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There's no crying in football — or in the Army, for that matter. But after being issued a helmet and gearing up for his first NFL practice with the Detroit Lions, Caleb Campbell admitted that he shed a few tears Wednesday when he learned he would be joining his fellow West Point graduates in either Afghanistan or Iraq instead of taking the field. When Campbell was drafted in the seventh round by the Lions in April, it opened up a debate about whether it was fair that he'd be lacing up his cleats come fall, when his comrades would be...

Three years after a scandal at the Air Force Academy over the evangelizing of cadets by Christian staff and faculty members, students and staff at West Point and the Naval Academy are complaining that their schools, too, have pushed religion on cadets and midshipmen.

BREWSTER, Mass. -- The man who had been the oldest living graduate of the United States Military Academy has died. Retired Col. Benjamin Whitehouse died at the age of 105 Wednesday at a Brewster nursing home. He suffered a stroke last month. The West Point Association of Graduates says Whitehouse graduated in 1927 and left military service in 1929. He worked in the automative industry before re-enlisting the day after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Whitehouse served in North Africa, Italy, France and Germany, earning two Bronze Stars, before retiring from military service in 1957. He's survived by two children,...

His name is Lt. Col. Greg Gadson and he used to wear No. 98 for the Army football team and was with the Second Battalion and 32nd Field Artillery, on his way back from a memorial service for two soldiers from his brigade when he lost both his legs to a roadside bomb in Bahgdad. It was the night of May 7, 2007, and Lt. Col. Gadson didn't know it at the time because he couldn't possibly have known, but it was the beginning of a journey that brought him to Lambeau Field Sunday night. He was there as an...

*** This message is being distributed to all members of the Class of '91 with E-mail addresses on file at the AOG *** Dear Classmates, As most of you know, Derrick Wright was critically injured earlier this year during a mortar attack on the Green Zone in Iraq. I've sent updates on Derrick over the past few months as I have received them from his wife, Cindy. For those of you that haven't seen the videos that Cindy has made, I've provided the link so that you can see first hand how Derrick has progressed. http://web.mac.com/cindyjwright Derrick continues to improve,...

In a weekend speech to College Democrats, Senator Hillary Clinton discussed her proposal for a West Point for bureaucrats. Not only is it a silly idea on its face, but the fine print contains additional embarrassment “I’m going to be asking a new generation to serve,” she said. “I think just like our military academies, we need to give a totally all-paid education to young men and women who will serve their country in a public-service position.” She has introduced legislation (S. 960) to establish a United States Public Service Academy. According to the bill text, such a school is...

West Point — A 2004 West Point graduate who found God after graduation has turned to the courts to win approval for a conscientious objector discharge. Capt. Peter D. Brown, currently stationed at Camp Stryker in Iraq, has retained the help of the New York Civil Liberties Union to battle Uncle Sam. "Jesus taught that I should bless those who curse me and not fight back against evil with force," Brown wrote in court papers filed last week in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. "So instead of paying back others with force, I am supposed to love...

The pictures below are my pics of the defacing of the war memorials in Highland Falls by the Peace Nazis last Saturday. While it is minor, it is still genuine and real, and must be stopped

video and pictures to follow After Action report, West Point Gathering of Eagles, May 26, 2007 I arrived at 0600 to Highland Falls to greet Jim O'Mally from Gathering of Eagles already there and ready to go! I told him I would return after getting breakfast and then ran into Carolyn and Fernando who escorted me to the starting pint of the leftist rally. We stood across from their point in front of the crane that was used to hoist up a 20' American Flag for all the families to see. We immediately opened up our signs and flags for...

WHITE PLAINS - The mere presence of Vice President Dick Cheney does not turn West Point into a public forum and is not an "open invitation" to protesters, a federal appeals court ruled on Friday. Cheney is scheduled to deliver the commencement speech at the U.S. Military Academy today, and about 1,000 people had hoped to march onto the campus for an anti-war demonstration. But the Army denied permission, a federal judge in White Plains agreed, and the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals refused on Friday to issue a preliminary injunction that would allow the march...The protesters' attorney, Stephen...

