POST FALLS - In a damp, grassy field near Real Life Ministries of Post Falls, about a dozen Idaho National Guardsmen and women stood closely-packed on small wooden platforms.

Their Sunday morning task: Move from one island to the other, without touching the ground, using two skinny boards of different lengths. Sounds easy enough, but here's the catch: Neither board was long enough to bridge the gaps by itself.

PV-2 Zachary Livingston, 19, and Specialist Brad Smith, 21, gripped a piece of cord and tied their tightest knots, lashing the two boards together. They improvised and communicated, working together to solve the problem.

Then, weighing down their ends of the makeshift bridge, the two men helped stabilize the wobbly boards as their teammates carefully crossed over.

Mission accomplished.

"It's awesome - that's the sum of it," Livingston said of the National Guard. "I've been exposed to all kinds of different stuff."

He and Smith are now preparing for the next step of their Army careers: the United States Military Academy in West Point, New York. Recently accepted, they will attend the Preparatory Academy for one year, then shift to the main West Point campus for a traditional four-year stint.

"(The academy) has a lot of confidence in both young men," said Capt. Steve Keeton, officer strength manager at the Post Falls Armory.

A very selective institution, West Point reserves just 85 training seats for National Guard applicants from all over the country. Livingston and Smith, possessing many of the leadership qualities the Army values, made the grade.

School starts on July 18.

Livingston, a Spirit Lake resident and member of the National Guard's Recruit Sustainment Program, attended Army Basic Training in Oklahoma last year.

"I learned that I love the Army, I love to serve, and I love the day-to-day," Livingston said.

Still, like all newcomers at the Point, he will endure the academy's own basic training when he arrives. Classes, homework and strict discipline will follow. Livingston plans to major in mechanical engineering - he loves to tinker with machinery.

"It's a difficult goal, but the bigger the challenge, the bigger the reward," he said.

Army engineers are the unsung heroes of any campaign. They build bridges, roads and airfields, establishing infrastructure in war-torn countries. Their projects often include civilian facilities, too, such as schoolhouses or treatment plants.

West Point graduates serve at least five years in the active-duty Army, and Livingston hopes to join an engineering unit when his time in New York is finished.

"He takes direction very well," Keeton said. "I think the thing he has to work on the most is the physical element. But I think he has the other two elements: the academics, and that sense of order and urgency."

This winter, Livingston said, he was struggling to meet the West Point physical requirements: pull-ups, sit-ups, a shuttle run and basketball throw. Coached by Sgt. Brook Benningfield, he soldiered through a rigorous training program at the Kroc Center, building his endurance and strength.

"A lot of what we worked on was sit-ups," Livingston said. "We did ab exercises, played around with the medicine ball ... tried to maintain an overall fitness picture."

Now the slim teenager is in tip-top shape.

"I think a lot of his success, too, is things are 90 percent mental and 10 percent physical," Benningfield said. "He has his stuff wired tight."

Burly and tough, Specialist Smith is also physically fit. He joined the Guard in 2009 and excelled as a member of the 126th Engineers, based in Moscow.

After two years of pre-law and political science at North Idaho College, Smith is ready for the challenges of West Point, where he will most likely major in law. His time with the National Guard has readied him for the Army's top institution.

"To be a good leader, you have to first be a good follower," said Smith, who lives in Coeur d'Alene. "If you can't follow orders, you can't succeed."

His time at the academy will be strictly regimented. Physical training in the morning, classes, mandatory sports in the afternoon, more classes and studying - the days are long and full.

Smith is primed for the test. He can't wait to push his limits, he said; he's looking forward to something new, something difficult. The prospect of learning from combat veterans excites him.

During his five-year commitment, Smith wants to be an infantry officer or Army Ranger.

"The standards will be high at West Point," he said, "and what better (way) to maintain a high standard?"

Always gung-ho, Smith has impressed his superiors. By all accounts, he will do very well at the academy.

"He's a stud. He really is," Benningfield said. "He has leadership skills that precede his rank. He's the type of person people would want to look up to."

When they graduate from West Point as newly-commissioned second lieutenants, Livingston and Smith will join the "Long Gray Line," a symbol of the academy's rich legacy.

The Line is 200 years in the making - Ulysses S. Grant, Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson, Robert E. Lee and Dwight D. Eisenhower once walked the West Point campus, on their way to making history. The young men from North Idaho will follow in the bootsteps of those famous leaders.

Smith chose to attend West Point, he said, because of its "super academics, leadership, and physical training. And of course, the most important part, to serve my country."