It came out this week that Bush and Carter are only a few months apart in age. Both were born in 1924.
Bush had quite a combat record in WWII.
I was surprised to read that Carter spent the war years at the Naval Academy. He was allowed to enter the academy in 1943. He wasn’t drafted into the military.
I had always assumed students at the military academies got pressed into active service ASAP.
Which country?
If it’s the US, from memory, in both World Wars, the course was truncated from 4 years to 2.5. Carter was commissioned in early 1946, having started in late ‘43.
In addition, I think in both 1917 and 1942, the third years who had finished were commissioned early, alongside the 4th years.
It says there was a push to close it but it remained open in the wake of several victories by West Point graduates over civilian officers:
Yes on both counts. They accelerated the training schedule from 4 years to 3 years from 1943 to 1947.
Why would they ever close the school because of a war? Can you imagine a worse way to replenish and maintain your officer corps than shutting down one of the best programs to produce them?
Yep. The class of 1943 graduated six months early in January 1943, and the next four classes graduated after only three years.
The problem was that they needed officers, but they also needed qualified officers. You can cut standards as a wartime expedient, but cut too deep and you won’t have the right leaders.
I was rushing to get a cite before the edit time out. I quickly scanned that article and saw Congress, closed, 1863. I didn’t keep reading. That’s what I get for frantically trying to add a cite while editing. My apologies.
So, they shortened the Military Academy during WWII. Getting officers into service faster than normal.
Three years at the Academy is still much longer than the college men that attended boot camp/officer training and deployed.
Despite being an Army veteran, I’m entirely ignorant of West Point practices. Do they have summer and/or winter breaks? Is it possible to accelerate training simply by removing those breaks? What does a West Point cadet do during the summer break? Do they have leave to visit home? Do they replace classroom work with outdoor training?