All language subtitles for Americas.Book.Of.Secrets.S01E08_English

[narrator] It is the most prestigious
military academy in the world,

where cutting-edge technology
converges with battle-proven tradition.

But inside this launch pad

for the Army's elite are secrets.

Secrets so fascinating...

[Preston Pysh] There's things that
definitely happen up at West Point.

There are secrets that graduates
go to their grave with.

[narrator]
...so compelling...

You have to go into a smoky bunker
where tear gas is being released.

[narrator]
...so controversial...

[Robert Kirkland]
Why was J. Edgar Hoover and the FBI

sending so many agents to try
to track down this one cadet?

[narrator] That they've been kept hidden
from the public until now.

[Wesley Clark] Sometimes you just
have to know facts--

how many weapons, how much
ammunition, how far do they shoot?

[narrator] There are those who believe
in the existence of a book.

A book that contains
the most highly guarded secrets

of the United States of America.

A book whose very existence

is known to only a select few.

But if such a book exists,
what would it contain?

Secret histories?

Secret plans?

Secret methods?

Does there really exist

America's Book of Secrets?

[narrator] Fifty miles north
of New York City,

along the banks of the Hudson River,

lies the world's foremost
military academy, West Point.

It is a university
unlike any other,

steeped in tradition,

and where presidents,
world leaders

and the Army's bravest officers
are taught and trained.

Famous alumni include
generals like George S. Patton,

Norman Schwarzkopf,
David Petraeus,

and even former presidents

Ulysses S. Grant
and Dwight D. Eisenhower.

But what really goes on
behind the stone walls

of one of America's
most formidable fortresses?

And what secrets can,
at last, be revealed?

The thing about West Point is that it's
a mystery

to a lot of us on the outside.

It's kind of like a Hogwarts
on the Hudson.

[man] New cadets! Step up to the line,
not on the line, not over the line!

Get off the bus! Move quickly!

Walk faster, cadet!
Why am I walking faster than you?

Let's go!
Move, move, move!

What is that smirk for?

[narrator]
Candidates for admission to West Point

come from all across America
and from every part of the world.

Most are nominated by members
of Congress and military officials.

And a few are even recommended

by the President of the United States.

[David Lipsky] Fifty thousand people
have begun the process,

12,000 people have actually
formally filled out the applications,

and there are 1,200 male
and female cadets left standing.

The smoke has cleared.
And then they say,

"You now have 90 seconds to say
your official good-byes to your parents.

[narrator] Known by the academy
as Reception Day, or R Day,

the orientation for the new corps
of West Point cadets

begins immediately upon arrival.

Put your salute down.
Don't show any frustration on your face.

Look me in the eyes.
Do you understand, new cadet?

[narrator] For the next four years,
they will face the toughest

and most sophisticated educational
and military training program

in the United States.

A few will drop out,

but those who remain
will be forever changed,

graduating
as a commissioned officer in the Army.

[Elizabeth Constantino]
I was a tri-sport athlete,

I was a straight-A student,

I was my senior class president.

I got there that morning,
and I was immediately just

engulfed in this high-tone environment.

[man] You're going to have
a long, long summer.

-Do you understand me, new cadets?
-Yes, Sergeant!

It's very stressful, and I didn't know
what to do when I got there.

[narrator]
While other college coeds

are decorating dorm rooms
and partying with friends,

West Point's new cadets sacrifice
much of their social freedom

to a process
some outsiders call "soldierizing."

[Murphy] West Point cadets,
they're kids, they're normal people,

but that place is hard-core.

It's military from the day you walk
onto the post until the day you graduate.

[Lipsky]
If they're wearing glasses,

they will be issued TEDs,
Tactical Eye Devices.

If you have tattoos, the tattoos are
digitally photographed and scanned in

as part of who you are there.

Your skin belongs
to the Army now, too.

