MacArthur began to excel in his schooling when he entered the military academy at West Point, N.Y. MacArthur graduated first in his class in 1903, with the highest scholastic average at the academy in 25 years.
During the ten years after his graduation, he served as an aide and a junior engineering officer in the Phillipines, Panama, and the U.S. MacArthur was on the general staff of the war department for four years. In 1914, he served with the American forces that seized the Mexican city of Veracruz.
