COLUMN ONE : Changing Cadence at West Point : Graduates of the nation’s venerable Army academy brace for a world in which the military is smaller and their careers less certain.

When Stacy Anselmi left her hometown of Napa, Calif., to enroll at the United States Military Academy here nearly four years ago, the Berlin Wall was still in place, a symbol of the Cold War she thought she would one day help to wage.

Now the wall is demolished, a slab of it even on display at the academy’s visitors center, high above the Hudson River. And Anselmi is set to finish her West Point education this spring, aware of how the Soviet bloc’s demise is affecting the academy and the Army career she is about to begin.

“There’s a lot of talk about what the Army can be used for, even though it is being downsized. Are we going to use troops to combat drugs imported from South America? Are we going to use them to fight forest fires in Yellowstone Park? . . . My personal feeling is that it would be all right to do those things. We’ve got to meet the needs of society,” said Anselmi, 21, who is West Point’s top-ranked female cadet, commanding a 1,100-student regiment.

With the end of the Cold War, the Army into which Anselmi will graduate as a second lieutenant this spring is smaller and more uncertain of its mission than she or any of her classmates anticipated during their plebe, or first, year at West Point. Likewise, the academy, a 190-year-old citadel of granite walls and stern traditions, is being forced to trim its Long Gray Line of cadets, while preparing them for careers that may be less secure.

Budget cuts and controversial policy changes have taken away the near-guarantee of lifetime military careers for most academy graduates who want one. Seeing middle-aged officers being forced into early retirement, cadets worry that previously popular postings in Germany, for example, could be dead ends.

At the same time, Congress has ordered the Army academy, the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis and the U.S. Air Force Academy at Colorado Springs to reduce their maximum authorized enrollments of 4,400 students each by 10% over the next three years. Some congressional staffers and other critics want much deeper cuts, and even possible elimination of the schools, contending that the academies are elitist and too expensive.

“There is some sense of being threatened,” said Col. Patrick Toffler, West Point’s director of institutional research and a 1968 graduate.

In that debate, West Point’s best weapon may be its inescapable sense of history. Its barracks and classrooms, even those constructed in the 1960s, have similar granite facades and an imposing Gothic style that seem to repel passing fads. The spit-and-polish discipline and the honor code persist, whether in a Cold War, Gulf War or no war. Cadets march to lunch in formation past statues of George Washington and George Patton as drumbeats echo back in time.

Before it housed the school, West Point was a fortress, founded by Washington because of its strategic spot on a western bluff above a Hudson River bend. It was a great location to aim cannons against British ships in the War for Independence. The river vistas from the hilly 16,000-acre campus remain overpowering, unspoiled through two centuries.

In a setting so steeped in tradition, it’s not surprising that West Point’s top brass maintain that the institution does not need big changes, that the training of future officers remains important in a still dangerous world.

“We never recruited to get students here to protect America against the communists. We recruited them here to serve their country in whatever way their country needed. In that sense we don’t have to undo something we were doing,” Lt. Gen. Howard Graves, West Point’s superintendent since July, said during an interview in his office, an imposing wood paneled room lined with portraits of his predecessors, including Robert E. Lee and Gen. Douglas MacArthur.

Anselmi, who will be a Signal Corps platoon leader in Hawaii, agreed. “Sure, your location could be different in the future, but your job is fundamentally the same. You’re leading troops.”

According to its guide books, West Point’s official purpose is “to provide the nation with leaders of character who serve the common defense.” Its educational program is a rigorous blend of academics, athletics, military training and indoctrination over four years, including summers. Classroom work is heavy on engineering, science and military history, but students can major in humanities and social sciences.

Since courses never included high levels of Cold War nuclear strategy, cadets and faculty say the program won’t need much altering for a smaller Army in a new era. Yet, as at civilian colleges, the Cold War’s end is being felt strongly in history and political science classes. Instructors who used to point to the former Soviet Union as “the threat” now mention unspecified “threats” and say the future may bring more conflicts in places like Panama, Grenada or Kuwait.

Lt. Joseph Collins, director of national security courses, recalled that students used to practically chant dogmatic answers about Soviet authoritarianism. “Now so much is up for grabs, all we can do is equip them with theoretical tools, keep up with current events and hope they can think their way through it all,” he said.

