In October 1975, in observance of his 50th class reunion, Brigadier General Charles P. Nicholas ’25 published “West Point—Then and Now: Fifty Years of Growth and Change,” an eyewitness account of the most fundamental changes at West Point from the time he arrived in 1921 to 1975. In between describing the “massive array of new buildings” required by the successive increases in the size of the Corps of Cadets, and the reasons why cadets who were once “found” were now resigning from the Academy before separation procedures occurred, Nicholas penned a passage that is as true today as it was then: “The Corps of Cadets is a microcosm of American youth, and the impact of national attitudes at West Point is strong. Certainly these attitudes have changed since fifty years ago.”
Given the milestone nature of 2020—it is the start of a new decade, its repeating digits represent a phenomenon that occurs only once a century, and it marks several historical anniversaries (100 years since the 19th Amendment and women’s suffrage and 400 years since Pilgrims aboard the Mayflower arrived in the New World)—West Point magazine decided it would be a good time to look at today’s Corps of Cadets and see how it compares to “the Corps of an earlier day.” Read more.