But the functions of the academies have changed over the years. West Point produced people who built railroads and protected westward expansion. That's not the same West Point we have today. The nation's needs change. The nature of military science changes.
Science is a progressive enterprise, be it physics, biology, or military science.
And that includes the art of leadership and being an educated officer. It means more than being a nuclear scientist in the Navy. There was some thought for a while, I know, in the Rickover and immediate post-Rickover years, that education at the Naval Academy became too engineering oriented. I was on the board of overseers for a while with Admiral Stockdale. They need to be technically competent warriors, and you can't lose sight of that fact.