The officer may remain in their neighborhood for an hour, yet,
save upon an official matter, no cadet will speak until the officer
has moved on.
This "silence" may be given an officer for a stated number of
days, or it may be made permanent. It has sometimes happened
that an officer has been forced to ask a transfer from West Point
to some other Army station, simply because he could not endure
the "silence."
Very rarely, indeed, the silence is given to a cadet; it is more
especially applicable if he be a cadet officer who is in the habit
of reporting his fellow classmen for what they may consider
insufficient breaches of discipline.
The "cut" or "Coventry" is reserved for the cadet whom it is intended
to drive from the Army altogether. If a man at West Point is
"sent to Coventry" by the whole corps, or as a result of class
action, he will never be able to form friendships in the Army
again, no matter how long he remains in the Army, or how hard he
tries to fight the sentence down.
Cadet Jordan, as will have been noted, professed to be satisfied
if the class voted a week's "silence" to Dick Prescott, for Jordan
believed that by this time the tantalized young cadet captain
could be provoked into actions that would bring the imposition
of the "long silence" of permanent Coventry.
At the end of the busy cadet day, when the two cadet battalions
stood in formal array at dress parade, Cadet Adjutant Filson published
the day's orders.
Pages:
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36