05 – United States Military Academy, West Point, NY

 July 2, 2017 – On Friday, June 30^th, we left Ft. Belvoir to continue our trip north with our next stop at West Point, NY.  For lunch we stopped in Flemington, NJ, and met up with my cousin Donna and her husband Eric Herbel.  We then continued north but ran into some traffic delays in northern New Jersey.  It was a close call as we needed to pick up our rental car by 5:00 PM and we made it with only 10 minutes to spare.  We then checked into our camp site.  Compared to all of the other campgrounds we’ve used before; this campground was much more rustic with no cell phone or WiFi coverage and no sewer hookup but we were able to pick up several TV stations out of New York City.  Site wasn’t very level and I had to use some wood blocks under the leveling jacks before I could get the rig leveled.  When I finally got it leveled, the front wheels were completely off of the ground.

The campground is located around a pond and had RV and tent site and cabin rentals.  Here are photos of the beach on the pond and one of the pavilions available for parties.

Saturday was mostly rainy so we took it easy.  We checked out the PX and Commissary and set up on one of the tables in the PX food court where we were able to get cell phone coverage so we could check our email and update this blog.

Sunday morning, we headed to the US Military Academy Catholic Chapel (Most Holy Trinity) for mass.  Here is a photo of the chapel we attended and the interior.  We then spent the rest of the day touring the Academy.

Here are photos of the New Cadet Chapel from two sides.  This is used for Protestant services.

Here are a couple of photos of the interior of this chapel.

Here is a photo of an example of the post housing for faculty.

And here is an example of the cadet dormitories.

We then headed over to Academy cemetery.  The first thing you see when you arrive is the Old Cadet Chapel which was built in 1837 right next to the river.  Then in 1911 it was moved to the cemetery, a distance of about a mile or so as well as being up on the bluffs.  Here is a photo of the old chapel exterior and interior. 

Inside the old chapel were many commemorative plaques for all of the 19^th century battles that Academy graduates died in.  Two that I found interesting were one to the first two cadets to graduate from the Academy in 1802.

And this plaque that was originally for Benedict Arnold to honor his early service in the Revolutionary War but after his treason, his name the citation were removed.

Lots of head stones in the cemetery, some very ordinary and some very elaborate.

And these to Custer and General-in-Chief of the Armies Winfield Scott.

The reason the Army was at West Point was that this is a narrow and hard to navigate section of the Hudson River. During the Revolutionary War, forts were built on both sides of the river at this location and a heavy chain was manufactured and stretched across the river so that British ships couldn’t come up the river to attack northern NY and isolate New England from the rest of the colonies.  These forts are the ones that Benedict Arnold was trying to betray when he went over to the British.  This location has a spectacular view of the Hudson River as shown in this photo.

Our last stop was the monument park which has lots of old cannons and monuments to wars that Academy graduates were involved in.  The most spectacular was this monument to Regular Army soldiers lost during the Civil War.

Tomorrow, Monday, we head on to Massachusetts where we plan to stay at the Air Force campground at Hanscom AFB.  However, they don’t take reservations.  When I talked to then they stated that they never fill up.  I guess we’ll find out tomorrow.