Like others who join the Army after high school, Tatiana Blanc enlisted because she was wanted to travel, learn valuable skills and save money for college.
Then came 9/11, and everything changed, including her resolve. Faced with the reality that she may be deployed to a war zone, where men and women like her were being killed or wounded, Blanc did not run back to a more conventional, safer lifestyle back home in Santa Monica. Instead, she committed herself to the cause and applied to United States Military Academy at West Point, where she has spent the last two years training to become a commissioned officer specializing in military intelligence.
“At first, it was the whole spiel, you know, the adventure, experiencing new places, meeting new people and earning money for college,” Blanc said last week as she sat outside a coffee shop on the Promenade, one of her favorite places to visit when she’s on leave — which does not come often. “You don’t expect to go to war, but that’s something you do, part of everything you train for, everything you work for. It’s something that I’ve come to accept and am proud of the work that we are doing (in Iraq).”
West Point, located in upstate New York on the Hudson River, was founded in 1802 and has produced some of the country’s greatest leaders, including former Presidents Ulysses S. Grant and Dwight D. Eisenhower.
To be considered for admission to West Point, a candidate must be at least 17 but not yet 23 years old, be unmarried, and have no legal obligation to support children. Candidates must be qualified academically, medically and physically, and must receive a nomination from a member of Congress, or in Blanc’s case, her commanding officer in the Army.
Only about 1,200 cadets are accepted every year, with a total of 4,000 living side-by-side in co-ed barracks on the academy’s sprawling, 16,000-acre campus.
In addition to a core curriculum, balanced in the arts and sciences, and a required five-course engineering program, cadets may select from 31 fields of study and 19 optional majors. Classes are small, usually fewer than 18, and the faculty-to-student ratio is one instructor for every eight cadets.
Upon graduation, cadets are awarded bachelor of science degrees and earn their “butter bars,” gold bars signifying they are now lieutenants. They serve on active duty for a minimum of five years. Of the 4,000 cadets, 15 percent are women.
While on spring break, one of the few times Blanc has to visit family and friends here at home, the 24-year-old sophomore sat down with the Daily Press to talk about her experiences at the storied institution, from the typical college craziness to the intense physical and mental challenges presented daily.
How is it to come back home? Do you get a chance to let your hair down so to speak, be normal?
“Yeah, definitely. It’s hard not to talk about the military though. It’s just my way of life. I’m different than most people. I mean naturally I’d like to come home and be like anybody else, but it’s hard. Things I like to talk about, things I like to do, are much different than other people because I’ve been in the military for a while. Your interests change.”
What about your friendships, have they changed?
“Some people over time you grow apart, but there is that handful of really loyal best friends who supportive.”
When you come back home, what do you like to do?
“Visit the Coffee Bean. I miss that place so much. They don’t have stuff like that. I just enjoy the sunshine, the beach — things I take for granted I guess when I lived in Santa Monica, but now that I’m here I totally take advantage of. Shopping is so much better in LA. The Promenade is one of my favorite places, the pier, Venice. I guess you can say the tourist spots I never used to go to, but now that I go to all the time now.”
What’s a typical day like for you at West Point?
“I wake up at 5:20 (a.m.) because I have to work out before I go to school and work out after school. I’m training for a marathon in May. One of my good friends at the academy that was previously in the Army was deployed before he got to West Point. One of his co-workers, Sergeant Rob, was killed in Iraq and we are running the marathon to raise money for a college trust fund for his infant son.
“Even without that, my days are pretty long. I usually don’t go to bed until 12:30 at night or 1 a.m. You make up for it on the weekends. You sleep, watch DVDs, you catch up on work. We can leave on the weekends. Since I’m in my second year, I get to leave on Saturday but have to be back by taps, which is curfew. It’s at 1 a.m. on Saturday nights. West Point isn’t close to much, so you have to leave early. It’s an hour and a half away from New York City so you have to leave on the 11 o’clock train to get back. I love going to New York when I can … At the academy, we have a movie theater, a bowling alley, so if you want to do stuff there you can, but it’s limited. They play current movies but only on Friday and Saturday nights, and there’s only one showing. I just watch movies in my room. I love comedies.”
So how is West Point compared to other college experiences? Do you have dorms?
“We call them barracks. We all live there, it’s co-ed, but you share a room with somebody of the same gender. During the school year it is really academically focused. We have military training on Saturday mornings. Obviously you wear uniforms all the time, we march to and from places, so just in general the atmosphere is more serious. Most of our military training comes in the summer. We get about two or three weeks off in the summer, that’s all we get. We get spring break, winter break, and our summer break is much shorter than most.”
What’s the training like in the summer?