At a social science class about developing nations, an instructor told upperclassmen recently about how Third World countries had manipulated U.S.-Soviet rivalries for economic aid. Now, the Third World will be less able to win such help, said Ron McMullen, a visiting teacher who is a State Department officer. “The world has changed since you were plebes,” he declared.

Such geopolitical shifts prompted Matt Blitch, who also graduates this spring, to sign up for a light infantry division at Ft. Ord in Northern California, which he believes will increase his chances of serving in a Latin American or Asian conflict. He decided against an assignment in Germany.

“Personally for me, it’s easier to motivate men if you can say you might go to war one day,” the 21-year-old from Tustin said during an interview in a formal reception room filled with portraits of famous alumni like Dwight D. Eisenhower and MacArthur. “In Germany, it’d be harder to say, ‘You guys need to do this because we may be going to war right here.’ It’s harder because there is no threat anymore in Germany.”

Just after the Vietnam War, West Point was supplying about 8% of new Army officers, compared to the current 24%, a new study by the congressional General Accounting Office (GAO) suggests. To roll back the officer stream from West Point, the GAO says, enrollment might have to be limited to 2,500 cadets, a 40% drop from today.

The relatively high proportion of academy graduates in the officer corps is partly due to reforms at the schools that have lowered attrition rates, GAO officials say. Although some alumni think those changes equaled the fall of Saigon, the admission of women 15 years ago reportedly helped humanize the academy, as did the elimination two years ago of the most onerous plebe rules at West Point. New cadets no longer must remain silent during meals or walk robot-like in 90-degree angles around any obstacle, even sneakers on the floor. Upperclassman no longer can scream in a plebe’s face for petty violations.

With its 10% enrollment cut under way, West Point must trim $16 million from its current $250-million annual operating budget by 1995. But U.S. Sen. John Glenn, the Ohio Democrat who is chairman of the Senate Armed Services subcommittee that oversees academies, said in a telephone interview that he would strongly oppose any larger drop in enrollments.

“We cannot keep an artificially large military. But at the same time we are going to need a really professional army and no doubt, on the average, the most professional people come from the academy,” said Glenn, a former Marine officer and astronaut, who did not attend an academy but came up the ranks via a Navy pilot school.

Ironically, talk of cuts comes as the academy is experiencing a surge in applicants, a contrast to the years of the unpopular Vietnam War and cheating scandals in the ‘70s. Initial applications for the Class of 1996 now total 13,641, about 1,500 more than last year and reportedly the third-highest in history, according to Col. Pierce Rushton, admissions director.

Officials attribute the rise in part to the success of the Gulf War--which was led by 1956 West Point alumnus and former instructor Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf. In addition, a free college education, a stipend for books and uniforms and a guaranteed job after graduation look good to some young people during a recession.

Despite the upturn in applicants, West Point leaders are concerned that some excellent students might not apply if Army careers are perceived to be as shaky as jobs in the American auto industry.

By tradition, academy graduates automatically become second lieutenants, or its equivalent, with regular Army, Navy, Marine Corps or Air Force commissions. In general, that meant they were on paths for long military careers. As a result of congressional action, academy graduates starting with the class of 1997 will be on active duty with reserve status commissions. That means they must compete with Reserve Officers Training Corps (ROTC) graduates from civilian colleges for the more secure regular commissions needed for 20- or 30-year careers.

The commission change partly reflects longstanding national concerns that the academies may foster undemocratic cronyism. Some founding fathers strongly opposed a professional military school, saying that a people’s army in reserve best served a republic. Throughout today’s Army, officers who came up through the ranks grumble about an alleged “West Point Protective Assn.,” a supposed Old-Boy Network that dominates high command. West Pointers deny that such a network exists.

U.S. Sen. Sam Nunn, the Georgia Democrat who chairs the Senate Armed Services Committee, insists that the commission change is fair. “In an environment in which the military services will have to be even more selective than they are now in picking their future leaders, it is essential that they make this decision on the basis of demonstrated performance and potential on the job,” Nunn said in a prepared statement.

West Pointers say they are not afraid of competition for commissions. But they resent the withdrawal of what they considered a reward for all of the 6 a.m. reveilles, the midnight lights-outs, boot camp marching in heat and snow, the constant attention to uniforms and etiquette, the complicated system of discipline and demerits.

