Mission First 2015 by Army West Point Athletics

MISSION FIRST

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PROFILES OF ARMY WEST POINT ATHLETICS 2015

Edited By: Bob Beretta

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PRODUCED BY: The Army Athletic Association

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TABLE OF CONTENTS 4

Previous Editions

Introduction by Boo Corrigan

Foreward by Bob Beretta

Gen. Lloyd J. Austin III “The Warrior Leader” by Mark Mohrman

12 Lt. Gen. Robert Brown “Everlasting Reward” by Mike Vaccaro 16 2nd Lt. Larry Dixon “The Next Chapter” by Ryan J. Yanoshak 20 2nd Lt. Dion Hart “In The Deep End” by Wayne Coffey 24 Kevin Houston “Circle Of Life” by John Feinstein 28 Charlie Jarvis “One For The Ages” by John Feinstein

32 Col. Nick Mauldin “Coming Full Circle” by Kelly Dumrauf

60 2nd Lt. Katlin VanWye “Setting The Bar” by Harrison Antognioni

36 Maj. Anne McClain “The Final Frontier” by Mady Salvani

64 Mike Viti “A Walk To Serve” by Ryan J. Yanoshak

Dr. Rebecca (Marier) McGuigan “A Cut Above The Rest” by Mady Salvani

68 Jimmy Wallace “Making His Mark” by Matt Faulkner

Tom and 2nd Lt. Jasmine Morgan “Glidepath To Greatness” by Kevin Gleason

48 Maj. Steve Reich “The Natural” by Les Carpenter 52 Ben Russell “Office Of Responsibility” by Ryan J. Yanoshak 56 Schretzman Family “Staying the Course” by Harrison Antognioni

72 Acknowledgements 74 Dedication ★★★ Please visit the Army West Point Athletics YouTube page at youtube.com/goarmywestpoint for bonus video interview content from each of the subjects featured in this year’s edition of “Mission First.” This will allow you to hear the voices, see the facial expressions and feel the passion of our subjects as they discuss a myriad of topics related to this way of life we call, “Mission First.”

“Mission First” was printed by The Elm Press.

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Previous Editions   PROFILES OF ARMY AT HLET I C S 201 3

“Mission First” debuted in the summer of 2013 and featured 19 profile stories. The subjects of those stories are listed below:

P ROFILES OF ARM Y AT HLET I C S 2 0 1 4

The second edition of “Mission First” was released in the summer of 2014 and featured 16 profile stories. The subjects of those stories are listed below:

★ Paige Brink ★

★ 1st Lt. Erin Anthony ★

★ Peter Carey ★

★ Andrew Avelino ★

★ Dick Edell ★

★ Herman Bulls ★

★ Rich Ellerson ★

★ Maj. Ashlie Christian ★

★ Dr. Barney Forsythe ★

★ Dan Christman ★

★ Lt. Col. Gaylord Greene ★

★ 2nd Lt. Lindsey Danilack ★

★ Dick Hall ★

★ Col. Greg Gadson ★

★ Kate, John, Rick and Annie Houghton ★

★ Becky Halstead ★

★ CW5 Dan and Jane Jollota ★

★ William “Chico” Hurtado ★

★ Capt. Liz Lazarri ★

★ Sam Lessey ★

★ Elizabeth LoRusso ★

★ Lichtenberg Family ★

★ Lt. Col. Jennifer (Johnston) McAfee ★

★ Dave Magarity ★

★ Jack, Rob and Brian Riley ★

★ Bob Novogratz ★

★ Gen. David Rodriguez ★

★ Mady Salvani ★

★ Larraine Saavedra ★

★ Rollie Stichweh ★

★ Gary Steele ★

★ Trainor Family ★

★ Carl Ullrich ★ ★ Haley (Edwards) Uthlaut ★ 4

 

★ Lt. Col. Myreon Williams ★

Previous editions of “Mission First” are available to view online at GoArmyWestPoint.com.