[narrator]
From the moment they arrive,

the new cadets must navigate a labyrinth
of challenges and secret traditions,

beginning
with The Cadet in the Red Sash.

[Constantino]
I met The Cadet in the Red Sash.

His or her famous line is,
"Cadet, step up to my line."

[cadet]
Do not stand one foot behind my line.

Do not stand six inches behind my line.
Do not stand one inch behind my line.

Right up to my line.

[Constantino] It's their very first
experience into West Point,

it's their indoctrination, and it's very
stressful and they yell at you.

That is your left!
Go to your right, new cadet!

[Constantino] There's a little card
you have 30 seconds to memorize.

"New cadet Constantino reports
to The Cadet in the Red Sash

for the first time as ordered."

[Lipsky] Those are the first words
you speak as an Army Leader in Training,

so what you see is all these kids
who have been valedictorians,

who led sports teams,
and all they have to do is say one line.

And they can't do it.

[narrator] Before they take
a single academic class,

each new cadet
must conquer six weeks

of intense physical and military training
known as Beast Barracks.

[indistinct shouts]

[Lipsky]
You're learning soldier stuff.

You're learning how to be a member
of a squad, a member of a unit.

You have to go into a smoky bunker
where tear gas is being released.

You have to then take off the mask,

and you have to report
to your cadet company leader.

-Open your eyes!
-[coughing] I'm an American--

I'm an American soldier!

[Pysh] I'm thinking to myself,
this place is insane.

This is really hard,
this is something that I don't know

if I can get through it.

A lot of the kids arrange
for other cadets to take their pictures

when they come out of the bunker
because there's snot hanging out,

tears coming out
the sides of their eyes.

And that's where the real
West Point experience begins,

and, you know, it has its name
Beast Barracks for a reason,

because it definitely isn't easy.
It's a very difficult experience.

[narrator] Only after they master
basic marksmanship,

explosives and training

in chemical, biological, radiological,
and nuclear hazards,

also known as CBRN,

will cadets return to the main campus

in order to begin
their regular academic courses.

Now officially freshmen

of the United States
Military Academy at West Point,

the first-year cadets
are referred to as plebes.

[man shouting commands]

[narrator] Waiting for them
upon their return

are approximately
3,600 upperclassmen,

and each a survivor
of their own very grueling first year.

[Constantino] When the first day
started of the academic year,

when Beast ended,

it actually was a little bit
more frightful than I'd imagined,

because you have
a few thousand upperclassmen,

and, of course,
they'll stop you and ask you knowledge,

which is mandatory military knowledge

a plebe should know at all times.

Always serve in the position
of attention, new cadet.

-Yes, ma'am.
-Fix it!

[narrator] That mandatory
military knowledge

is contained within a 325-page manual

given to all first-year plebes
called The Bugle Notes.

And like a sorcerer's book of spells,

each phrase and fact
within The Bugle Notes

must be memorized word for word.

Because upperclassmen
can stop a plebe at any time

and demand an answer
to their often-curious questions.

Then you learn
that there's 340 lights in Cullum Hall.

I know that I'm gonna ask
one of the underclassmen,

"How many lights are in Cullum Hall?"

and they're gonna say, "Ma'am,
there's 340 lights in Cullum Hall."

There's one that, "How's the cow?
She walks, she talks, she's full of chalk.

The lacteal fluid extracted
from the female of the bovine species

is highly prolific to the nth degree."

For a person who would hear that,
they'd be, like,

"What is that?
It doesn't even make any sense."

[narrator] Failure to properly
memorize the strange facts

contained in the Bugle Notes

can result in stiff consequences,
often in the form of demerits.

These are meant to strengthen
the young cadets

and also help to weed out
those whose commitment may be lacking.

Sometimes you just have to know facts.

It's not enough to say, "Well, I'd like
to discuss it in this way," no.

We want to know,
what time did you arrive?

How many weapons?
How much ammunition?

How far do they shoot?

