My husband was commissioned via an ROTC program, not a service academy, but some of the sentiments in this article are true for anyone who chooses to serve in the military.
A Salute to West Point: “So his loved ones are a little saddened when we come across people apparently unable to process the idea that an intelligent young American with the world at his feet could be led by a sense of duty to West Point in a time of war.”
Reit This Way 
Loved that!! My family has a long history with West Point. My dad and all his brothers are graduates. Both my grandfathers are graduates. On my Dad's side, our family holds the record at West Point for most successive generations to have a graduate – we go back 7 generations – before the Civil War. I lived there as a child when my Dad was teaching there and have been back too many times to count for various anniversaries, weddings, functions, graduations, etc. I love that place, and it takes a special young man or woman to go there.