Introduction “Duty, Honor, Country.” has shaped the lives of so many that have passed through West Point’s hallowed grounds. We hope that our third edition of “Mission First” helps to promote some of the virtues this lifestyle represents. We hope you enjoy reading these very special accounts, the real-life adventures my family and I have the opportunity of experiencing each and every day.

Go Army!

Eugene F. Corrigan Jr. Director of Athletics

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Our family arrived at West Point nearly five years ago, in the winter of 2011, and each day we are impressed by the people who make this institution the preeminent leadership development laboratory in the world. It is truly an honor to call West Point home. Every single day, something happens at Army West Point that doesn’t take place anywhere else in the country. Being part of this special community is a privilege I do not take for granted, and we are continuously working to improve the experience for everyone connected to West Point. Our coaches and support staff share the same goal of keeping the people a priority, because that is what the Army is about, putting people first. Success continued for us this past year as we made a significant change to our appearance as a department, while continuing to honor the history and tradition of the Academy and its athletic programs. The addition of men’s and women’s rugby, which increased our total to 28 varsity sports, brought immediate contributions with each team capturing championships. The gymnastics team also won its conference title and the 2014-15 year was another example of how we ensure we are always in alignment with the mission of the Academy: to education, train and inspire the Corps of Cadets so that each graduate is a commissioned leader of character committed to the values of Duty, Honor, Country and prepared for a career of professional excellence and service to the Nation as an officer in the United States Army. In the coming pages, we will share 16 stories of those committed to the same values as our cadets. Some are graduates and some are not, but they all share the common bond of West Point and know that our goal is most easily accomplished if we stay together, trust and have great passion for this place. The same goal was in mind as we developed this years’ edition of “Mission First.” Feature some of those special athletes, staff members and graduates that have performed amazing feats of selfless service; that have placed their mission before all else. As athletics administrators, we constantly preach the concept of “Team.” There is no place for selfish thoughts or actions in a successful team environment. Successful teams feature rosters filled with players and coaches that place the good of the team before personal goals or agendas. Our administrators take the same approach and it is certainly echoed by our coaches, no matter what the sport. Everyone on a team has a role and a purpose. Whether on the fields of friendly strife, on a court, in a pool, or on the track, we all need to be our very best that we can be for the team to succeed.

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Foreward Besides interacting with our cadet-athletes on a daily basis, one of the best things about working in the athletic department here at Army West Point has always been the opportunity to build relationships with special individuals. Some are graduates; some are former players; some are staff members. Others, still, are merely supporters of our athletic program, their souls gripped by a passion for West Point’s mission and the young men and women beholden to it. So many times over the years, I have come away from meetings with these folks utterly amazed. Fascinated by the excellence they have attained in life, mesmerized by the obstacles they may have overcome to achieve such greatness, and stunned by the sheer desire to spread “goodness” amongst others, to make this world a better place for all of us to live. When dealing with constituents of West Point, there never seems to be a shortage of powerful personalities whose contributions to mankind transcend sports, who always place the mission of excellence before all else. When Army West Point Director of Athletics Boo Corrigan first suggested to the executive staff that we spotlight a sampling of these personalities through a publication that would highlight their individual stories it seemed like a wonderful notion.