And one of the things
that comes out at West Point is,

through this plebe knowledge system,

is you learn to memorize
and respond with facts.

[narrator] But there was a time,
many years ago,

when secret hazing rituals
were conducted at the academy.

Rituals long ago
abolished and forbidden.

And one of the worst
and most secret of these

was known as The Silence.

It is thought to date back
to a time soon after the Civil War,

when West Point accepted for admission
its first African-American cadets.

[Sherman Fleek]
The very first black graduate

was Henry O. Flipper from Georgia.

Born as a slave,
and he graduated here in 1877.

Unfortunately for him and others,

that graduated even up
through the years of World War II,

these cadets were silenced.

That was a practice
where no one spoke to them.

[narrator]
For many decades after the Civil War,

racism and prejudice
was widespread in America,

and even the hallowed halls
of West Point offered no exception.

Resented by all
but a few of his classmates,

Henry Flipper endured years

when almost none
but the faculty would speak to him.

Not during class,
not during training, not ever.

So just imagine being there for four years

and having to endure a silencing
for that amount of time.

You can imagine
the courage that it took

and the fortitude
that he had within him

in order to overcome that.

[narrator] Fortunately for Flipper,
the harsh treatment by his peers

only strengthened the young cadet's
determination and resolve.

He went on to serve
as a second lieutenant

in the Army's 10th Cavalry.

The first non-white officer to lead
the now-famous Buffalo Soldiers.

During the decades that followed,

both America and West Point
continued to grow and evolve.

In 1976, the Academy accepted

116 of its first-ever female cadets.

And though none of them
were forced to endure

the kind of hazing that had been
rumored to take place in the past,

barely half
made it all the way to graduation.

[Lipsky] When they
first arrived in the mid-'70s,

because West Point is a traditional place,

they weren't welcomed really warmly.

So, if you meet a female Army officer

who says that they were West Point
class of '81 or class of '82,

you are meeting a hard,
cool person.

[narrator] But perhaps the most infamous
hazing incident at West Point

involved a young cadet
named Douglas MacArthur,

the future commander
of the Allied Forces

in the Pacific during World War II.

[Kirkland] There was a situation
where he had to squat over glass

for over an hour, and he couldn't
do it any longer, he fainted.

[narrator] The incident forced
MacArthur to be hospitalized

and later become the subject
of a congressional investigation

into the clandestine practice of hazing.

And even though the practice
has been officially banned for decades,

there are some who admit that a mild form
of it is still in existence.

[Pysh] You have to read that
New York Times every single morning.

You have to know the five articles

that you could potentially be asked
by any upperclassman at any point in time.

That constant battle of knowing

all the things
that you're supposed to know,

not to mention all the academics,
that's the haze.

That truly is the haze.

[narrator] May, 2010.

Army Private Bradley Manning

is arrested
and charged with aiding the enemy,

after providing more
than 700,000 secret documents

to the website WikiLeaks.

According to military officials,

Manning first started releasing
the classified materials

in 2009 while working in Iraq.

It was a stark reminder that the threat
to our national security

can come from both
outside and inside the military.

So here you have
a young soldier who had access

to secret data on a network.

And he allegedly took
large amounts of that data

that was supposed to be secret and gave
that to somebody outside the network.

So, we take it very seriously.

[narrator] For West Pointers,
the threat of an enemy

among the ranks
is of critical importance,

and a concern
that dates back to an era

before the site was
an academic institution.

Constructed in 1778,

West Point was originally built
as a military fortress,

and was of key strategic importance
during the American Revolution.

George Washington called West Point
the most strategic location in America.

He who controlled the Hudson
would win the war.

The Revolutionary troops were afraid
the British would come down the Hudson.

And they would separate New York
from the rest of the colonies.

And so they picked a spot in the river

where the land kind of jutted out
and you could get a chain across.

And so there was a gigantic chain

that was put from one side
of the river to the other,

which could be pulled up
if the British were coming.