Court: Protesters Can't Enter West Point For VP's Speech POSTED: 1:11 pm EDT May 25, 2007 UPDATED: 1:13 pm EDT May 25, 2007 WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. -- The mere presence of Vice President Dick Cheney does not turn West Point into a public forum and is not an "open invitation" to protesters, a federal appeals court said Friday. Cheney is scheduled to deliver the commencement speech at the U.S. Military Academy on Saturday and about 1,000 people had hoped to march onto the campus for an anti-war demonstration. But the Army denied permission, a federal judge in White Plains agreed...

Brothers and Sisters of Free Republic, As you may or may not know, recently, the Boston Globe published a page one, above-the-fold, feature news story claiming that declining retention rates for West Point graduates are due to "repeated tours of duty in Iraq." While Bryan Bender, the author of the piece, went to great lengths to show that retention rates---at the end of the service requirement---are indeed lower than typical for classes graduating six to seven years ago, his "proof" that this was related to the War in Iraq was tangential, and, at best, anecdotal. I'm a freelance journalist, and...

WASHINGTON, April 11 (UPI) -- The U.S. Army is struggling to convince recent West Point graduates to make the military their career. Recent graduates of the U.S. Military Academy are exiting active duty at the highest rate in more than three decades, the Boston Globe reported Wednesday. Many military specialists say repeated tours in Iraq are driving out some of the Army's best and brightest young officers. Of the 903 officers who graduated from West Point in 2001, nearly 46 percent left the service in 2006. More than 54 percent of the 935 graduates in the class of 2000 had...

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. - MIT edged out host and defending champion U.S. Military Academy by seven points (6,372-6,365) to secure the pistol program's fifth NRA Intercollegiate National Championship and second in three years. Despite falling to the Black Knights in free pistol by a margin of 26 points, the Engineers overcame the deficit with advantages of 25 and eight points in standard (second place) and air pistol (first place). In the open individual aggregate category, Daipan Lee placed third (1,614) while Eddie Huo finished four points behind him. On the women's side, the squad placed third (2,690) as Diana Nee earned...

John Ryan Dennison was a shining light in the Class of 2000 at Urbana High School in Frederick County -- an excellent student, a football player, a wrestler. Yesterday, the school's teachers and administrators reeled from the news that he was killed Wednesday in Iraq. "When you lose a young life, it somehow diminishes all of us," said Principal George M. Seaton. History teacher Norm Crosby, who wrote a recommendation in support of Dennison's application to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, said he was a natural leader. "He was a young man who always knew the right thing...

With ...John Kerry's recent "botched joke" about our enlisted personnel, I've been reminded that skepticism toward the military is not uncommon in our country. New York City is no exception to that sentiment as I've noticed lately while thinking about the military a bit more than usual. Last year, our son applied and was offered admission to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. Such a choice was not expected in our family, and it was all but unheard of at our private New York City high school. However, with the help of the college counselor, and, actually, the enthusiastic...

My Taps magazine sits on a pile of periodicals, distinguished from the others by its cover photo of weathered tombstones beneath magnolia blossoms. This thin supplement comes with the Assembly, an alumni publication for the U.S. Military Academy. On the last page, a list of graduates appears under the heading "Last Roll Call." These are the deaths reported since the last issue. Gen. William Westmoreland came home to West Point in 2005 to be interred with such notable soldiers as Maj. Gen. George Custer and Lt. Gen. Winfield Scott. Lesser known to the public, but no less dedicated and honorable,...

WEST POINT, N.Y. (AP) _ Muslims at the U.S. Military Academy numbered just two in 2001. This year, there are 32. Now West Point has opened its first space dedicated to Muslims, a worship hall complete with a pulpit facing Mecca. The space officially opened Thursday. "I knew the Army had a policy of religious tolerance, but I didn't know it was to this extent," said first-year Cadet Ahmed Moomin, 20, from the Maldives. Until now, Friday prayers were held in an increasingly crowded first-floor office, said Imam Asadullah, the academy's Muslim cleric. The number of Muslim cadets jumped by...

