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This article relates to Rites of Passage because it is about how four cadets, three of them being women, and how it went in their school. It also talks about how more and more women qualify to go to West Point and many more are graduating each year. Because of Sam, next year in the DMA program, they are adding more girls for her to train, and because of these women, more girls have the courage to join the military and to go into training with military schools.

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In his opening remarks to the graduating class at the U. S. Military Academy at West Point in May, President Obama called out four cadets by name. Three of them were women: Austen Boroff and Erin Mauldin, leaders in one of the academy's four regiments, and Calla Glavin, a Rhodes Scholar and lacrosse goalie. At the ceremony's close, Obama was succeeded by the chain of command, which ended with the top cadet - Lindsey Danilack, just the fourth woman to hold this position - giving an order. "Class of 2014, dismissed," she said.

From its founding in 1802, on George Washington's earlier recommendation, until 1976, West Point admitted no women. Since then, more than 4,100 have followed in the steps of the first 62 female graduates in 1980. Many more are on the way, too, now that the American military will be opening combat positions to qualifying women by 2016. The 263 female cadets who started at West Point this year made up 22 percent of the incoming class, a record number, up from 16 percent last year.

They and their fellow first-year cadets, or plebes, reported for Reception Day on July 2, which marked the beginning of six weeks of cadet basic training, a k a Beast Barracks, and the end of their civilian lifestyles. "I knew I was going to need to step it up in the physical realm," Danilack says, referring to her own early days on campus. "But I never knew it was going to be as hard as it turned out to be." Upon graduating, she and her classmates received their commissions - and their bars - as second lieutenants in the U.S. Army.

In the weeks leading up to the occasion, the photographer Damon Winter of The New York Times followed Danilack and several other female cadets - including the Efaws, three sisters in three separate classes in the same school year - to capture a sense of daily life for women at one of the nation's elite educational institutions.

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united states defense and military forces

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In his opening remarks to the graduating class at the U. S. Military Academy at West Point in May, President Obama called out four cadets by name. Three of them were women: Austen Boroff and Erin Mauldin, leaders in one of the academy's four regiments, and Calla Glavin, a Rhodes Scholar and lacrosse goalie.

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This video relates to my book because it is about the first two girl Army Rangers. The girls in the video did not only show that girls can accomplish military school, but they are also stronger than most men there.  Sam accomplished the first year of the DMA, which the other three girls could not have, and so did these girls. The girls in the video did more than the men could, by carrying the other men's weapons when they were too tired and weak. Sam, Captain Griest and Lieutenant Haver, all showed the men there, that girls really do belong in military school.

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The theme in Rites of Passage is, if you overcome all the bad, then good will come out of it. Sam accomplished the DMA and all the hurdles that came with it, and became higher ranked than most boys that have been there for years. The higher ranking did come because of all the abuse she experienced during the DMA, but she also earned it, by pushing herself more then the guys there. Sam ended up getting the position of Drill sergeant, and in the next year she will be in charge of the next group of girls and training them.

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There are many antagonists in this book, but the main one is Corporal Matthews. From the beginning of the book, Matthew has had it out for the girls who joined the DMA that year, but especially Sam. Matthew makes all of her company hate her, calling her the "weakest link" and making them do smoke shows. Matthew and many other cadets and corporals, even Sam's brother, continue a secret society called the Panda Society, that makes a plan to make Sam leave the program and to even kill her. The society makes Sam's life at the DMA harder than it already is by shooting her with a rubber bullet, freezing snowballs and hitting her in the head and even stalking her and her friends at night and sneaking into their rooms and trashing it. They also wrote in Sam's KB (Knowledge Book) which got her and her company in trouble.

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Sam McKenna is the one of the first four girls to go to the DMA (Denmark Military Academy) which has been an all boys school for over 100 years. The guys at the DMA make it very hard for Sam to stay there and they want her to quit, but she is determined to stay there because she wants to prove a point.  One of the Corporal's there, makes it very hard for her to prove she is tougher than the guys, but she is stronger than everyone thinks; especially since she has the experience, coming from a big military family.
Sam is a very strong person. The guys at the DMA push and hurt her and even try to kill her, but she still fights for her position. "I put a hand protectively over my side and that's when I feel it- a lump the size of an egg near my ribs. 'Get Drill and Rev, but don't tell anyone else, ' I say through clenched teeth. 'Rubber bullet. I've been shot.' "  Sam is also, for the most part, a rule follower. She keeps herself distant enough from all the boys so she does not take an interest in one, because that is against the rules. Although, at the end Sam falls in love with her drill sergeant. Sometimes, though, Sam will sneak out of her dorm at night but for her own advantage. Such as to get stronger so she can go to the next level, at the DMA. Sam does fight for herself though, when she gets in a bad situation, "Without thinking, I spit in his face, angry that he thinks he can make me beg." and also, "I'm about to yell out again when the hand leaves my foot and clamps over my mouth. I bite down as hard as I can." Sam is a very motivational person, she knows she can prove to all the guys she can be in the DMA. When her brother, Jonathan, tells Sam he hopes they kill her and to give up, Sam still pushes herself to not quit and to prove to everyone she can accomplish this school.

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The setting in the book "Rite of Passage" by Joy N. Hensley is in Fort Bragg, North Carolina, in a military school up in the mountains. "Well, incase you're living under a rock all summer, here's a refresher:  Commander of the Third Special Forces Group based out of Fort Bragg, North Carolina." The setting in the book is important, especially in the end of the book when two cadets try to kill Sam by throwing her off of a waterfall in the woods, during a training at the end of the year.