By the end of his fourth day as a plebe at Valley Forge Military Academy in Wayne, Pa., Wes Moore had run away four times. Sgt. Austin, Moore’s squad leader, told him, “Listen, Moore, you don’t want to be here, and quite honestly, we don’t want you here, so I have drawn you a map of how to get to the train station.”
Moore wanted to return to his mother’s home and to see his friends, and “here was my squad leader, for whom I had no love, giving me what felt like one of the greatest gifts I had ever received — this map was my path to freedom. This map was my path home.”
It turned out that the map led Moore nowhere but to the middle of the woods. The members of Moore’s chain of command, including Austin, escorted Moore back to the school and into the office of Col. Battaglioli, the tactical officer, who allowed Moore to phone his mother. Moore begged his mother to let him come home. She cut him off.
“Wes, you are not going anywhere until you give this place a try … Too many people have sacrificed in order for you to be here.”
Moore’s grandparents took all the money they had and gave it to Moore’s mother so she could finance her son’s first year at military........