 He also spent a year at Charles Braden Preparatory Academy, a special preparatory school for the United States Military Academy at West Point.He passed the entrance examination and was appointed to West Point by then Secretary of War, William Howard Taft.He graduated from West Point in the class of 1909, which also included future generals George S. Patton, Jacob L. Devers, John C. H. Lee, Robert L. Eichelberger, and William H. Simpson.