Former cadet at the military” target=”_blank”>United States Military Academy<,” joining two other former cadets in their criticism of the academy.
‘WOKE’ ISSUES DISTRACTED LEADERS FROM AFGHANISTAN, FORMER MILITARY OFFICIALS SAY
For MacDonald and her fellow former cadets Nickaylah Sampson and Willow Brown, enrolling at the nation’s oldest service academy was a dream come true.
“I went to the academy hoping to serve my country and bring the fight to the enemy,” Brown recalled. “I found myself instead in the classroom learning about how to be more sensitive. And this woke ideology that had taken over West Point really surprised me.”
Sampson remembered talk of briefs about “White rage” and “extremism.” The former cadet found such discussions “ridiculous,” saying “[i]t really had nothing to do with…bettering yourself as an Army officer.”
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Graduating senior Cadets celebrate on the field in Michie Stadium after graduation ceremonies for the class of 2021 at the United States Military Academy (USMA) West Point, in West Point, New York, U.S., May 22, 2021. (REUTERS/Mike Segar)
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People gather to protest different issues including the board’s handling of a sexual assault that happened in a school bathroom in May, vaccine mandates and critical race theory during a Loudoun County School Board meeting in Ashburn, Virginia, U.S., October 26, 2021. Picture taken October 26, 2021. (REUTERS/Leah Millis)
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Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, U.S. Army General Mark A. Milley, responds to questions during a House Armed Services Committee hearing on "Ending the U.S. Military Mission in Afghanistan" in the Rayburn House Office Building in Washington, U.S., September 29, 2021. (Rod Lamkey/Pool via REUTERS)
MacDonald recounted tutoring students writing essays about critical race theory and socialism this fall, explaining that the students “didn’t agree” with such ideas but “thought their professors would enjoy [their essays] because [they were] in line with the books they were reading.”
Her disappointment was especially profound given her Christian upbringing, in which she said she was taught that “there’s no greater love than to lay down your life for someone else.”
“I was very eager to align those values of service and love with the Army, and I was just very disappointed coming to West Point and realizing, ‘Well, that’s not what the Army stood for anymore.'”
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She was not alone in her loss of idealism, with both Brown and Sampson echoing MacDonald’s claim that Army service felt like a calling. Sampson’s father served as an Army officer, and Brown chose West Point over the U.S. Naval Academy because “that’s where [she] felt called to serve.”