Our goal would be to produce a coffee-type book that would tastefully present a collection of profiles, celebrating the lives and accomplishments of a number of individuals with strong connections to Army West Point’s athletic program. The personalities featured would have compelling stories to tell; stories about overcoming tremendous adversity; stories of great personal sacrifice; stories outlining service to a higher calling for the betterment of society. And the one common theme in all of the accounts would be that in each instance, the subject had placed the mission first, before all else. That’s how the title for our publication was born ...it seemed like a natural fit: “Mission First,” a perfect depiction of the approach employed by all those featured in the publication. It all came about quite nicely. We debuted “Mission First” in the fall of 2013 and followed with another collection of wonderful personalities a year ago. And now, we are pleased to deliver the third edition of “Mission First.” Following a tact we first adopted last year, we have enlisted the help of several guest authors to help convey these accounts. Each of these gifted writers possesses a unique relationship with West Point or the subject they were chosen to highlight. Best-selling author John Feinstein, a longtime friend of the Military Academy and frequent boyhood visitor to Michie Stadium, contributes gripping accounts on former Army greats Charlie Jarvis and Kevin Houston; Mike Vaccaro, the award-winning lead columnist for the New York Post catches up with former Army basketball standout Lt. Gen. Robert Brown and details his meteoric rise through the ranks of the United States Army; Wayne Coffey, the award-winning lead feature writer for the New York Daily News, chonicles the phenomenal story of courage authored by recent Army West Point swimmer Dion Hart; Kevin Gleason, who has covered the Army athletics beat for more than two decades and is currently serving as sports editor for the Times Herald-Record, lends the inspirational script outlining the incredible journeys of Tom and 2nd Lt. Jasmine Morgan, one of the most amazing father-daughter combinations to pass through West Point; and Les Carpenter, a celebrated sports writer on the national stage, recounts the story of former Army baseaball standout Steve Reich on the 10th anniversary of his tragic death. For the third year, we also highlight the stellar work of the talented staff members within Army West Point’s Office of Athletic Communications. Ryan Yanoshak details the special calling answered by former Army football standout Mike Viti, he examines the next chapter in

different manner. In conjunction with this printed version of the book, we ask you to visit the Army West Point Athletics You Tube page at youtube.com/GoArmyWestPoint for bonus video interview content from each of the subjects featured in this year’s edition of “Mission First.” Once again, this will allow you to hear the voices, see the facial expressions and feel the spirit of our subjects as they discuss a myriad of topics related to this way of life we call, “Mission First.” Through the brilliant imagery contained in the book, we hoped to capture the true essence of our subjects in their own environments, wherever that might be. You will see photos originating from all over the country as we attempted to place our subjects in their most natural setting. We hope you enjoy the third edition of “Mission First” and truly value the publication for what it most represents. The brightest beacons of light who have helped make this world a better place, all with a common thread back to the Academy. And that is what’s truly best about West Point. It’s the people.

by Bob Beretta Executive Athletic Director

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the life of recently graduated Black Knights’ fullback Larry Dixon, and also introduces one of the “behindthe-scenes” backbones of Army West Point’s athletic department for the past 30 years, Ben Russell; Mady Salvani outlines the amazing career paths carved by former Army standouts Rebecca (Marier McGuigan (women’s tennis) and Anne McClain (softball); Matt Faulker catches up with Jimmy Wallace, a former athletic trainer who spent parts of six decades assisting some of the greatest names in Army athletics history; Mark Mohrman offers an account on Gen. Lloyd Austin III, another former West Point athlete who continues to make history as a remarkable leader of soldiers in the U.S. Army; Kelly Dumrauf outlines the career of former Army wrestling great Nick Mauldin as he winds down an admirable life of service; and Harrison Antognioni sheds light on the wonderful work of recent West Point graduate Katlin Vanwye and her inspiring battle against sexual harassment and abuse. Antognioni also spotlights the awesome accomplishments of the Schretzman family, one of the truly special families in Army West Point athletics lore. Also, for the second straight year, we have included a multi-media facet to our “Mission First” product. We found this element to be instrumental in humanizing our subjects to an even greater degree a year ago to allow the reader to engage with those featured personalities in a

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Gen. Lloyd J. Austin III THE WARRIOR LEADER BY mark mohrman

