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kriswest, I'm the son of a USMA '63 grad and the cousin of USMA '85, '91 and '96 grads (as well as USNA '88, but he's the black sheep). For those of us who didn't go to West Point, family reunions are boring affairs with all the military talk. So you and I were probably raised in very similar households. My father's class was back at West Point 2 years ago to do Beast Week with the plebes, and his comment was that it was different but definitely as challenging as when he did it.
As far as training to "understand and acclimate what they will confront", there's no training in the world that can prepare you killing another human being that you've never seen before (the psycology of it, not the mechanics, obviously) or watching your friends be killed. Your claim about PTSD is based on statistics that anyone with the most basic understanding of the history of the diagnosis would agree is misleading at best and most likely outright faulty.
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