Ernest Graves
Point. My father corresponded with him about the results of the test. Stamps said the
rule was that I had disqualified myself because I did not take the physical exam and that,
therefore, there was no question of my getting this presidential appointment.
Because of all this, I had said, if I could go that year, I wanted to go. In early June, my
father came home with the news that the person who had the principal appointment
from Senator Overton had failed something. We decided that I should go to see Senator
Overton and ask him if he would give me this appointment.
I went to Senator Overton's office and said that I was Ernest Graves and that I had
come to see Senator Overton about a possible appointment to West Point. They said
he didn't have an appointment. So I went to the nearest pay phone and called my father
and told him what they had said.
He said, "You wait there by the pay phone." In about five minutes the phone rang. I
picked up the phone, and my father said, "They didn't know who you were." When I
went back, they were very gracious and ushered me in to see Senator Overton, and he
said he was delighted to give me an appointment.
I went to West Point by train, but I wasn't old enough to be admitted on July 1st. I was
only 16 at the time and didn't become 17 until the 6th of July, so I couldn't be sworn
in as a cadet until six days after my classmates.
That's a long answer to your question, but that's the story of how I came to go to West
Point. The driving factor was that there was a war going on, and my father had always
said, "You want to go to war."
Our attitude toward war is somewhat different today. His view was, which is true, even
of war today, that a high percentage of the people have more opportunity and do more
in a war than they do in normal life. War is dangerous and horrible, and people get
killed. But the demands of war on the human being are greater than in peacetime, and
for many this elicits higher achievement.
Q:
Absolutely.
A:
If you go back and talk to many people who were in World War II, they will tell you
that it was the high point of their lives in terms of the challenges that they met, the
things they did, and their achievement. It offers more opportunity and it demands more.
This is what my father meant, that when he looked back over his career, the things that
he had been challenged to do in World War I were more rewarding than any other part
of his military career. I know exactly what he meant from my own experiences in World
War II and Vietnam.
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