Cool stories (This American Life)

The Hard Life at the Top.

Here's a ritual that takes place every summer on the last day of June. 1,200 new army cadets, mostly teenagers, survivors of one of the most exhausting application processes in the country, arrive at West Point. And then, in the space of one morning, they're separated from their parents, their clothes are taken away, their hair is taken away, they're weighed, they're measured. They're issued a bag, an army uniform and underwear. They take their oath of office, and then here is the first act they have as non-civilians.