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Everyone has a role model. An older brother or sister, a parent, an actor or athlete, a teacher or coach are all examples of people who positively influence and motivate others to accomplish their own goals. Gen. Lloyd James Austin III should be everyone’s role model. A humble man with a decorated military career, Austin was born on Aug. 8, 1953, in Mobile, Ala., and raised in Thomasville, Ga. “I was very fortunate to grow up in a loving home,” Austin says. “My parents instilled in me and my brother and four sisters the value of hard work, integrity, selfdiscipline and respect for others. And, they did so not by simply telling us what was right, but by showing us through their examples. They always held themselves and us accountable for our actions. “My siblings and I were also very fortunate to have great role models within our larger extended family. I attended West Point and joined the military, in part, because I was inspired by uncles, cousins and other relatives who served. Some of them fought in Vietnam and they’d come home from training or a year-long tour overseas, I looked up to them and admired them and I wanted to follow in their footsteps. I knew as a young boy that I would serve in the military for some period of time.” Austin’s influences were not limited to his family members, as he credits his high school coaches and teachers for leading by example and reinforcing in him that every individual can make a difference in the lives of others. A football and basketball player in high school, Austin arrived at West Point as a Plebe in 1971, where he ended up competing as a two-sport athlete on the rugby and track and field teams. “I actually tried out for the basketball team, but the coach (Dan Dougherty) had brought on 12 players and so there wasn’t a spot for me,” Austin states. “But then one day, the track coach, Army Sports Hall of Famer Carlton Crowell, overheard the basketball coach talking about me and he told him that he’d really like to have me come and join the track team because I could jump really high. And so, I became a triple-jumper and I had a great experience being a part of the team. Then, I got involved in rugby because some of the upperclassmen in my company played rugby and they recruited me to join them. I did well and also enjoyed being a part of that team.” Like his classmates, Austin attended West Point for a larger mission, one where he would learn to become a leader of character. He has since become a leader who is rightly in the company of a renowned group of West Point graduates, including Ulysses S. Grant, Douglas MacArthur and Dwight D. Eisenhower.

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President Barack Obama joins Gen. Lloyd J. Austin III at U.S. Central Command headquarters in Tampa, Fla.

Before Austin joined their elite company, however, his first taste of leadership came during his Firstie year when he served as a cadet company commander. “I enjoyed not only being able to lead my peers, but also lead and mentor the younger classes of cadets,” Austin remembers. “It was my first real taste of Army leadership and I knew right away that I wanted to continue to pursue opportunities to command and lead troops.” Austin graduated as a second lieutenant in 1975 and was commissioned in the Infantry. He completed Airborne and Ranger schools prior to receiving his first assignment in Germany with the 3rd Infantry Division (Mechanized) as a rifle platoon leader and later as a scout platoon leader in 1st Battalion, 7th Infantry. Austin moved on to Ft. Bragg, N.C., where he spent a majority of his career assigned to the 82nd Airborne Division, serving as a commander at the company, battalion, brigade and division levels. He also served as the division operations officer or G3, becoming the first African-American to hold what many consider to be the premiere operations position in the United States Army. And, it was jobs like these that prepared Austin to eventually hold a number of the

toughest positions in the military, and earn a well-deserved reputation as a battle-tested warrior and one of our nation’s most gifted warfighters. Austin continued his education and earned two master’s degrees; one in Education from Auburn University and a second from Webster University in Business Management, in addition to being a graduate of the Army War College. After completing his degree at Auburn, Austin returned to West Point where he was appointed as a company tactical officer. His illustrious career continued and on Sept. 11, 2001, Brig. Gen. Austin was serving as the Assistant Division Commander for Maneuver (ADC-M) for the 3rd Infantry Division (3ID) (Mechanized) at Ft. Stewart, Ga. He manned that post for more than two years following the attacks and played a critical role in the planning effort for Operation Iraqi Freedom. As 3ID’s ADC-M, Austin directed the division’s invasion of Iraq in March 2003, leading the fight from the front, and traveling the 500 miles from Kuwait to Baghdad in his command and control vehicle. He became the first African-American in history to lead a division-size element in war. The division reached Baghdad and secured the city in just 21 days, and that expertly conducted

