"In September 1910 Eisenhower learned of an announcement of a competitive examination for applicants to the service academies. He also discovered that due to his age, he was no longer eligible to enter the Naval Academy, his first choice. He took the exam and scored second among the eight candidates. Eisenhower secured an appointment to West Point. Dwight D. Eisenhower entered the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York in June 1911. He graduated in June 1915. Second Lieutenant Eisenhower's first assignment was at Fort Sam Houston, Texas. In the years that followed Eisenhower’s duties included the Army’s 1919 Transcontinental Motor Convoy, the Tank Corps, the Battle Monuments Commission, football coaching, and training recruits for World War I." (D. D. Eisenhower Presidential Museum/Library)
Transcontinental Trip
Photo courtesy of the Eisenhower Library
In 1919 Ike was selected as one of the few to participate in the War Department's first transcontinental journey all the way from the east to the west coast. The trip was long, taking about two months and was a quite dangerous. Perhaps this trip was inspiration for Eisenhower's Highway System, which significantly cut the time of a cross-country trip.
World War I
Documentation from West Point says Ike was, "Born to Command," perhaps this foreshadowed his Military and Political Leadership; because of this fact Eisenhower was a top choice to train new recruits for World War I. Eisenhower had always longed to be deployed himself, and that wish came true when in October of 1918, he received orders to go to Europe; the plans however didn't work out as the war ended one month later, and Ike never saw combat.
"When I found the first camp like that I think I never was so angry in my life. The bestiality displayed there was not merely piled up bodies of people that had starved to death, but to follow out the road and see where they tried to evacuate them so they could still work, you could see where they sprawled on the road. You could go to their burial pits and see horrors that really I wouldn't even want to begin to describe. I think people ought to know about such things. It explains something of my attitude toward the German war criminal. I believe he must be punished, and I will hold out for that forever."
Press conference, 6/18/45 [DDE's Pre-Presidential Papers, Principal File, Box 156, Press Statements and Releases, 1944-46 (1)]