JUNE 19, 2025 – The saying “what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger” describes the experience of West Point cadets, who have built on their strengths and leadership abilities through summer training.
During Cadet Field Training, members of the Class of 2028 faced various levels of situational fears as they navigated the Marne Confidence Course and the Water Confidence Course on June 5 at Camp Buckner.
To complete the Marne Confidence Course, cadets tackled obstacles like barbed wire crawls, rope climbs and high ladder structures. Cadets then marched to the Water Confidence Course where they scaled and walked across a balance beam, zipped over Popolopen Lake on the ‘Slide for Life’, and maneuvered ropes before dropping into the water below.
Class of 2027 Cadet Quintin Summers conquered each of the courses, which are part of the U.S. Military Academy’s graduation requirement. A serious shoulder injury the year before had kept him from completing these challenges. Now fully recovered, Summers reflected on how it felt to face his fears and succeed.
“It felt like my soul left my body,” Summers said of the zip line. Although Summers has done zip lines before, the encounter still felt exhilarating.
“Even being able to do the dead hang on the zip line was a challenge in itself for me today,” he mentioned.
The obstacle that troubled him most on the Marne Confidence Course required him to jump onto a thick log at the top of the obstacle and do a full turn before landing on his feet.
“I’m pretty small in height, and the log was pretty far in distance,” Summers stated. “I hit the top of my chest three times and then hit the bottom of my gut twice before I succeeded.”
The CFT experience helped Summers in building that self-assurance going forward as he will return in July as a cadre member for Cadet Basic Training.
“I will use the confidence that I’ve learned here today to lead my new cadets,” Summers said.
As for Class of 2028 Cadet Rylee Lewis, experiencing adversity on the confidence courses taught her that “your mind can overcome a lot more than you think.”
“When you’re up there and you’re balancing with everything shaking, you think your body can’t do it, but your mind comes through. Everything is mental,” Lewis described. “You can really do anything that you put your mind to.”
As a future leader, Lewis hopes she “can portray and convey that to my subordinates and those who follow me.”
“I’m a little scared of heights, so I just had to get through that mental obstacle,” Lewis acknowledged her nerves. “But once you get started, there’s no turning back. And that was the best part about it – facing and overcoming the fear.”
As CFT I ended on June 8, Lewis reflected on her growth as a future officer. “It taught me that I can learn a lot from the people around me. It’s never ending, and the knowledge just keeps coming,” she said. “My team leader in the field taught me that I can command, and I can spread what I know to those around me. It takes a lot to be a leader, but you have to be confident in yourself”
“Just like performing this obstacle course, you’ve got to be confident in your mind, your body and your emotions,” Lewis added. “CFT gave everyone an opportunity to do that and prove it to themselves that they are capable of being a competent leader.”
Story by Eric Bartelt
United States Military Academy at West Point