During CBT, upper-class instructors, tactical officers and noncommissioned officers educate and train new cadets in basic soldier skills and prepare them for acceptance into the Corps of Cadets. In addition, the program is designed to inspire each new cadet to internalize the ideals of West Point and the Army. Along with instruction in military subjects, new cadets participate in drills, marches and overnight field training. Cadet Basic Training culminates in a week of training and living in a field environment and a 15-mile march back to West Point. Soon after, they are accepted into the Corps and acknowledged as plebes in a brigade ceremony on the Plain.
Every summer cadets engage in progressively advanced military training.
They also receive instruction in military subjects throughout the academic year and during a two-week intersession period immediately after their December holiday leave. These words of General Douglas MacArthur express a fundamental part of the West Point philosophy. In addition to the required physical education courses, every cadet must engage in intramural, competitive club, or intercollegiate athletics. This program of athletics is based on the belief that cadets will develop a desire to maintain a high degree of physical fitness throughout lifetimes of service and that fit and physically capable Army officers will perform more effectively. Plebes pursue a rigorous physical education curriculum that includes boxing and wrestling for men and self-defense, swimming and gymnastics for women.