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The Story Behind "The American Dream" Photo at West Point
 
Tears stream down the face of West Point Cadet Alix Idrache during the 2016 commencement ceremony at the U.S. Military Academy. (Photo by Staff Sgt. Vito T. Bryant/ Army)

As 2nd Lt. Alix Schoelcher Idrache stood at attention during the commencement ceremony at West Point, N.Y., on Saturday, he was overcome with emotion. Tears rolled down both cheeks, but his gloved left hand held firm on his white, gold and black "cover," the dress headgear that Army cadets wear.

He worked his way through one of the nation's most prestigious military schools after immigrating to the United States from Haiti, earning his citizenship and serving for two years as an enlisted soldier with the Maryland Army National Guard, according to Army records.

"I woke up this morning and found my face all over Facebook and with it myriad of amazing comments about my accomplishments," Idrache wrote Tuesday on Facebook. "I am humbled and shocked at the same time. Thank you for giving me a shot at the American Dream and may God bless America, the greatest country on earth."

"Three things came to mind and led to those tears," Idrache wrote. "The first is where I started. I am from Haiti and never did I imagine that such honor would be one day bestowed on me. The second is where I am. Men and women who have preserved the very essence of the human condition stood in that position and took the same oath. Men who preserved the Union [in] a dark period of this country's history. Men who scaled the face of adversity and liberated Europe from fascism ...Women like CPT Griest, LT Haver, MAJ Jaster who rewrote the narrative and challenged the status quo to prove themselves worthy of being called Rangers."

The third thing Idrache thought about, he wrote, is his future. Shortly after he leaves West Point, he will report to Fort Rucker, Ala., to start flight school.

Idrache was a leader in his class of 950 cadets. According to a West Point news release, he was named a regimental commander last summer. Army officials at West Point said that he was on leave and not available for comment, but Idrache said in an Army news release Wednesday that he grew up in Port-au-Prince watching U.S. troops perform humanitarian missions in his native Haiti. He became West Point's top graduate in physics, earning the school's Brigadier General Gerald A. Counts Memorial Award.

Idrache's father, Dieujuste, immigrated to America and was able to bring the rest of his family with him in 2009, one year before an earthquake leveled much of Port-au-Prince. The family didn't have much, Idrache said, but his father always stressed the importance of education.

"My dad always said, 'Education is the only gift I can always give you, because I don't have any anything material to give,'" Idrache recalled in the Army news release.

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This story provided to The Black Star Project by Kirkland Burke.
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From The Black Star Learning Center

Patriotism - "A man's country is not a certain area of land, of mountains, rivers, and woods, but it is a principle and patriotism is loyalty to that principle."

-- George William Curtis

Quote provided by Black Star Member Stanley Jendresak