Part I: Great Expectations
Top left: Alexandra Efaw, class of 2014, addressing plebes on the subject of performing Shakespeare. Bottom left: Sneha Singh, class of 2017. Right: Oriana Ellis, class of 2014, in a human-anatomy class. “[One] thing that surprised me was diversity,” she says. “And not in the sense that I had to get used to diversity. I had to get used to a decrease in diversity, being from South Florida. . . . It was definitely a shock meeting people who’ve never been around someone who’s completely different than them.”
Lindsey Danilack, class of 2014 and brigade commander for the entire student body, far left, in construction management, a civil-engineering class. “I honestly cannot believe that I’ve made it this far,” she says. “Being able to hold the title of first captain is an absolute blessing.”
Left: Alexandra Efaw with Nathan Miller, class of 2015, in his barrack room. “When you go into someone’s room, you have to leave the door open because you’re always being monitored,” she says. “It’s hard to ‘cadate.’ There’s no hand-holding, no affection and no getting away. . . . West Point does discourage dating in the same company.” Oriana Ellis (right): “I always came in here with the mind-set that anything a guy could do, I could do. . . . I never really got the mental check until combative, when I had to fight a guy that was the same weight as me, and my M.C.L. was sprained within the first couple seconds, because I didn’t realize that guys were actually more dense than girls.”
Lindsey Danilack, standing at center, in the Cadet Mess Hall during lunch. As first captain, she made it her practice to wait until everyone else had found a seat before taking her own: “It was important to me to ensure everyone was taken care of before myself.”
Left: Arianna Efaw (second from right), class of 2017, in Introduction to Warfighting. She has encountered skepticism about her desire to be an infantry officer. “The boys here are like: ‘Oh, cool. That’s not going to happen.’ Which is really messed up but also gives me more of a reason to want to do it.” Right: Anastasia Efaw (second from right), class of 2016, with other members of the rugby team, in study hall.
Lindsey Danilack looking over cadets in lunch formation outside the mess hall.
Part II: Making The Grade
Sneha Singh practicing the “one-rope bridge” with her teammate Collin Crane, class of 2016, for Sandhurst, an international, two-day competition of military skills and physical fitness. The participating teams, which include one from each of the cadet corps’ 36 companies, consist of eight men and one woman. “Most of the guys in my squad are really tall, so they can run a lot faster than I can,” Singh says. “I’m pretty small, so I’m pretty agile. And I could jump over things and crawl through things pretty easily, which the bigger guys in my squad can’t.”
Left: Sneha Singh competing in the grenade toss, on the second day of Sandhurst. Right: Singh and members of her team putting on harnesses in preparation for the one-rope bridge.
Lindsey Danilack, who was captain of the Army women’s track and field team, at a meet. Danilack competed in the 400-meter hurdles and other events. “If someone tells me I can’t run as fast as the guys running the two-mile, I say, ‘You’re right.’ ... But if they say that I can’t be as good a leader as them, oh, I’ll challenge them on that.”
Left: Lindsey Danilack reviewing the cadet corps during lunchtime formation. Right: Danilack in her office in Eisenhower Barracks.
Anastasia Efaw at a survival-swimming class. “What I like most about West Point is the relationships you make here because of what you go through and how stressful it is,” she says. “A week is like a month in real life. . . . We have this unique experience that we’re all sharing with each other, which is why a lot of the people get engaged and married at West Point. And they might not even be dating for a year.”
Left and right: Anastasia Efaw at a survival-swimming class.
Arianna Efaw (the only woman at the table) at lunch with cadets she doesn’t know. “Each company has an assigned table,” she says. “If your table’s closed you have to wait under the poop deck until a seat opens. People raise their hand or make eye contact and you go over.” Plebes are often quizzed by upperclassmen at meals. “As a plebe you’re expected to know how many days until graduation or the next football game. It’s pretty stressful.”
Part III: Marching On
Cadet First Capt. Lindsey Danilack (center) and her fellow cadets from the class of 2014 toss their caps into the air on commencement day.
Left: Lindsey Danilack gets ready for the graduation parade, held the day before commencement. Right: Oriana Ellis the day before her graduation. “I’m pretty comfortable with my future,” she says. “I’ve gotten into medical school, and I know I can possibly go to Kenya after my first year. I guess right now I’m more filled with excitement than fear. I’m not taking over a platoon. . . . I have a job for the next 20 years of my life. That is so comforting.”
Left: The Efaw family congratulates Alexandra Efaw, following commencement. Her parents, Col. Andrew and Amy Efaw, both graduated from West Point in 1989. Alexandra’s siblings, from left: Aimee Katarina (Kat), Arianna, Anastasia and Andrew C.S. Efaw II. Right: Lindsey Danilack receiving her diploma from President Obama. A few weeks later, she reported to Fort Rucker in Alabama to learn to fly helicopters.
Alexandra Efaw in her room in Pershing Barracks after graduation, dressing for her commissioning ceremony. She is with her father, Col. Andrew Efaw, a reservist and lawyer. “I swore her in,” he says, “and then ‘pinned her,’ along with her mom.”
Left: Col. Andrew Efaw and Amy Efaw pinning the bars on Alexandra during her commissioning ceremony. Right: Anastasia Efaw giving her sister Alexandra, who reported to Fort Sill, Okla., later in the summer, her first salute as a commissioned officer. “My parents both graduated” from the academy, Anastasia says. “My dad’s brother went to West Point. My mom’s sister. My mom’s sister’s husband. . . . We all thought that when you went to college, you just go to West Point.”
Underclass cadets, in their “white over gray” uniforms, in Michie Stadium on graduation day. “You get into West Point because you’re good academically, you’re a good leader, you’re the team captain or whatever,” Arianna Efaw says. “Then you get here and realize that everybody’s exactly like you, only better.”