Duty, Honor, Country

West Point Graduates Train For A Non-Traditional War On Terror

(CBS)  Wong says that experience has transformed West Point graduates like Blickhan into a new breed of leader: "It develops, in the junior officer corps, confidence, that 'Go ahead, give me something. I can handle it.' So, you're seeing this boldness, this audacity at the lower levels."

"Is there any danger of discipline somehow breaking down? Chain of command breaking down," asks Safer.

"This is still the Army," says Wong. "It's not anarchy. It's still, the people still salute. People still wear uniforms."

Kaufman is a stickler for discipline, but he says, "We, the Army, have got to be a learning organization, and accept how these youngsters develop themselves."

"It strikes me as the people who got to learn are the colonels and the generals," says Safer.

"Oh, the generals," says Kaufman. "Oh sure. Right, exactly. And we're getting there, more or less."

On May 28, the next elements in the long gray line will begin their journey to the front line. Lt. Blickhan will likely return for a third tour of duty, probably about the same time his wife, Lt. Natasha Blickhan, West Point Class of 2004, will be on her way back from Baghdad.

For him, the concerns of family and the burden of responsibility for 40 young men are not so different.

He lost two of his men in battle. What effect did it have on him? "I was devastated. It was one of the hardest and most personal things I’d ever dealt with," says Blickhan. "The men and I, we all put it together, packages for these guys. When your brother goes down, and these men were brothers, it's a family affair."

How did they die? "It was a roadside bomb. We were on a mosque-monitoring mission," says Blickhan. "Moving through a different platoon's area. A route that my guys had particular never taken before."

Did he catch anybody? "No," says Blickhan.

Back at West Point, there were other losses: 23 absent friends, officers like themselves who went to war and did not return.

"Do you ever take a half step back and say, 'Was this war really necessary?' Or you don't even go there?" asks Safer.

"No, on a daily basis. Because it's a responsibility I have to my soldiers, because they're gonna ask me those questions," says Blickhan. "And no reporter can put it as blunt as an American paratrooper. 'Why are we here? Why are we doing this?' And I've gotta be able to answer that. In my heart, I've found an answer that it's worth it. And I've lost soldiers, and Americans are dying over there, and Iraqis are dying, at a high rate. But we need to get through this, and we need to set them up. We’ve started this. Let’s finish it."

"Do you think that too much is being asked of guys like yourself?" says Safer.

"No, and I’ll tell you that because I look at my soldiers every day. They’re the ones that are demanding the high standard from me," says Blickhan. "It’s my responsibility to the soldier. And I’ll pay whatever price necessary to take care of those men. Definitely."