ANNAPOLIS, Maryland:

Giancarlo Alpuche looked every bit like the other 1,200 Naval Academy freshmen who reunited with family, yesterday, after six weeks of indoctrination that cut him off from the world.

His shoes were shined, his cap squarely fitted and his shirt tucked in. He displayed a respectable command of midshipman lingo, using a dizzying array of acronyms when he greeted peers. And his parents were thrilled to see him he was 10 pounds lighter than when he showed up in Annapolis.

But there was one thing he didn't share with his peers: an allegiance to the Constitution.

Exchange programme

A native of Belize, Alpuche is one of 48 international students who attends the academy full-time as part of a military exchange programme that dates back to the Civil War. The practice has been stepped up in recent years at all the United States service academies, in an effort to give officer trainees a broader cultural understanding.

"It was really a challenge to come here from a foreign country and a laid-back civilian lifestyle and learn the standards of such an advanced military,'' Alpuche said, shortly after embracing his parents who had flown in from the small Caribbean country. "But overall, it was incredible.''

The international 'Mids' hail from all over the world, including Central and South America, Eastern Europe, Africa and the Middle East, and attend the academy for four years at the expense of their own countries, in exchange for their promise to fulfil a service commitment there.

Cultural clash

While academy officials and outside observers have praised the programme, the task of introducing dozens of foreigners to the American military has brought about the occasional cultural clash, such as difficulty in taking orders from females.

The other service academies have welcomed cadets from Iraq, Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Chad, Egypt, Rwanda and Georgia. The U.S. Military Academy in West Point, New York, is host to 60 international students, the Pentagon-mandated limit, and the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs has 52 foreign cadets.

Although Alpuche, 19, seemed to blend in well as he reunited with his mother and father, both of whom were proud of his success in Annapolis thus far, the cultural divide was evident nonetheless.

The cadre - older Mids charged with preparing plebes for academy life - often teased him, he said, not unlike they do to every midshipman in the process of "breaking them down". They also mercilessly made fun of his shoulder-length hair and peach-fuzz moustache depicted on his Belizean driver's licence.

Began to blend in

But once he had time to prove himself, suffering through gruelling workouts and tedious initiation rituals, including reciting memorised lunch menus or newspaper articles on command from upper-classmen, he gradually began to blend in, he said.

"No one had any idea even where Belize was,'' he said.

When he completes his academy education, Giancarlo Alpuche said he has committed to serve the Belizean government for at least four years not necessarily in the military, he said.

"I'm always goofing around and not being too serious, sir, and having to stand straight up and not smile and not move was not what I was used to," he said with a smile, standing straight up, with his hands in fists at his side, almost at attention.

- Los Angeles Times-Washington Post News Service