Still trying to figure out how to feed them (BBQ!?) and whether families will be allowed.
The U.S. Military Academy's Coronavirus Guidance
The U.S. Military Academy has extended the Public Health Emergency aligned with the State of New York and surrounding counties. This declaration reflects the severity of the danger facing our community. Our current operations have focused on protecting the force. Our goal is mitigating the spread of the virus by following recommended preventive measures such as social distancing, frequent hand washing and avoiding close contact with sick individuals.
The Class of 2020 graduation ceremony will be June 13. The ceremony will look different from recent graduation ceremonies because of current social health force protection measures. Decisions regarding family attendance and the scope of the ceremony will be forthcoming and based on the safety of our cadets and the entire West Point community. We will ensure a broadcast of the ceremony is available for viewing.
Plans in place to safely welcome Class of 2020 back to West Point
By Brandon OConnorMay 20, 2020
WEST POINT, NY -- After Lt. Gen. Darryl A. Williams, superintendent of the U.S. Military Academy, announced March 19 that the Corps of Cadets would not be returning from spring break as planned, academy leadership immediately began planning how and when cadets would arrive back at West Point.
That plan will go into effect Tuesday as the first members of the Class of 2020 return to West Point to begin outprocessing prior to their graduation ceremony June 13.
The cadets are currently spread throughout the country but they have to return to the academy before beginning their Army careers. At the bare-minimum, cadets need to move out of their rooms in the barracks and pickup their cars if they didn’t take them home for spring break. The future second lieutenants are also required to outprocess from the academy before moving on to the Army. Many of the outprocessing steps require cadets to be in person at West Point such as medical screenings, closing accounts and returning ID cards.
Because the return of the cadets was necessary, a planning group quickly began working out the details of how it would be accomplished in the middle of a pandemic. Lt. Col. George Mitroka, who oversaw the planning process, said the development of the plan to bring back the Class of 2020 began with representatives from throughout the academy coming together before a whiteboard. They then began brainstorming each step of the process that would be required for the cadets to return to the academy safely.
“We’ve never done this at West Point and it’s very rare to be able to say something like that,” Mitroka said. “Most of the time you can pull a CONOP (concept of operation) off the shelf. Graduation is pretty much the same every year, but, in this case, we’ve never been put under these types of restraints and constraints— social distancing and medical factors. All those things kind of had to get thrown into the plan for us to consider as we developed it over time.”
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