“Every year is different, it just depends on how long you’ve been there. You start training before you start the school year, called basic cadet training. You learn all the basic skills, marching, saluting, they yell at you, the whole spiel. And the next year you do cadet field training, spend more time learning different things we’ll use later on. We fire a lot of weapons, go to Fort Knox for a week, and get training from the Army and then after that, once you are in your junior or senior year, you get to out and do different things, specializing on where you would like to see your career go in the Army.”
What will you specialize in?
“Hopefully, I would like to do military intelligence, something in that field.”
When you say military intelligence, do you mean covert operations, or some secret-agent-type stuff?
“Hopefully, something to that extent. I don’t think it would be anything that cool, traveling the world undercover. I don’t think they’ll do anything like that.”
What’s your favorite weapon to shoot?
3E7,“My favorite weapon, that’s a good one. I’m going to say, well there’s some automatic ones. But my favorite would be the M240 Bravo. It’s huge. It’s a semi-automatic rifle that you have to use sitting down on the ground because you can’t hold it up. It’s way too heavy. It’s wild.”
What do you hate the most about training?
“West Point is really hilly. If your walking somewhere uphill, when you come back the other directions it’s still uphill. So I would say RUK marching is the worst. You have a pack on your back and full gear, and you just walk for what seems like forever.”
Have you ever been chewed out like we see in the movies for having your shirt untucked or something like that?
“Of course. In my pleab year, your first year, they’re on you all the time. It’s tough. They’re really critical. There is a high standard set that you have to achieve, and you are surrounded by a lot of success-driven people. There is an expectation that you will not just meet the minimum but exceed it.”
What are the meals like there?
“Oh, I’m so glad you asked me that. It’s very impressive, I think. We have this hall, a dining area, and there are like 4,00 cadets and we all eat together, and it looks like ‘Harry Potter,’ with these long tables and servers bring us the food and we pass it around. If anything it is my favorite part of the whole place. The food isn’t that good, but … it’s not too bad. I wouldn’t buy it at a restaurant. They rotate about 10 different meals. I love Middle Eastern food, so when they have gyros or Greek salad and stuff like that, that’s my favorite meal. You know, they’re trying to get exotic.”
Are you treated differently for being a woman?
“Everyone is treated the same. Obviously there are some things about being a female that are different. You share a room with another female roommate, we have different uniforms, we do things differently, but for the most part you’re treated just like everybody else. The population of females is for every six guys there’s one girl. I think that’s a pretty good ratio.”
That’s a good ratio for ladies looking for a man right, or is dating forbidden?
“No, you can date, but obviously you can’t show any kind of affection and there are restrictions on arrangements in the barracks. (Being romantic,) those are just some of the things that have to wait. You can get a pass and go out and you can be together, but not at school. There’s no kissing, holding hands, nothing.”
Are you allowed to wear makeup?
“Minimal yes. I wear way more when I come home.”
The military came under fire a few years ago for failing to investigate complaints of sexual harassment and rape. Have you noticed a change in the culture since you’ve been there?
3C0,“When that happened, a lot of red flags went up and people decided to really pay attention and see what the climate was like. I think they’ve done a really excellent job (at reform), setting up committees, constantly making sure nothing like that is happening.”
Did you ever feel concerned or worried about your safety, and if you did, would you feel comfortable reporting it?
“No, not at all … I’ve never had anything like that happen to me. But if it did, yes, I would feel comfortable in filing a complaint.”
What do your parents think about you being a cadet?
“They’re ecstatic. They’re really proud of me that I’m getting a great education and doing something honorable. But at the same time, in the back of their heads, they’re worried that I’ll have to serve, as any parent would be.”
You haven’t been deployed yet, but you said it was pretty much inevitable you will have to fight. How do you feel about that: relieved or anxious to get out there?
4F0,“I think to say war isn’t scary would be unreasonable. It’s supposed to be. It’s not supposed to be fun, but it’s just something you have to do. You’re trained for this, you work so that you are prepared for it if it comes. In a way you are anxious because you want to use what you have learned.”
What are your thoughts about the war in Iraq?
“As far as I can go into it, I think we’re doing some really great things over there and I think it is really unfortunate that the media has not really shown what is taking place there and chosen to focus on the negative. I think we are doing really good things and it’s a shame everyone sees it one way … No matter how many people say they are against the war, or American politics, people seem to have tremendous support for the troops, which is important.”
Do you want to resettle in Santa Monica when your time in the service is up?
“Probably not. I really like the idea of going to different places. I’ve seen so much since joining the military that I know there are even more places left to go that I would never want to come back and settle in the place where I started from … Hopefully, if I get a chance, I would love to go to Germany or Italy. The hot spot is Italy. If you can get Italy, you’re very lucky.”
0Å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ÅÅ C 3 0
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on March 27, 2006. Read the original PDF.