operation showcased Austin’s superior warfighting capabilities. It wasn’t simply the fact that he led; it was the manner in which he led his men and women that began to elevate Austin to the level of some of the greatest West Point graduates in our nation’s history. Austin was awarded the Silver Star, the nation’s third-highest award for valor, for his actions during the Iraq invasion. “He’s one of the best troop leaders we have,” Maj. Gen. Anthony Cucolo told the Washington Post. “He would never ask his soldiers to do anything he wouldn’t do.” Austin entered the history books again when he became the first African-American to serve as a U.S. Army Division Commander in combat after being promoted to Major General. He commanded the 10th Mountain Division (Light Infantry) from 2003 to 2005, with duty as Commander, Combined Joint Task Force-180, Operation Enduring Freedom, Afghanistan. Among his triumphs, Austin is one of a small group of General Officers to command in Iraq and Afghanistan. In his next position, Austin served as Chief of Staff for Gen. John Abazaid at United States Central Command in Tampa, Fla. Their relationship started more than 30 years prior as Abazaid, a 1973 West Point graduate, directed Austin as his squad leader in Company G-1. Abazaid served as a role model for Austin, who noted the company he was surrounded by daily at the Academy. “Of course, when you’re young and starting out in your career you’re always hopeful that you will be successful. And, you occasionally dream of accomplishing big things, important things on behalf of your country. But, what you also gain at West Point, because you are in the company of such talented people, is a healthy dose of humility. Whereas you may occasionally dream of accomplishing big things, you learn

General Officer and the sixth AfricanAmerican in the U.S. Army to achieve the top rank. He next became Commanding General of U.S. Forces Iraq (USF-I), and, in turn, became the first African-American in history to command an entire theater of war. Just as he did in previous battlefield assignments, he shaped the outcome of the operation by expertly employing limited available resources. During Austin’s tour, in the absence of a new Status of Forces Agreement, President Barack Obama made the decision to retrograde all U.S. forces out of Iraq by the end of 2011. Austin oversaw the entire operation, while ensuring that, as the U.S. footprint reduced in size, the remaining troops in country were well protected and able to to successfully conduct the mission. In his next assignment, Austin served as the 33rd Vice Chief of Staff of the Army (VCSA). He worked tirelessly to address various issues affecting U.S. service members, veterans and their families, to include post-traumatic stress and suicide. Then, in March 2013, he assumed command of U.S. Central Command, responsible for 20

countries in the Middle East and South and Central Asia. Once again demonstrating that he is one of the greatest strategic thinkers and most adept warfighters of our time, Austin expertly oversees ongoing operations in Afghanistan (Operations Enduring Freedom/Resolute Support), Iraq and Syria (Operation Inherent Resolve). He also managed a variety of challenges associated with Iran, Egypt, Pakistan, Lebanon, and other partner nations, all with the goal to move that strategically important region in the direction of increased stability and security. Austin is one of history’s most accomplished and inspirational leaders. Over the past 40-plus years, he’s led troops in peacetime and in combat at the very highest levels, while successfully addressing some of the toughest tactical and operational problems internationally. Although his accomplishments are lengthy, Austin has not taken the opportunity to look back and reflect. “When you’re wearing the uniform and you’re leading America’s sons and daughters, and particularly in combat, you are solely focused on taking care of the troops placed under your charge and doing everything in your power to place your team, your organization, your troops, your country in a position of advantage. “Every day that I put on this uniform I ask myself two questions. The first is, ‘Did I do the right things today?’ And, the second, ‘Did I do everything within the realm of the possible to take care of those individuals placed in my charge?’ If the answer is, ‘No’ to either question—then, I make sure to do better the next day. And, I do that because I owe it to my troops. They look to me to lead them, and a big part of leading them is taking care of them.”

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to focus on the right things – and, that means taking care of your people, doing whatever tasks you’re given as well as they can be done, being a team player, staying true to your values, and being a person of strong character. If you focus on those things, you’re guaranteed to be successful in life and in your career.” Success followed Austin and in December 2006, he was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant General and he took command of the XVIII Airborne Corps at Ft. Bragg, N.C. Then, a little more than two years later, he became the second highest ranking commander in Iraq, taking command of Multi-National CorpsIraq (MNC-I), replacing another West Point grad, Lt. Gen. Raymond Odierno (USMA ’77). In doing so, Austin became the first AfricanAmerican General Officer ever to command a corps in combat. As commander of MNC-I, Austin was responsible for approximately 160,000 joint and coalition forces from more than 20 countries. During his tenure, he led positive change throughout Iraq, while effectively expanding partnering efforts with the Iraqi security forces. Indeed, it was during this tour that Austin demonstrated that he was not only one of our military’s most adept warfighters, but also one of the most capable strategists. Austin assumed command of MNC-I just as the “surge” was ending and the number of U.S. troops in Iraq was significantly reduced. He masterfully directed the retrograde of forces while making sure that the remaining troops were able to successfully, and as safely as possible, conduct the same complex mission. After Austin relinquished command of XVIII Airborne Corps, he assumed the position as Director of the Joint Staff at the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. Then, a year later, in September 2010, he was promoted to the rank of General, becoming the Army’s 200th four-star

