under the jurisdiction of the Secretary of a Military Department or,in the case of an activity in a foreign country, under the operational control of the Secretary of a Military Department or the Secretary
of Defense. See also base; camp; station.

Semi-relevant trivia: not all USAF bases have airplanes or airfields.

5

According the West Point web site:

At another spot, it says:

All of which leads me to believe that it is an official Army post.