It would just stop them cold.

[narrator] Although the commanders
and soldiers at West Point

prided themselves
on being ready to respond to any attack,

nothing could have prepared
them for what became

the Continental Army's most shocking
and secret act of betrayal.

-[gunshot]
-[horse whinnies]

[narrator] In July 1780,
General Benedict Arnold,

one of George Washington's
most-trusted friends and colleagues,

took command of the fort.

But just two months later,

he would become notorious
as America's most infamous traitor.

He was a great combat leader,

but he was very arrogant

and he thought
he was being cheated

out of promotions
and pay and so on.

So he got into a collaboration
with Major John André,

a British officer,
to sell West Point

for the price
of 20,000 pounds sterling.

[narrator] To communicate
with his British coconspirators,

Arnold used a method eerily similar
to today's high-tech security systems:

a series of coded letters that could
only be read with the help of a cipher.

[Fleek] John André,
who had all the plans, the maps,

was heading south
after his deliberation

and his conspiracy with Arnold,

and he was captured
by New York militia.

[narrator]
Luckily, Arnold's plot failed.

André was executed,
but Arnold fled to England,

where he lived
for nearly two decades.

Today,
on the wall of the Old Cadet Chapel,

only one of the 36 plaques

designed to honor
America's Revolutionary War generals

is illegible,

as the consonants
and vowels of Benedict Arnold's name

have been scratched clean
by generations of unforgiving cadets.

But perhaps there was another,
more positive and profound legacy

left to West Point
by its most notorious would-be betrayer.

For it was Arnold's friend,
George Washington,

who after the Revolutionary War ended,

first proposed that West Point
go from being a place of shame

to a school for officers.

One where the virtues of honor,
courage

and duty would be perpetuated.

But believe it or not,

there were those
who opposed the idea.

The Americans at this time feared

a standing army
more than anything else.

Secretary of State
Thomas Jefferson pretty well killed it,

saying that it was unconstitutional
to have a military academy.

Personally and politically,

it was against his values

to establish a professional elite
officer corps.

[narrator] Eventually, those who believed
in the Academy won their argument,

and West Point was established in 1802.

A little more than a century later,

in 1919,
Brigadier General Douglas MacArthur,

having survived the horrors
of World War I, returned to West Point,

this time as Superintendent.

He soon after
instituted a formal doctrine

in an effort to eradicate all forms
of dishonesty and unethical behavior--

the Honor Code.

The Honor Code is one of the great things
about the military academy.

It says a cadet doesn't lie,
cheat, steal or tolerate those who do.

[Constantino] I've had a few friends
and classmates at West Point

cheat on an exam or accidentally
copy words into a paper,

and they've been relieved
from West Point

because of the Honor Code.

It is the one thing
that binds all cadets.

[narrator] But strict codes of honor
can be hard to live by and live with,

as was the case
with a few of West Point's

most notorious dropouts.

[Fleek] In the summer of 1830,

Edgar Alan Poe,
the great poet, came here.

He'd been in the army
two or three years already,

was a sergeant major
in an artillery regiment,

and to make that rank
in a couple of years is interesting.

But he soon learned
that he did not like it here,

and he did everything he could
within about seven to eight months

to be dismissed from the Academy.

[narrator] Another former West Point
cadet, LSD guru Timothy Leary,

came to West Point in 1940,
only to drop out one year later.

Turn on, tune in, drop out.

[narrator] 2006.

In the midst
of Operation Iraqi Freedom,

rumors began to circulate concerning
an incoming West Point cadet

known only as Jameel,

the first Iraqi citizen
ever to attend West Point.

Although no photos
of him are known to exist,

and even his very presence is still
considered a matter of national security,

Jameel is more than a cadet.

He is also part
of a long-standing West Point tradition.

[Murphy] I can tell you
that among the foreign cadets

that they've had in recent years
are Afghan cadets and Iraqi cadets,

and you know, a few years back,

they started to get cadets
from the former Soviet Republics.

