During the first few weeks the following schedule is carried out:
| Infantry Instruction | 7:15-7:45 a. m. | |
| Physical Exercises | 8:15-9:00 a. m. | |
| Infantry Instruction | 9:30-10:15 a. m. | |
| 10:45-11:30 a. m. | ||
| 3:00-3:40 p. m. | ||
| 4:15-5:00 p. m. |
Each day the course of instruction is definitely prescribed by the officer in charge. At the first drill the new cadets are taught the school of the soldier, the marchings, haltings, facings, and saluting. These exercises are given without rifles. Usually the second drill is given under arms. As the service rifle weighs nine pounds, it is desirable to accustom gradually these young lads to its weight. To one unaccustomed to carrying a rifle, it seems, after a short while, to bore into your shoulder. Any officer who has ever been a cadet will never require an enlisted man to carry his rifle too long, until fatigued. His own experience in “Beast Barracks” remains too vivid.
The instruction is progressive, so that the cadets are gradually assembled into squads, the squads into platoons, the platoons into companies. Naturally, some men improve faster than others. Those whose intellects seem befogged by the complexities of the drills are formed into what is known as the “Awkward Squad” whence, as they progress, they are transferred. Last year one bright cadet instructor thought of a practical joke to inspire the new cadets to do their very best. It seems that the schedule of drills included a “sightseeing tour” around the Post, in order to familiarize the new cadets with their surroundings. The plebes were told that only the most efficient would go on this tour. Consequently great efforts were made by members of the awkward squad to increase their military efficiency. As the instructors knew and the plebes later discovered the “sightseeing trip” was anything but a treat. It was made on a broiling hot summer’s afternoon at a rapid walk, and not after the fashion of the Metropolitan rubberneck wagons. Objects of interest were pointed out in the most military manner: 1. Eyes Right; 2. Hudson River; 3. Front, or, 1. Eyes Left; 2. Battle Monument; 3. Front!
Sandwiched between the infantry morning drill are the physical exercises. This name will make the plebes laugh, for all drills are physical exercises, but I intend it as a distinguishing name for a drill where the essence of exercise is dispensed. This drill is now given in the Gymnasium and consists of every known form of setting-up exercises that can be devised. For forty-five minutes the cadet executes them, both at halt and while marching. He is given frequent short rests of half a minute or a minute, after every different exercise, but nevertheless it seems to the naturally fatigued new cadet, as if every muscle, every sinew, and every bone was being relentlessly punished.
These setting-up exercises are a potent influence in the new cadets’ physical development, and when the fresh young body has become accustomed to them, they act as a tonic, an elixir. To a visitor the drill is always interesting as it is rather spectacular, due to the numbers acting in unison and with perfect cadence.
The early afternoon is devoted to the nomenclature and cleaning of the rifle. Scattered in groups in the shade of the old gymnasium or the Cadet Store, perspiring plebes take their rifles apart and, after cleaning them, try their utmost to put them together again.
Photo White Studio
A First Lesson in Saluting