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Lt. Gen. Robert Brown Everlasting Reward BY Mike Vaccaro

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There have been so many recruiting victories in the years since, so many times when Mike Krzyzewski walked into a living room, or into a gymnasium, or onto an outdoor court at a summer basketball camp and pitched the very best players in America why they should attend Duke University and not Kentucky, or UCLA, or Kansas, or (best of all) North Carolina. Yet there may have been no more unlikely coup than the one Krzyzewski pulled off in the spring of 1977. Krzyzewski was in his second year coaching basketball at West Point, he had just turned 30 years old, and he was coming off a 20-8 season with a good roster returning in the fall. One of his targets that spring was a 6-foot-5 shooter out of Grosse Point Woods, Mich., who was good enough to be first team all-state, and good enough that the University of Michigan – a year removed from appearing in the NCAA Tournament championship game – wanted badly for him to spend his college years in Ann Arbor. “For a kid in Michigan,” Lt. Gen. Robert Brown says, some 38 years later, “what could be better than playing for the Wolverines, playing in the Big Ten? Who doesn’t dream of something like that?” And yet, when Brown received a letter from Krzyzewski, he was oddly intrigued. His father had been a Marine during the Korean conflict. The Browns were a family imbued with traditional Midwestern values and that meant a deep appreciation for the military. So Brown decided, why not? “It seemed like an adventure,” Brown says today, laughing, from his office in Kansas, where he is Commanding General, United States Army Combined Arms Center and Ft. Leavenworth. And the moment he walked onto post, he realized it was something else: namely, a pathway to the rest of his life. That was the weekend of the annual boxing “smoker,” and Brown was instantly taken by the camaraderie of the cadets, the fierce competitions buffeted by genuine concern for their comrades. He was intrigued by the history that seemed to collide with each of his steps that weekend. He liked his future teammates, who would include two of the best players in the Academy’s history, Gary Winton and Matt Brown (no relation). Mostly, though, he was taken by Krzyzewski, who made him no promises, offered him no guarantees, but presented an unyielding affinity for the Academy and for his place in it. “This is the greatest leadership laboratory in the world,” the coach told the player at one point. “If you want to be a leader, why wouldn’t you come here?” And he was sold. He was so sold, in fact, that before leaving for home, Brown visited Krzyzewski and brought with him a simple message: “I’m coming.”

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“I learned more about leadership at Army from ‘Coach K’ than I did anywhere else, and you’re talking about the greatest leadership school in the world. That is no knock on anyone; that tells you how important Coach was to me, and remains to me.”

- Lt. Gen. Robert Brown

It was here that Krzyzewski delivered the first – and by no means the last – challenge to his new recruit: “Let’s see if we can get you in here, first.” Brown wasn’t sure what to say. But not long after, he received word that he would have no problem being admitted, and a few years later Krzyzewski conceded there was never an issue at all with his grades, he just wanted to see how he would handle adversity. “Always coaching,” Brown says today. “Always teaching.” All these years later, Brown and Krzyzewski have become close friends, have inspired each other with their respective successes. “He’s built a skyscraper with his career,” Krzyzewski says from his office on Duke’s Durham, N.C.,

campus. “He hasn’t built a home, he’s built a skyscraper and he keeps building. That’s what sets Bob apart, is that he always wants to learn more and that’s why he’s current and why he’s adaptable and why he’s as good as he is, yearning to learn more and more about leadership. He and I have learned together across these last few decades since he played for me.” Says Brown: “I learned more about leadership at Army from ‘Coach K’ than I did anywhere else, and you’re talking about the greatest leadership school in the world. That is no knock on anyone; that tells you how important Coach was to me, and remains to me.” Brown had a terrific basketball career at West Point, scoring 1,282 points for a 13.8 average, twice scoring more than 30 points