[Michael Burns] It's no accident
that we bring international cadets

from parts of the world
where there may be turmoil

and that we want to build
a strong relationship.

And we want these international cadets

to see the American Army
in a positive light.

These young men and women
who come from other countries

will rise in the service
in their own countries,

and you'll have
permanent friendships

and permanent
bonds of understanding

between nations' armed forces.

[narrator] Unfortunately, not all
of West Point's international graduates

have escaped controversy.

Former Nicaraguan dictator,
Anastasio Somoza,

graduated from the U.S.
Military Academy in 1946.

In 1980,
only months after being overthrown,

he was assassinated

in a plot his enemies
called Operation Reptile.

[Kirkland]
I graduated West Point in 1988,

and one of my classmates
was a cadet from Uruguay.

In the middle
of his time at West Point,

the government of Uruguay,
which was friendly to the United States

before he entered West Point,

actually flipped to being antagonistic
towards the United States.

So that's always the danger,

is that you never know
what might happen.

[narrator] Are West Point's most precious
military tactics and technologies

really safe from enemy hands?

And what if one of our nation's
best and brightest military minds

is captured in battle?

Or worse yet,

what if he or she
disappears without a trace?

[narrator]
West Point. January 14, 1950.

After receiving a series
of mysterious phone calls,

21-year-old
sophomore Richard Colvin Cox

leaves campus
for a dinner with an old acquaintance,

never to be seen or heard from again.

J. Edgar Hoover assigned
some of his best agents on the case,

trying to figure out what happened.

And to this day, we still
do not know what happened to him.

[James Underwood]
There were various sightings of him,

but for the most part,
that was the last sighting

of Richard Cox
as a West Point cadet.

[narrator] The case became
a national media sensation.

Later, Richard Cox was reportedly
sighted in Washington D.C.,

Berlin, Chicago and London,

but was it really him?

[Underwood] The FBI was hearing
from people all over the place saying,

"Oh, I've seen Richard Cox
at a gas station."

There was even a report one time

that someone saw Richard Cox
on a television game show.

They were chasing down leads
wherever they could find them.

[narrator] But where did Richard Cox
go on the night he disappeared?

With whom did he meet?

Was he perhaps harboring secrets?

During the decades that followed,
investigators uncovered strange clues

that hinted of CIA connections
and Cold War espionage.

But were they genuine?

And might a book of secrets

contain the answers
to the mysterious whereabouts

of West Point's
only missing cadet?

Born in 1928, Richard Colvin Cox
grew up in Mansfield, Ohio.

After graduating
from high school in 1946,

he volunteered for the U.S. Army
and became a military police officer

at an intelligence office
in Bamberg, Germany.

[Underwood] He did the nontraditional
way of going to West Point.

He was an enlisted man when he was
serving in Germany in the Army,

but he got a congressional
appointment to West Point.

[narrator]
Cox excelled at West Point.

Slightly older than his fellow cadets,
he ranked in the top 20% of his class.

On the night of his disappearance,

he told his roommates
he was meeting a friend

he would only refer to as George,

someone he claimed to have known
during his years serving overseas.

Apparently, he had a number
of different interactions

with this--
with this man at West Point.

[Underwood] The roommates
have a discussion with Cox

about, "Who is George?"

And what Cox
tells them is a pretty bizarre story,

that George was someone who,
during World War II,

castrated German soldiers,

and had impregnated
a young German woman,

and that he had hanged her
to make it appear like a suicide.

[narrator] At 5:45 p.m., Cox signed
the West Point departure log.

When he had not
returned by the following morning,

a preliminary search began

and George
became a prime suspect.

[Underwood]
The identification of George

actually became the central focus
of the FBI's search for Richard Cox.

Part of the FBI theory was that George
had done harm to Richard Cox,

perhaps even murdered him.