The day after President Bush quoted her by name in his televised national address, 9/11 widow RoseEllen Dowdell was glowing. "I was kind of dumbfounded. It was pretty amazing to hear a President say your name," Dowdell, 49, said yesterday. Her husband, Kevin, a lieutenant with Rescue 4 in Queens, died in the World Trade Center attacks. "It was an honor for him to mention us." On Monday, the fifth anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, Dowdell watched rapt from her Breezy Point home as the commander in chief described meeting her this year at West Point's graduation, where her...

CANANDAIGUA — Charlie Sauter won't have much of a summer vacation next year. And that suits the Canandaigua Academy senior just fine. Sauter is scheduled to graduate from CA next June 23. Two days later, he will report to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. A member of the football, skiing and lacrosse teams at CA, Sauter was granted early acceptance earlier this month as the first official member of the Army Class of 2011.

Earlier this summer, I wrote a column in which I concluded that the veracity of military recruiters compares favorably to that of most American colleges and universities. Scott Key of Fresno Pacific University’s faculty had claimed that the former were misleading. “All branches of the military have increased the size of cash bonuses,” he wrote, but added, “It is important to note that taxes will be taken out of these bonuses.” “Are you suggesting that a tax cut is in order for these troops?,” I asked him in an e-mail on June 26th. By the time that I posted my...

(AgapePress) - A conservative military watchdog says she intends to question West Point Military Academy officials about why a former cadet was given an award for a thesis objecting to the U.S. military's ban on homosexuals serving in the armed forces. Second Lieutenant Alexander Raggio describes himself as the straightest guy imaginable; but in his senior thesis at West Point Academy, he argued that the military's policy banning homosexuals from service is not only wrong but harmful to America's armed services. For his controversial paper, the then-senior cadet received an award from the Academy's English Department. This incident has led...

WASHINGTON — Alexander Raggio says he was 16 when he learned one of his relatives was gay — and watching that person's struggle gave him a grim introduction to discrimination against gays. He carried those feelings into West Point, and in his senior thesis argued that the military's policy banning gays is not only wrong, but harmful to the Army. The Pentagon may not agree, but the U.S. Military Academy gave him an award for the paper. "I love the Army and I think that this is hurting the Army," said Raggio, 24, in an interview this week from his...

The U.S. Military Academy is welcoming its first cadet from Iraq, a 19-year-old who wants serve his country's army after witnessing violence in Baghdad. Incoming Cadet Jameel acknowledged Thursday that attending West Point posed potential dangers to him and his family in Iraq. But he said it was worth it for a chance to serve at the school, which he called "the best military academy in the world." Jameel was interviewed on the condition his first name be withheld and no pictures were allowed. West Point officials said the conditions were set by the U.S. Army to provide security for...

WASHINGTON, June 7, 2006 – Growing up "green" with a pair of Army parents and moving around the world influenced a West Point cadet's decision to give military life a whirl. Cadet Sgt. Philip S. Bucci, a second-generation West Pointer, said his military parents influenced his decision to attend the academy. Photo by Gerry J. Gilmore  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. "Dad graduated from West Point in 1977, and Mom was an Army nurse," recalled Cadet Sgt. Philip S. Bucci, who has just completed his second year at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y. "I've always...

Two weeks ago, I pointed out that we live in something close to the best of times, with record worldwide economic growth and at a low point in armed conflict in the world. Yet Americans are in a sour mood, a mood that may be explained by the lack of a sense of history. The military struggle in Iraq (nearly 2,500 military deaths) is spoken of in as dire terms as Vietnam (58,219), Korea (54,246) or World War II (405,399). We bemoan the cruel injustice of $3 a gallon for gas in a country where three-quarters of people classified as...

BOSTON -- Two local high school students have earned scholarships to West Point, but when it comes to awards night at their school the military is not invited. Some said it's a big disservice to those who are ready to serve their country. Newscenter Five's Sean Kelly reported that the principal of King Phillip Regional High School in Wrentham, Mass., told the U.S. Army it would not be welcome at a scholarship banquet that will be held to honor two graduates who have received scholarships to West Point Military Academy.

