MALCOLM BRIAN REID

 

TRINIDADIAN GRADUATES

FROM WEST POINT

AND HOLDS HIS HEAD HIGH

 

By Robin Morais

Newsday

May 21, 2000

Page 72

 

"It was almost like warfare," the robust ex-soldier said in a voice tinged with a deep sense of pride and reflection.

 

With these words, Malcolm Brian Reid related his remarkable experiences as one f the first TT nationals to attend and graduate from the elite American military school, West Point Military Academy.

 

The academy, which has been featured and made famous in several Hollywood movies, is situated in upstate New York near to the Hudson River.

 

Reid, 25, attended West Point Military Academy for four years, which, he said, tested every ounce of his physical, mental, academic and spiritual resolve.

 

Presently, he is the head of the security department in a state corporation.

 

The Siparia born Reid was 18 years old when he enlisted in the school.

 

He was there from 1994 to 1998, his graduation year.

 

His story began in May 1994 when he saw an advertisement in a local newspaper requesting TT nationals to apply to obtain full scholarships to West Point Military Academy.

 

At that time nationals were also being asked to apply to joint he three other top American training schools namely the US Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, the US Air Force Academy in Boulder, Colorado and the American Coast Guard Academy.

 

"After I passed my A' Levels at Presentation College, San Fernando, I enlisted in the TT army as an officer cadet," he said.

 

"And then the option became available for nationals to join the US Military Service academies and so I said to myself why not, I'll give it a try?"

 

"I told myself that I had as good a chance as anybody else to be accepted into West Point."

 

Reid went through the process of sitting the SAT exams to West Point and he passed them thus earning his scholarship to America's best military school.  He revealed that a very small number of foreigners are accepted into West Point.

 

"Over 200 countries from all over the world can apply to West Point but only a handful of foreigners are taken because it's extremely competitive for Americans, let alone foreigners to get in there."

 

In West Point terms, a handful is five to six foreign cadets being accepted which amounts to only the very best of them.

 

To illustrate how many cadets who enter West Pint don't make it Reid showed some figures from his West Point Admissions Book which showed that out of the 993 men and 154 women who were admitted to the institution, only 820 of them actually graduated from the military school, which has on its honours role some famous American commanders, such as Douglas McArthur and General George S Patton, both of whom were credited with the defeat of Japan and Hitler's Nazi forces on the European continent.

 

"Two US presidents namely the Union General in the American Civil War Ulysses S Grant and Dwight D Eisenhower were also West Point graduates.  The astronaut Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin was also a West Point graduate," he added.

 

Other famous American military leaders were Confederate General in the American Civil War Robert E Lee, William Tecumseh Sherman and Lieutenant-Colonel George Armstrong Custer.

 

Reid said West Point was the first civil engineering university ever built in America and it was constructed to fill a need among America's Revolutionary Army for qualified engineers during the American Revolution war, which was fought from 1775 to 1783 between the American Revolutionary army and the British forces.

 

Reid disclosed that the US Revolutionary soldiers built forts, batteries and redoubts and they also extended a 150-ton iron chain across the Hudson River.

 

"This obstacle was put there to restrain river traffic and to block the British forces who were fighting the American troops."

 

Reid was nothing short of elated when he arrived at West Point in May 1994.

 

However, the reality of being in a strange, unfamiliar place struck him like a thunderbolt and he had to adapt quickly to it.

 

"My first weeks were nothing short of being a culture shock because there was absolutely no support network for me.  The people I met spoke differently, they did things differently and the cold weather was very different to anything I ever experienced before."

 

"And I was in a harsh military environment where you were often yelled at by the drill sergeant and higher ranking officers."

 

"That was the reality of the situation."  He had to be very tough to survive in West Point especially when he injured a vertebra playing rugby.

 

"I fractured it while playing but I drove on.  I didn't give up.  I did physical therapy like aqua-training and weight training to heal it and how it has healed properly."

 

"I wasn't going to let that stop me."

 

He passed all of the courses he had to do in the institution.

 

Reid said that when he got his West Point ring, he said that was a sign he was going to graduate.

 

When he graduated from America's toughest military academy in 1998, he felt an overwhelming feeling of joy and accomplishment.

 

However, Reid said that he couldn’t have done it without God's guidance and he spent many hours by himself in prayer with God at West Point asking Him for strength and guidance to make it though his demanding stint.

 

West Point is a military institution, which tolerates no-nonsense from its cadets whatsoever.  Reid spoke of the stringent Honour Code, which every West Point cadet must follow.

 

"The Honour Code is the set of guidelines that every cadet lives by at West Point.  They are duty, honour and service to country.  Furthermore, cadets can't lie, cheat, steal nor tolerate others who do.  That's the Cadet Honour Code."

 

He said if a cadet knows that his best friend or even brother has cheated in an exam, that cadet must report him to the school's authorities.

 

"Otherwise, he can be expelled himself."  Reid mentioned that the singular purpose of the West Point Military academy is to provide leaders of character.

 

"In my West Point Admissions Book, there's a historic quotation by the late General Douglas McArthur that is also fundamental to any West Point cadet's world view - 'What you ought to be, What you can be, What you will be'."

 

After basic training involving having their heads shaved and doing rigorous marching drills, Reid went straight into a brain taxing academic year.

 

He had to study a whole range of subjects like Mathematics, Military History, English Language, English Literature, Psychology, Physics, Philosophy, Computer Science, Constitutional Law, a Military Leadership course and International Relations.

 

'I also had to do an Engineering Science course, Economics and Military Science."

 

The rugged ex-West Point cadet has a Bachelor's degree in Engineering from West Point.

 

Reid revealed that he had no free tie in between subjects for as soon as one was done it was off to another classroom and another subject.

 

As for West Point's physical training programme, it was brutal.

 

"We did boxing, Greco-Roman wrestling, martial arts and close-quarters combat.  Now with our boxing you had to fight your rival because he'd hit you hard to smash you into the ground."

 

Reid, a self-driven man, told Sunday Newsday that he also had to do close quarters combat which was a fighting style designed by the US Navy Seals.

 

"It entailed locks from Jiu-Jitsu, kicks from Tae-Kwondo and throws from Judo.  Practitioners are taught how to break bones of their opponents and to kill with their bare hands under combat situations."

 

He revealed that both the male and female cadets took the close-quarters training course but only the men took the boxing and the Greco-Roman wrestling.

 

Reid also had the honour of being in charge of bringing the elite British army cadets from Sandhurst to West Point to compete in annual military skills.  These intense summer drills entailed rifle marksmanship, navigation and rappelling.

 

Since his return to TT, he's been bothered by the juvenile delinquency problem plaguing the land and he had some simple yet effective advice for them.  He advised them to set life goals and work steadily towards getting them.  "Put God first, set positive, achievable goals and work at them and you'll get there."

 

"I wasn't born into any wealthy family and I'm a regular person but I did it with hard work, determination and a belief in God.

 

"So if I can do it then they can do it."

 

"Young people don't have heroes today as a result they're emulating the wrong kinds of people."

 

"I'd also tell them to serve their country in the right way because one of the greatest joys one can obtain in life is making a contribution towards one's nation."

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