[Fleek] Back in 1950,
even more so than today,

you have to be accounted for
almost 24 hours a day,

the lights out, Taps,
breakfast formations.

The idea of foul play
or someone missing

is just inconceivable
how that could have happened.

[narrator]
Was Richard Cox really murdered

by the mysterious German man
named George?

Or might there be another,
perhaps more secret reason

for the cadet's disappearance?

[Underwood] It was the beginning
of the Cold War era.

There was a lot of tangling
back and forth

between the allies and the Soviets

over who was going to control
what sectors of occupied Germany.

Cox was right in the middle of that.

[Kirkland]
This is one cadet.

Why was J. Edgar Hoover
and the FBI

sending so many agents
to try to track down this one cadet?

It brings up questions
as to what his background was,

who he met in Germany,
who he might have been working for,

or who he worked for
after he disappeared

from the military academy.

[narrator] Might Richard Colvin Cox
have possessed classified information

that made him a target for foul play?

Or had his training made him
an ideal candidate

for recruitment in top-secret
Cold War missions?

There was a young woman
that the FBI was focused on

that was running drugs
from South America into Florida.

And this FBI informant
that was meeting with her

and trying to find out more
about her drug activity,

one night met a man
who accompanied her.

And this man identified
himself as Richard Mansfield.

Later, he admitted
that as far as his mother

and the Army were concerned,
he was dead.

Later in the conversation,

he tells this informant that Castro
won't be in power much longer.

This takes place in 1960.

That's a year
before the Bay of Pigs invasion.

That led to the theory

that Cox was involved
with the intelligence service,

that he had been
a 1950s version of Jason Bourne.

[narrator] In 1982,
prize-winning reporter Jim Underwood

began his own investigation
into the disappearance of Richard Cox.

After interviewing more than 60 people

and scouring
thousands of federal documents,

he published a 12-part series
about the case

in the Mansfield News Journal.

In it, he concluded
that the missing West Point cadet

ran away
from the Academy to join the CIA,

where he continued to work in secret.

But is it really possible that
the disappearance of Richard Colvin Cox

is the ultimate U.S. spy story?

I adhere to the spy theory.
It's the only one that makes any sense.

There was never a body recovered.

At one point, they even drained ponds
at West Point to try to locate a body.

And as several FBI agents said to me,
murders produce bodies.

If Cox was recruited
into the intelligence service,

I'm sure they never anticipated
that his disappearance

would become one of the top
50 mysteries in American history.

[narrator] Although Richard Colvin Cox
was declared legally dead in 1957,

his story remains an unsolved mystery

as baffling
as that of Amelia Earhart,

the Black Dahlia murder
or Jack the Ripper.

[Pysh]
I absolutely think there's secrets

that graduates go
to their grave with at West Point.

There's things
that definitely happen up at West Point

that's just really for the Corps
and not for your typical outsider.

[narrator]
Afghanistan, summer, 2011.

A small U.S. Army infantry unit
moves across barren terrain,

surrounded by crumbling walls
and a few dusty trees.

[gunfire]

[narrator]
Suddenly, an ambush.

Hey, Roger, we have enemy pinned
down here in the south. Break.

[narrator] For those in charge,
decisions must be made in an instant.

And all they can rely on
is their experience,

their wits and their military training.

[Timothy Gatlin] You never
know what's going to happen.

[soldier] Hey, hold what you got!
Full security to the west!

You're going out, you're on a patrol,
you're in a city,

and all of a sudden, you get attacked.

Go! Come on,
come on, come on!

[Gatlin] So it's never
like you see it coming,

but there are basic skills
that you have to have as a soldier.

And you need to be able
to put those skills into action,

in a number
of different environments.

[narrator]
But just how does West Point

prepare America's
future military commanders

for the life-and-death stakes
of military service?

[Gatlin] We're really taking
individuals coming out of high school,

and they're going into an environment

where you have to learn
how to survive, how to evade,

how to resist and how to escape.