PRESIDENTIAL NEWS OF THE DAY: President and Mrs. Bush arrived back at the White House today. They will participate in traditional Memorial Day events tomorrow, including the wreath laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknowns in Arlington National Cemetery followed by a memorial service in the Memorial Amphitheater. This event will be broadcast live on C-SPAN, beginning at approximately 10:30am Eastern time. For those who can't see it live, it will be rebroadcast at 8:00pm Eastern time on C-SPAN. For a President who is daily maligned by the media and people across the political spectrum, George W. Bush sure...

PRESIDENTIAL NEWS OF THE DAY: President and Mrs. Bush and their long-time friends, former Commerce Secretary Don Evans and his wife, are spending Memorial Day weekend together at Camp David. There is speculation in the media that the President may ask Mr. Evans to become the next Treasury Secretary. Today, the President traveled to the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York, to give the commencement address to the Corps of Cadets. SCHEDULE UPDATE: NOTE -- so far, new Press Secretary Tony Snow has not been annoucing the Week Ahead in his press briefings. Scott McClellan has stopped...

The field of battle is where your degree and commission will take you. This is the first class to arrive at West Point after the attacks of September the 11th, 2001. Each of you came here in a time of war, knowing all the risks and dangers that come with wearing our nation's uniform. And I want to thank you for your patriotism, your devotion to duty, your courageous decision to serve. America is grateful and proud of the men and women of West Point. President Bush, May 27, 2006... In this new war, we have set a clear doctrine....

  For Immediate ReleaseOffice of the Press SecretaryMay 27, 2006 President's Radio Address       Audio      THE PRESIDENT: Good morning. This Memorial Day weekend, Americans pay tribute to those who have given their lives in service to our Nation. America is free because generations of young Americans have been willing to sacrifice to defend the country they love, so their fellow citizens could live in liberty. This weekend, I am visiting some of the brave men and women who will soon take their own place in the defense of our freedom -- the 2006 graduating class at West Point. This...

FOUR DECADE5 OF SERVICE TO COUNTRY By Philip L. Bolte ‘50 The smoke from a thirteen gun solute drifted over the parade ground at Fort Myer in August of 1991, the Army Band (Pershings Own) played traditional Cavalry songs --- "Gary Owen" and "Around Her Neck She Wore a Yellow Ribbon" --- and the Third United States Infantry (The Old Guard) passed in review. The ceremony marked the retirement of Major General William F. Ward, Jr., Chief of Army Reserve, and last member of the West Point Class of 1950 to serve on active duty. From the start, the class...

Frederick William Benteen Brigadier General, United States Army Born at Petersburg, Virginia, on August 24, 1834, he was a career Army officer who distinguished himself in the Civil War. He was with the Seventh United States Cavalry, under the command of Brevet Major General George Armstrong Custer, at the Battle of the Big Horn in June 1876. His was one of the columns that Custer split, his being sent on another route to the Indian encampment, thus sparing he and his command. After hard fighting with the Indians who had destroyed Custer, and after suffering many casualties, the Indians retreated...

SYRACUSE, N.Y. - The Army warned an anti-war group of former U.S. Military Academy cadets to stop using the words "West Point" in its name, saying they are trademarked. A co-founder of West Point Graduates Against the War countered Friday that his organization is simply following the cadets' code. "At West Point, we were taught that cadets do not lie, cheat or steal — and to oppose those who do," said William Cross, a 1962 West Point graduate. "We are a positive organization. We are not anti-West Point or anti-military. We are just trying to uphold what we were taught."...

West Point hockey coach Brian Riley sends out dozens of recruiting letters, and usually ends up changing about eight lives. In fall 1998, Derek Hines got his letter. When he read it, he was probably sitting at the kitchen table in his family's cozy home near the cemetery in Newburyport, Mass., a little town by the sea. Out back on the lawn was the regulation hockey goal that Hines had dinged with a million shots off the post. Hines had never really considered the military as a career, and it certainly hadn't occurred to him that playing a lot of...