“I was kind of upset to hear about it,” said senior Tom Feuerborn of Tustin, echoing the opinion of many cadets. “I wouldn’t have come here if I was going to be put on the same level as an ROTC graduate. I would have gone to a civilian school, joined ROTC and had a lot more social fun than at West Point.” Since the change doesn’t affect his class, Feuerborn, 21, is getting a regular commission in Army aviation. He will attend flight school at Ft. Rucker, Ala. A separate GAO report last year challenged the efficiency, costs and educational quality at the three main military academies.

In figures strongly contested by the Department of Defense, the GAO said it cost $228,500 to produce a West Point graduate for the officer corps, about four times the cost per student enrolled in ROTC and as much as 15 times the cost of putting enlisted men and women through other officer training programs. Academy officials contend that the GAO unfairly included costs of the West Point hospital and upkeep of historic facilities there.

Academy graduates remain in the service longer than officers promoted from other sources, according to the GAO. But the agency also pointed out that 39% of West Point graduates resign from the Army within their first eight years. That is a touchy issue in Congress because of the free education that cadets receive. Beginning for the class entering next fall, mandatory military duty for all service academy graduates will be six years, one more than now required.

The GAO study also suggested that academy education may be suffering because only 26% of West Point’s 488 faculty members have doctoral degrees, compared to 79% on faculties at surveyed civilian colleges that offer undergraduate engineering degrees. Likewise, the GAO questioned the frequent rotation of military officers as West Point instructors and expressed concerns that demands of military and physical training may leave “inadequate time for students to pursue academic excellence.”

West Point officials contend that having good military role models as instructors is more important than having a brigade of top researchers on campus. The downside is that some instructors face the dreaded “RIFs”--reduction in forces--filtering through the Army. To quell anxiety, cadets are being told that their own career promotions will come quickly because so many middle-aged officers will be gone soon.

Some cadets regard such reassurances as Pentagon spin control. Cadet Daniel Kudrna, an enthusiastic 19-year-old from Eureka, does not. “When you cut the forces, good people might be lost along the way, which is sad. That could be me. It could be anyone,” he said. “But after it’s all said and done, we will have, hopefully, some incredible leadership throughout the ranks.”

It may be heresy to the Old Guard, yet the prospect of a peacetime Army positively excites Kudrna.

“I’d rather have the Army be a disciplined group of people prepared to defend the country if necessary but use their resources other times to better the country,” he said. “I think our country has a lot of places right now where we could use talented . . . strong, physically fit young men and women. Use their muscles and their intelligence to change some things about this country.”

Inside West Point

Here is a look at the United States Military Academy, or West Point:

Founded: 1802, at West Point, N.Y.

Enrollment: 4,264, including 6% black, 3.4% Latino, 5% Asian-American. Women, first admitted in 1976, number 493, or 11.5%.

Applicants: 13,641 so far this year; about 1,200 will be admitted.

Academic profile: 86% of cadets ranked in the top fifth of their high school graduating class; average SAT scores for the current freshman class are 559 verbal and 648 math, compared to the national averages of 422 and 474.

Attrition rate: About 30% over four years.

Faculty: 488 instructors, including 458 military officers and 30 civilians.

Tuition: No cost to student. In addition, room and board and medical care provided free. Cadets also receive about $6,500 in annual stipends to help pay for a personal computer, uniforms and books.

Requirements: Applicants must be single and at least 17 but not yet 22 years old on July 1 of the year they wish to enter; have no legal obligation to support children; have above-average academic record and strong performance on the SAT or other standardized college entrance exams; have good physical and mental health and pass a fitness test that includes timed running and pull-ups for men and flexed-arm hang for women; if civilians, they must be nominated by a member of Congress or the vice president (the President and Army officials nominate applicants who are already in the Army).

Active duty service: Average length of service after graduation is 13 years. Starting with the Class of 1992, all cadets must serve at least six years, up one year from the current obligation.

Well-known graduates: Ulysses S. Grant, Robert E. Lee, John J. Pershing, Douglas MacArthur, Dwight D. Eisenhower, George S. Patton Jr., William C. Westmoreland, H. Norman Schwarzkopf.

SOURCE: United States Military Academy