[narrator] While students
at other universities are studying things

like anthropology,
engineering and literature,

the cadets at West Point
tackle those subjects

and much, much more.

[Kirkland] We spend
a whole semester on the course

called Combat Leadership.

You know, a soldier today

doesn't want
to be just told what to do.

They want to be told
why they're doing it.

What is the purpose of an operation
that we're going on?

Based upon the West Point
officer's education,

they can explain that to the soldier,

so the soldier
has a purpose in what they're doing.

[narrator] The exclusive course load
includes everything

from military leadership
and helicopter aeronautics

to cyber security,
information warfare,

nuclear technology,

homeland security
and, of course, global terrorism.

All of our military faculty
have come back from deployments

or from certain bases or training
experiences around the world.

And they have a wealth
of knowledge and information.

And in all of our classes,
we talk about the military.

We talk about events or circumstances,

the lessons learned from their deployment
or their experiences.

[narrator] But the real combat lessons
are learned once final exams are over.

After acquiring a full term
of military know-how,

West Pointers quickly begin
an even more brutal regimen,

this time training with the real Army.

Roger, copy. Danger close.

Your second summer at West Point
takes cadets through an experience

where they understand
all the different branches in the Army.

So you could go to a SCUBA school,
you can go to air assault school,

where you learn
how to rappel out of helicopters.

Rappel!

[Pysh] So there's a lot
of unique opportunities.

[narrator] During each summer,

cadets train with soldiers
in the U.S. Army,

where they get crash courses
in fields like artillery

and aviation.

The truth is, it's a really tough,
hard slog, and that's the value.

You learn persistence,
you learn self-discipline.

You learn about yourself
and how you respond under stress.

[Gatlin]
You may not feel 100% comfortable

with coming out of an aircraft
at 1,200 or 1,300 feet,

but you're gaining
some courage, some bravery

that you'll have to call upon later on.

[narrator] Cadets are trained
to handle high-stress situations,

like being stuck
behind enemy lines.

And army specialists recreate
capture scenarios,

including P.O.W. camps.

But with the Taliban
and other terrorist cells

offering $100,000 bounties

for the capture
of an American soldier,

just how do West Point cadets

prepare for this worst-case scenario?

Hey, you're right there.
Don't fire; just hold up.

-Should he mark with smoke?
-No, we got it.

No matter what environment you're in--

whether it's Iraq
or Afghanistan, whatever--

there's always that possibility
that you may be taken hostage.

And so how do you evade capture?

We can train the student
in order to prevent them

from giving away
that type of information.

For me, going through some of the most
extreme experiences in Afghanistan,

I think West Point has prepared me
for dealing with those scenarios

and dealing with that hardship
and profound experience

that some people have.

[man] All right, let's go.
Get up there.

[narrator] But as unconventional
warfare becomes

the new battleground
for the 21st century,

just how are West Point
cadets prepared

to defeat the enemies of tomorrow?

What confidential
battle techniques and secret knowledge

do they possess by the time they leave

America's most prestigious
military academy?

[narrator]
Graduation day, 2011.

More than 1,000 cadets
have completed four years

of rigorous training
and intense academic study.

[Lipsky] By the time they graduate
and they go into the army,

they have essentially lived
every role in the army

that their soldiers are gonna be living,

so they know how to lead them
when they get out.

It's really, really
brilliantly organized.

[man] Class dismissed!

[cheering]

[camera shutter clicks]

[narrator]
But just how and where

are cadets assigned
after four years at West Point?

And how is their performance
at the academy taken into consideration?

[Lipsky] You will pick your post
based on your order of merit,

which is your military grade,

your academic grade
and your physical grade.

So if you have done really well
at West Point,

you can choose your branch.

The army will pay
for your medical training,

and so the people
that have the best academic records

will go in
for the Medical Services Corps.

And the ones
who are really hard-core,

the ones who love
the army the most,

they're really hoping to get infantry,

which is the most dangerous,
the most high-risk.