West Point -- Twenty-one gay rights activists were detained at the U.S. Military Academy and issued federal citations Wednesday while protesting the Pentagon's "don't ask, don't tell" policy. The academy was their last stop on a cross-country tour of 20 conservative Christian and military colleges that protest organizers say discriminate against gay, bisexual and transgendered people. Members of the protest group Soulforce Equality Riders have faced charges for protests at five of the campuses. Ten were handcuffed and charged with disorderly conduct after demonstrating April 14 at the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colo. On Wednesday, about 50...

Maggie Dixon, a 28-year-old Southern Californian who coached the Army women's basketball team to its first NCAA tournament appearance this season, died Thursday afternoon, a day after collapsing and being hospitalized, a source close to the family confirmed.

WEST POINT, N.Y. - A cadet at the U.S. Military Academy has been charged with raping two former cadets, a West Point spokesman said Thursday in reporting the latest alleged sex assault involving a military academy. Lonnie Story, a senior from Poplar Bluff, Mo., was on leave when the alleged incidents occurred in January 2005 and October 2005, Lt. Col. Kent Cassella said. The two women had already graduated at the time. In an e-mail message to The Associated Press late Thursday, Story professed his innocence. He faces a pretrial investigation to decide whether the case should proceed to a...

One 'Apprentice' Is Running for Office; Could There Be Another? By: Robert B. BlueyPosted 03/09/0602:20 PM Raj Bhakta, who was “fired� by Donald Trump on the second season of “The Apprentice,� will run on the Republican ticket this November against Democratic Rep. Allyson Schwartz in the suburban Philadelphia district, reports the Associated Press. “We offer voters legitimate change,� Bhakta told the AP. “I am not a politician. I am someone from a business background who wants to make a change.� Who knew Trump would breed an aspiring Republican lawmaker? The truth is, however, Bhakta isn’t the only cast member from...

“The key to defeating the jihadi movement is identifying its strengths and weaknesses so that the former may be countered or co-opted and the latter exploited.” These are the words of the authors of the study just published by West Point’s Combatting Terrorism Center, “Stealing Al-Qa’ida’s Playbook.” Jarrett M. Brachman and William F. McCants have made the writings – the playbooks, if you will – of leading jihad terrorist strategists are available online, and they offer frank discussions of the vulnerabilities and methodologies which can be mined for more effective counter-terrorist tactics, techniques and strategies. “Stealing Al-Qa’ida’s Playbook” examines...

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) -- A former soldier injured in Iraq is getting a refund after being forced to pay for his missing body armor vest, which medics destroyed because it was soaked with his blood, officials said Wednesday. First Lt. William "Eddie" Rebrook IV, 25, had to leave the Army with a shrapnel injury to his arm. But before he could be discharged last week, he says he had to scrounge up cash from his buddies to pay $632 for the body armor and other gear he had lost. Rebrook, who graduated from West Point with honors, said he was...

The General's Eggnog One quart of cream One quart of milk A dozen eggs One pint of brandy A half pint of rye A quarter pint of rum A quarter pint of sherry Christmas of 1826 was snowy, cold and lonely for the cadets of West Point. Though called "men" they were really teenage boys -- some as young as 17 -- and they wanted to celebrate Christmas. Young Jefferson Davis, future president of the Confederate States of America, was amongst them. But West Point then, as it is now, was a house of order and discipline. The military...

Fifty-one seconds. It separated a free education from a tuition bill of $189,000. It was the difference between a framed West Point diploma and a "certificate of attendance." It meant returning to Oakland and becoming a telecom salesman - instead of being sent to Iraq as a proud soldier. For Brad Waudby, 51 seconds changed his life. Waudby, a 6-foot-5-inch, 340-pound football player recruited for his skills on the offensive line, failed the running test on his West Point physical. He was supposed to run two miles in 16 minutes 36 seconds. It took him 17:27. West Point had exempted...

