The Class of 9/11

Time Magazine ^ | 5/30/2005 | Nancy Gibbs and Nathan Thorn burgh

[LS]

It's Thursday night at the Firstie Club, West Point's campus bar for seniors, and the cadets' dress code is college casual.

For once, the shoes aren't shiny, nobody's wearing a hat with a plume. Instead, they're in flip-flops, board shorts or jeans, baseball hats or visors, bead necklaces purchased on spring break.

But still they give themselves away at every turn. They're like undercover cops infiltrating a frat party. Their shoulders are a bit too square. They don't slouch. They plow efficiently through dishes of peanuts, eyes darting about the room, scanning for friends as they would targets on the practice range.

http://www.time.com/time/covers/1101050530/story.html

[LS]

This is an excellent story. I'm amazed it came from Time. Probably the most touching thing in the article deals with a number of West Pointers who quit immediately after 9/11 . . . not because they were scared, but to enlist, because they didn't want to wait two more years.

[AntiBurr]

"But still they give themselves away at every turn. They're like undercover cops infiltrating a frat party. Their shoulders are a bit too square. They don't slouch. They plow efficiently through dishes of peanuts, eyes darting about the room, scanning for friends as they would targets on the practice range."

Rudyard Kipling called this phenomena, "the stamp of the army". I have noticed that it sticks for life.

[MikefromOhio]

[Guenevere]

bttt

[MCH]

"But still they give themselves away at every turn. They're like undercover cops infiltrating a frat party. Their shoulders are a bit too square. They don't slouch. They plow efficiently through dishes of peanuts, eyes darting about the room, scanning for friends as they would targets on the practice range."

Rudyard Kipling called this phenomena, "the stamp of the army". I have noticed that it sticks for life.

Which part - the squared shoulders, the eyes darting around to maintain situational awareness, or both?

[AntiBurr]

It's basically in the way that a person stands and how they answer civil inquiries. Even in my '60's I still tend to "Sir" people who are appointed over me. It hasn't hurt me yet. A while back, an aquaintance and I were talking about this and he asked me if I thought he had been in the military, and I told him that if he had, it was probably Navy since he did not have the posture of a soldier or Marine.

Recall Sherlock Holmes identifying a retired Sgt Major of Marines from across the street..The same principle.