Lt. Gen. Robert Brown served as the Commanding General at Ft. Benning, Ga., before assuming his current role as Commanding General, United States Army Combined Arms Center and Ft. Leavenworth, Kan.

(his career high, 35, came against Manhattan during his sophomore year), participating on the 197778 team as a freshman that played in the Cadets’ most recent appearance in the National Invitation Tournament. He was a brilliant scorer who would almost never hear about his offense from his coach. His defense, that was a different matter. Brown remembers a game against Fordham his sophomore year when he made the game-winning shot in a 71-70 victory at Rose Hill Gym, their fierce rival’s home court. His teammates were giddy and so was Brown, and when Krzyzewski approached him in the locker room he figured the coach was about to offer congratulations. He should have known better. “Maybe next time,” Krzyzewski said, “you can guard someone, too.” “He never thought much of me as a defender,” Brown says, laughing at the memory. “That used to really tick me off. But of course … he was right.” Krzyzewski has to laugh about life’s occasional ironies. “Look, this was a guy who was first team All-Michigan the same year a guy named Ervin ‘Magic’ Johnson was first-team All-Michigan,” he says. “He wasn’t a good player, he was an outstanding player. Sometimes when you have an outstanding scorer you don’t want him to be put in harm’s way to be your defensive stopper, but the thing about Bob is, I think if I would have asked him to do that he would have,” he laughs. “But it IS nice to see he’s put his defensive mentality into defending our country more than defending the three-point line.”

Bob Brown (far right) was a member of the final team that Mike Krzyzewski coached at West Point. they cross paths or join forces, which to both men’s delight happens frequently. “I’m the only player he recruited that made General,” Brown says. “I think there’s something about that that’ll always bond us. That means so much to him, because of how much the Army means to him.” Says Krzyzewski: “It’s not just that he’s a General. It’s that he’s one of the best leaders in our country. I’m so proud of that. He has an enthusiasm that keeps growing, and a humility. I’m just proud of the magnificent man he’s become.” It is a pride that manifests itself in many ways, perhaps none more direct as this: It was to Brown’s immediate and eternal regret that he couldn’t be in Indianapolis in April to cheer on as Duke pursued its fifth national championship under Krzyzewski. Brown watched the Blue Devils’ win over Wisconsin, and it thrilled him, and it also left him a little empty: “I should’ve been there,” he says, with a sigh.

In a way, though, he was. A few weeks later, a package arrived for Brown at Ft.Leavenworth. It was a basketball. Turns out, as Duke marched toward its title, Krzyzewski had asked his players to think of one person for whom they most wanted to win, and to keep those folks in mind as they advanced through the brackets. Later, he encouraged the players to acknowledge those inspirations and send them a souvenir. And so it was that Brown received his ball, signed by Duke’s junior center Marshall Plumlee – a player (and an ROTC candidate) who, much like Brown himself nearly 40 years ago, has already decided that he will pursue a career in the United States Army when his eligibility is over, rather than pursue the National Basketball Association (where two of his brothers presently play). You think you made the right choice all those years ago, Lt. Gen. Brown? “The rewards were immediate,” he says, “and they are continuous.”

