Educate me on going to West Point:

[Zeze]

This is why you go to West Point.

My grandfather graduated in the top of his class in 1942. He retired a general after having served in WWII and Vietnam. He also earned a Purple Heart. Back in 1996 or so, when I was looking for a university/college/academy to attend, he took me under his wing to show me West Point. It was summer. We were given the Presidential Suite at the Thayer hotel and we had a personal escort to show us around.

I will never get a comment my grandfather made as we walked through the main "quad" (assembly grounds) of campus in front of the barracks:

"You see, son! When you went to those other academies [Air Force and Navy] I bet you saw lots of statues commemorating airplanes and other such shiny things. Well, here at West Point, we have statues commemorating men!"

I believe we were walking passed a statue of MacArthur or Patton.

Men indeed!

That's a beautiful heart warming story. Cherish your grandparents.

My maternal grandfather died of heart attack when my mom was a teen. My paternal grandfather was a socially inept angry man.

 

[GTaudiophile]

That's a beautiful heart warming story. Cherish your grandparents.

My maternal grandfather died of heart attack when my mom was a teen. My paternal grandfather was a socially inept angry man.

You should click the link and LISTEN for 9 minutes

 

[Zeze]

You should click the link and LISTEN for 9 minutes

I think I will. MacArthur is a motherfucking hero in Korea too (where I grew up). He's taught in grade school and portrayed as a hero in our important Korean War history.

Personally, it's funny because MacArthur feels more 'Korean' to us as we grew up with his history. Your average American kids don't know about MarArthur because he's not taught in school. I don't even hear people talk about him. Ask any Koreans, both young and old about MacArthur, they know the man (and his famous line- old soldiers never die, they just fade away).

 

[GagHalfrunt]

I think I will. MacArthur is a motherfucking hero in Korea too (where I grew up). He's taught in grade school and portrayed as a hero in our important Korean War history.

Which is odd because everything that went wrong in the Korean War was due to MacArthur.

 

[Zeze]

Which is odd because everything that went wrong in the Korean War was due to MacArthur.

Is that so? He reclaimed the the SK's peninsula from NK with the famous Incheon Amphibious Invasion. To Koreans, he was the symbol and personification of the American help.

What did he do so wrong? I'll be interested to hear American side that doesn't agree with MacArthur. My knowledge of Korean War isn't past what I was taught in school.

AFAIK the only problem was him provoking the Chinese.

 

[GagHalfrunt]

Is that so? He reclaimed the the SK's peninsula from NK with the famous Incheon Amphibious Invasion. To Koreans, he was the symbol and personification of the American help.

What did he do so wrong? I'll be interested to hear American side that doesn't agree with MacArthur. My knowledge of Korean War isn't past what I was taught in school.

AFAIK the only problem was him provoking the Chinese.

He was told repeatedly by his superiors about the problem with the Chinese and was ordered to conduct the war in a certain way and more importantly, in a specific area as to not get too close to Chinese territory. The US leadership knew that encroaching too far into Korea would provoke China and get Russia more involved and turn it into a war that couldn't be won. But he was having too much fun playing the hero to listen to orders and instead conducted the war to feed his own ego. That's why it turned into a mess and it's why he got his ass shitcanned by Truman.

 

[weadjust]

My dad graduated from West Point in 1959. He received a degree in Mechanical Engineering and a 6 year commitment to the army. He became a pilot and severed most of his time in France. After 6 years he left the army and joined the National Gaurd part time so he could get his Masters and Phd in Mech. Eng. paid for by GI bill. He got three degrees, pay check, and pilots license from Uncle Sam and 10 years total commitment.

 

[Zeze]

He was told repeatedly by his superiors about the problem with the Chinese and was ordered to conduct the war in a certain way and more importantly, in a specific area as to not get too close to Chinese territory. The US leadership knew that encroaching too far into Korea would provoke China and get Russia more involved and turn it into a war that couldn't be won. But he was having too much fun playing the hero to listen to orders and instead conducted the war to feed his own ego. That's why it turned into a mess and it's why he got his ass shitcanned by Truman.

Yup, we're aware of that.

But was he 'everything that went wrong with Korean War'? I beg to differ.

 

[GagHalfrunt]

Yup, we're aware of that.

But was he 'everything that went wrong with Korean War'? I beg to differ.

Well, from most historians standpoint he was the reason the south had to give back all the gains it had made. The U.N. forces had beaten the initial assault by stalling it at Pusan and then MacArthur's landing at Inchon cut it off and turned the tide. The south advanced north and had captured Pyongyang which is about the time Truman ordered MacArthur to stop and not get too close to the Yalu River. If MacArthur had not been such an egomaniac and stopped when he was told to stop the war COULD have ended right there without the Chinese and Russians getting involved and with the South holding FAR more of the peninsula. NK would have been turned into nothing more than a buffer zone between the South and China and probably would not have been trouble since.

EVERY death after the Chinese counter-attack and every scrap of land given back from Pyongyang down to the current border is due to MacArthur's ego and insubordination. Yeah, Koreans love him because he led the attack at Inchon and he was viewed as a savior in that regard, but he pretty much turned a win into a tie. The war was won until he refused to stop advancing and provoked the Chinese.

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

OK, I looked it up and it's a lot more than either of us mentioned. And these all just count as nominations. You aren't automatically admitted, as you stated above, due to being the child of a Medal of Honor recipient. That is what threw me off.

Congressional Nominations - Who Can Nominate?

• The Vice President
• U.S. Senators
• U.S. Representatives
• Delegates to the House of Representatives from Washington, D.C., Guam and the Virgin Islands
• The Governors of American Samoa and Puerto Rico
• The Resident Commissioner of Puerto Rico
• The Resident Commissioner of the Northern Mariana Islands
• The Secretary of the Army

Service-Connected Nominations - Who Can Apply?

• Sons and Daughters of "career military personnel" (Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, and Coast Guard)
• Regular Army and Reserve Components (Army, Army Reserve, and Army National Guard)
• Sons and Daughters of Deceased or Disabled Armed Forces Veterans
• Sons and Daughters of Persons Awarded the Medal of Honor
• Army Junior and Senior ROTC Programs and Honor ROTC Units of Other Services

The list is technically correct however, I think you'd be hard pressed to find a son or daughter of a medal of honor winner who'd applied but, wasn't accepted. They may not all have graduated but, they were accepted.

 

[Zeze]

...

Good stuff. Is this a general opinion shared by many in US?