The USA Navy Academy at West Level, which has skilled generations of American leaders to serve from the battlefield to the White Home, was established on this present day in historical past, March 16, 1802.
Its graduates pioneered America’s approach west and humanity’s path into the heavens.
The academy’s creation was a part of the Navy Peace Institution Act, launched by Massachusetts Congressman Joseph Varnum, and signed into legislation by President Thomas Jefferson.
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“Congress established a separate Corps of Engineers to be situated at West Level, New York, and constituted it as a army academy with the Chief Engineer serving as superintendent,” writes the web site of the U.S. Military Corps of Engineers.
“This motion, taken at a time when the general dimension of the Military was decreased, positioned the Corps on everlasting footing and capped a quarter-century of efforts to offer skilled coaching for officers.”
View of West Level. George Washington chosen Thaddeus Kosciuszko, one of many heroes of Saratoga, to design the fortifications for West Level in 1778. President Thomas Jefferson established america Navy Academy in 1802. Engraving by Milbert. Panorama Common. Historical past of america of America, from 1st version of Jean B.G. Roux de Rochelle’s Etats-Unis d’Amerique in 1837. (PHAS/Common Photos Group through Getty Photos)
The USA Navy Academy opened for instruction on July 4. Massachusetts native Joseph Gardner Swift was its first graduate.
West Level, as its generally recognized, stands at the moment because the world’s premier institute of army coaching and in addition one in every of its high engineering colleges.
The academy attracts one of the best and brightest patriotic younger People from coast to coast.
“West Level grads designed virtually all early American railways, roads and bridges because it was the one engineering faculty within the nation till 1824.” — American Battlefield Belief
“West Level grads designed virtually all early American railways, roads, and bridges because it was the one engineering faculty within the nation till 1824,” writes the American Battlefield Belief.
West Level grads within the twentieth century proved important to the NASA area program. Two of the three astronauts on Apollo 11, the primary mission to place males on the lunar floor, have been West Level graduates: command module pilot Michael Collins (Class of 1952) and moon walker Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin (1951).
Crew members of NASA’s Apollo 11 lunar touchdown mission pose for a bunch portrait a couple of weeks earlier than the launch, Might 1969. From left to proper, Commander Neil Armstrong, and West Level graduates Command Module Pilot Michael Collins and Lunar Module Pilot Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin Jr. (Area Frontiers/Getty Photos)
West Level occupies a strategic location on a dramatic west-bank bluff overlooking a bend within the Hudson River, about 60 miles north of New York Metropolis.
The river is navigable all the best way to Albany, about 100 miles additional north, which added to the waterway’s strategic significance in the course of the combat for independence.
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The British noticed management of the Hudson as a strategy to drive a wedge between New England and the remainder of the colonies. West Level stood in the best way of their ambitions.
“West Level had a significant position in our nation’s historical past in the course of the American Revolution,” america Navy Academy writes in its on-line historical past.
Engraving depicts American military officer Benedict Arnold (1741-1801), seated at a desk, as he palms papers to British officer John Andre (1750-1780) in the course of the American Revolutionary Warfare, mid-to-late 18th century. Arnold formally switched sides and joined the British. (Inventory Montage)
“American Continental Line troopers constructed forts, gun batteries, redoubts and put in a 65-ton iron chain throughout the Hudson to dam British invasions alongside the river.”
West Level is “first in magnitude and significance … and possibly the actual [object] of the enemy’s designs,” Gen. George Washington wrote because the British made probing assaults up the river.
“West Level had a significant position in our nation’s historical past in the course of the American Revolution.” – United States Navy Academy
The garrison was the middle of maybe probably the most notorious act of treason in American historical past.
Main Common Benedict Arnold, a hero of the early years of the American Revolution, supplied to commerce West Level to the Redcoats in 1780 in alternate for £20,000 British kilos.
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His betrayal was uncovered, West Level was saved and British conspirator Main John Andre was captured and executed.
U.S. Navy Academy, West Level, New York, circa 1915, classic {photograph}. (Training Photos/Common Photos Group through Getty Photos)
Arnold escaped to England, his identify ceaselessly tarnished in America.
The ignominious act merely strengthened the significance positioned on West Level by army commanders on either side of the battle.
Coupled with its location on a significant avenue of transportation, and its proximity to New York – quickly changing into the nation’s largest metropolis – West Level was an apparent alternative for the location of america Navy Academy.
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West Level has produced an extended checklist of the nation’s most celebrated army officers. Amongst them: “Buffalo Soldier” Henry O. Flipper (class of 1877), the academy’s first black graduate; World Warfare I American Expeditionary Pressure chief Gen. John J. Pershing (1886); and World Warfare II hero George S. Patton (1909).
Accomplice generals Robert E. Lee (1829) and Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson (1846), two of probably the most expert battlefield commanders in American historical past, have been additionally West Level graduates. Lee was superintendent of america Navy Academy from 1852 to 1855.
Future common and president, Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890-1969), on the soccer subject throughout his time as a army cadet at West Level Academy, New York, 1912. Eisenhower (class of 1915) performed soccer at West Level with classmate and fellow future World Warfare II common Omar Bradley. (FPG/Archive Photographs/Getty Photos)
West Level has produced 83 Medal of Honor recipients, greater than every other establishment of upper studying, and two U.S. presidents.
Ulysses S. Grant (1843) led the Union military to victory within the Civil Warfare and served as president from 1869 to 1877.
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Dwight D. Eisenhower (1915) was the Supreme Allied Commander in Europe in World Warfare II and served as president from 1953 to 1961.
West Level at the moment is the oldest constantly occupied common military put up in america.
It boasts about 4,400 college students and produces roughly 900 lieutenants every year, about 20 p.c of the brand new officers required yearly by the Military.
United States Navy Academy graduating cadets rejoice on the finish of their graduation ceremonies, June 13, 2020, in West Level, New York. (AP Photograph/John Minchillo, Pool)
“From the day of its founding on March 16, 1802, West Level has grown in its dimension and stature, but it surely stays dedicated to the duty of manufacturing commissioned leaders of character for America’s Military,” america Navy Academy proclaims on-line.
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“Guided by its timeless motto, ‘Responsibility, Honor, Nation,’ the Academy is poised confidently to offer the Military and the nation with its third century of service.”
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