US Presidency
2002

During my college years I guess you could say I was During my college years I guess you could say I was a Grant man. You walk in the tradition of Eisenhower and MacArthur, Patton and Bradley - the commanders who saved a civilization. And you walk in the tradition of second lieutenants who did the same, by fighting and dying on distant battlefields. Graduates of this academy have brought creativity and courage to every field of endeavor. West Point produced the chief engineer of the Panama Canal, the mind behind the Manhattan Project, the first American to walk in space. This fine institution gave us the man they say invented baseball, and other young men over the years who perfected the game of football. You know this, but many in America don't George C. Marshall, a VMI graduate, is said to have given this order: I want an officer for a secret and dangerous mission. I want a West Point football player.