One Saturday when Walt was a senior in high school, he was walking downtown with his friend Dave. They had just stopped by the library and Walt had checked out a few more chess books.
Dave and Walt were headed back home when they walked by the office of Congressman Frazier Reams. They suddenly remembered an announcement at school that Congressman Reams was accepting applications to the military academies. “Let’s check it out,” Dave said.
So, a month later, they were taking several tests with another hundred applicants. With the combination of the written and oral tests, Walt ended up in first place. So he got to choose which military academy he wanted to attend—Army, Navy, Air Force, or Coast Guard.
For Walt the choice was obvious. The challenge and prestige of West Point, the Army’s academy, had always attracted him. He wanted to go to West Point because he felt it was the best, the most rigorous and most challenging. But he still had to pass West Point’s physical test, mental test, and medical test. The mental test was no problem for him; he worried, though, that the military might not accept him because of his history with the heart murmur. Walt informed the military doctors of the earlier diagnosis, but they thoroughly checked him and said it was no problem.