[narrator] More than 200 years
after it was founded,

West Point continues to produce
many of America's finest leaders,

balancing deeply held traditions
with the demands of a changing world.

The enemy, it's a living,
it's a breathing, it's a thinking entity.

It has the ability
to exploit weaknesses.

They are savvy with regards

to information technology
in cyberspace.

[narrator] For the Army,
like every branch of the of the service,

the Word Wide Web
has become the new battlefield.

And in order
to counter enemy attacks,

West Point graduates have been trained

in both defensive and offensive
cyber capabilities.

[Raymond] Just like technology
has changed our everyday lives,

technology is everywhere
on the battlefield.

The intent there is to make them
understand what the threat is.

We certainly teach cadets some offensive
cyber security skills,

but we really have to do that

in order to teach them
how to defend their networks.

Any sort of hacking that we teach

is done
in a very controlled environment,

and the cadets
have a solid understanding

of what ethical behavior
on the network is.

To defend a network you have
to know what the threat is,

and so we teach them
how to be the threat.

[narrator] Of the roughly 1,000
cadets who graduate each year,

more than 40% will serve

at least 20 years
of active service in the U.S. Army.

But what becomes of the other 60%?

September 11, 2001.

When terrorists crashed
into the World Trade Center,

it was a harsh reminder

of just how vital today's
military leaders have become,

not only with regard
to fighting overseas,

but also in the protection
of American soil.

I was down at ground zero
for about a year

as the captain in charge of the National
Guard soldiers at ground zero.

I was New York City
Street Force Commander.

I was raised with this belief

that it's good to do something
for your country.

The mission of West Point isn't just
to prepare officers for the army,

it's also to inspire within each cadet
a desire to serve the nation.

[narrator] The commitment
of West Point graduates

to protect and serve outside the army

surged in the years that followed
the terrorist attacks of 9/11.

[Mullin] There have been
a lot of West Point graduates

who have gone on
to serve in the government

after their military service has ended.

The FBI, the CIA,
Department of Homeland Security.

One of my buddies,
he's on the SWAT team,

he's got the kids,
white picket fence.

You know,
machine guns in the trunk.

[narrator] In 2011,
General David Petraeus,

West Point class of 1974,

relinquished command of the U.S.
and NATO forces in Afghanistan

to become the Army's
first retired four-star general

to lead America's
Central Intelligence Agency.

His assignment served
to reinforce the strategic role

the Army
and its leaders will play

in a changing global landscape.

But beyond military battles
and matters of national security,

might future generations
of West Point graduates

be top candidates for other,
even more exclusive

and out-of-this-world professions?

There were three members
of the Apollo 11 crew.

Two were West Point graduates--

Buzz Aldrin, class of 1951,

and Michael Collins,
class of 1952.

[narrator] To date,
a total of 18 of America's astronauts

have been West Point graduates,
and that is only the beginning.

[Murphy] I think one
of the key secrets to West Point

is that for all the regimentation,
the hard work

and the focus and the preparation
for going to war,

at the end,
it's a leadership academy.

Underneath it all, they really are very
ordinary, if high-achieving, Americans,

but there's something
about the way they look out for each other

and the way that they always
come back to West Point

as one of the defining
experiences in their lives.

[Lipsky] Being asked
to meet a difficult standard

is something that's
immensely satisfying.

And that's one
of the only places in the world where,

on a daily basis,
on an hourly basis,

you are being asked
to meet that challenge,

and you're asking yourself
to meet that challenge, too.

That, to me,
is the great secret of West Point.

[narrator] Secret tactics?
Secret knowledge?

Secret training methods?

Will anyone outside of America's
most prestigious military academy

ever really know
the secrets of West Point?

One thing is certain:

the stakes remain high,
the dangers are many,

and, as it has throughout history,

West Point will continue to stand

at the forefront
of America's national defense.