WASHINGTON - This is a tale of two men who were -- each in his own way -- icons of America's searing and bitter experience in Vietnam. Both left us this month, one at age 81 the other at age 91, and they left us wondering what it all meant and what they meant to us. One was a symbol of a nation's failure to succeed in its costly and bloody mission in Vietnam. The other was a symbol of gritty personal courage and simple personal honor while a seemingly helpless prisoner of America's enemies in that war. Gen. William...

WEST POINT, N.Y. (AP) - Gen. William Westmoreland, commander of U.S. forces in Vietnam during a major escalation of the war, was buried Saturday at the U.S. Military Academy, where he was once superintendent. The World War II combat veteran died Monday at the age of 91 of natural causes at the South Carolina retirement home where he lived with his wife, Katherine. "He left his mark in history," a chaplain, Lt. Col. John J. Cook, said in a graveside eulogy. "The season of war is gone ... Now he'll enter a season of rest." Following a private chapel service...

Former Fort Hood Officer Stabbed To Death Retired Army general John Bard, 76, who once commanded a brigade at Fort Hood, was stabbed to death in an attack at a home in an upscale Richmond, Va. neighborhood, police said. A woman, Courtney Cash Martin, 58, was seriously wounded in the attack and was in critical condition Wednesday. The woman’s 18-year-old son, who police say is suspected in the attack, was also injured. The woman was stabbed at her home Tuesday morning and a short time later Bard was attacked with a butcher knife, police said. He staggered into the street...

WEST POINT, N.Y. (Army News Service, June 24. 2005) -- The first Afghan native to attend the U.S. Military Academy is scheduled to report for duty at West Point June 27. Shoaib Yosoufzai, one of 21 international cadets accepted as a member of the Class of 2009, comes from Laghman providence in Eastern Afghanistan. Yosoufzai spent two years at Kabul University learning civil engineering. Continuing in the engineering field and gaining a strong military background are two of the reasons he wanted to come to West Point. “I wanted a military career and the U.S. Military Academy has a very...

COLPO TO BECOME CHIEF OF STAFF AT WEST POINT – COL MIKE “NO COMBAT” COLPO (THE “CHAIRBORNE” RANGER) INFANTRY OFFICER DOESN’T GO INTO HARM’S WAY IN GRENADA, PANAMA, SOMALIA, KOSOVO, BOSNIA, GULF WAR, IRAQ OR AFGHANISTAN – ALSO MANAGED TO AVOID OVERSEAS DUTY DURING 27 YEARS IN THE STATES WHILE OTHER WEST POINT GRADS FOUGHT AND DIED FOR THEIR COUNTRY COLPO HUNTOON’S “RIGHT-HAND MAN” DURING SHAMEFUL GEN. BRADLEY AIDE “GUN GRAB” AT TROUBLED CARLISLE BARRACKS “You’re kidding me. This is a joke, right?” said one senior officer at Ft. Bragg when we told him COL Mike “NO COMBAT” Colpo was...

WEST POINT, N.Y. - When Adam Sasso arrived at the U.S. Military Academy in the summer of 2001, he expected to find intense challenges, close friendships and rigorous academics. But he was pleasantly surprised to also find at the army's elite college a Jewish community he describes as "very committed." There are fewer than 90 Jews in West Point's 4,000-person student body, but they constitute a particularly tight-knit and active group: Jewish cadets gather for Friday night services, perform with a Hebrew choir and attend parties sponsored by the campus Hillel chapter. Moreover, students, alumni and Jewish staff say that...

Lord, Keep our Troops forever in Your care Give them victory over the enemy... Grant them a safe and swift return... Bless those who mourn the lost. . FReepers from the Foxhole join in prayer for all those serving their country at this time. .................................................................. .................... ........................................... U.S. Military History, Current Events and Veterans Issues Where Duty, Honor and Countryare acknowledged, affirmed and commemorated. Our Mission: The FReeper Foxhole is dedicated to Veterans of our Nation's military forces and to others who are affected in their relationships with Veterans. In the FReeper Foxhole, Veterans or their family members should...