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Despite the occasional clashes, Brown understood he was being coached by a master tactician, technician and motivator – although, he says with a chuckle, “I’d like to tell you I knew he’d be the first coach to reach 1,000 wins, but I can’t say that. I knew he was good. I don’t know that I knew he would be the best ever.” That’s what made the announcement a few weeks after Brown’s junior season so bittersweet. “I guess Tom Butters saw what we saw,” he says. Butters was the athletic director at Duke, and he was in the market for a new coach that spring of 1980. Bob Knight, who’d recruited Krzyzewski to West Point out of the Chicago parochial league 15 years earlier, had strongly recommended him, and though the Cadets had grinded through a 9-17 rebuilding year there was little question Krzyzewski was ready for a bigger job. “It was very dramatic, very emotional, when he told us he was leaving for Duke,” Brown remembers. “Honestly, to us, his players, it was on some level the equivalent if the troops had lost Dwight D. Eisenhower during World War II – we respected him that much. I mean you hear about players who would run through a brick wall for a coach? That was real for us. We absolutely would have. We were sad. But we were also so, so proud of him.” Brown’s senior year didn’t end as he would’ve hoped – he hurt his knee during a game at Niagara, which came in the middle of a seasonending 12-game losing streak. But it also offered some clarity: whatever dreams he still harbored about playing basketball professionally crystallized instead to the reality that he wanted a military career. And he has never looked back from there, earning three stars and the kind of universal respect as a soldier that makes Krzyzewski beam whenever

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2nd Lt. Larry Dixon THE NEXT CHAPTER BY Ryan J. Yanoshak

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Army West Point football fans might best remember Larry Dixon for his tough runs, those carries where he bounced off of the defensive tackle and then ran over the linebacker. Or they may recall Dixon as the captain of the team his senior season, used as part of marketing campaigns, front and center during postgame press conferences after another stellar game where he deflected the praise to his teammates and coaches. Dixon might also be remembered for his mega-watt smile, the generosity of his time for fans, young and old. Fans might also remember those massive legs, tree trunks really that helped him climb near the top of the all-time rushing leaders chart at a school nationally known for rushing. Regardless of how you remember Larry Dixon, he will certainly be remembered. And fans will still see Dixon around Michie Stadium this season. With a host of family and friends on hand, Dixon was commissioned as a second lieutenant in May and will serve as an athletic intern with the football program before beginning his military career. That marked the end of his 47-month experience and concluded a phenomenal football career. “West Point is the best thing that has ever happened to me,” says Dixon. “Going through, it’s a challenge and you wonder if it’s ever going to end. It made me a better person. I made some great friends and had the opportunity to play Division I football.” A three-sport standout from Bremerton, Wash., Dixon had options. A stellar basketball player and running back, he also competed in track and field, focusing on the shot put and 100-meter dash. He was a three-time all-state selection as a running back, finished third in the state shot put competition and served as a twotime captain in both basketball and football. He was recruited to play football at West Point but didn’t visit campus until basketball season had concluded. He didn’t want to leave his teammates while visiting schools so he postponed his trip. Dixon grew up in a military family and wanted to explore West Point. His mother, Laura Ashley, is a retired senior chief petty officer in the United States Navy and his father, Larry Dixon Sr., retired from the Navy after 20-plus years as well. Once he saw the place, met the coaching staff and learned about the Academy, Dixon was committed. “National Signing Day is the first Wednesday of February and I knew I wanted

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to go to West Point the Friday after,” Dixon recalls. “I was ready to go on a visit to (the University of) Hawai’i and I didn’t want to waste Hawai’i’s time since I knew where my heart was. I called Hawai’i to cancel and called West Point to commit.” First, he spent a year at the United States Military Academy Prep School and then immediately started to make his impact on the football team. He played in all 12 games his first season and worked his way into the starting lineup later in the campaign. He rushed for 542 yards and five touchdowns, a preview of what was to come during his next three seasons. Like most cadets, it wasn’t an easy transition. He questioned if it was the right place for him before settling in as an Economics major and taking advantage of all West Point has to offer. “I was pushing away from going to West Point and initially didn’t want to go to school there. I didn’t want the military lifestyle,” says Dixon. “I talked to my mom and my sisters and my old coach who has since passed away and they all

said it was the school for me and an opportunity to get a great education and play a sport I love. I realized that once football ends, the things that really matter are education and great people and I wanted to be surrounded by great people.” He relied on his close-knit family. He and his mother are very close, exchanging several texts and phone calls per day. She knew Larry’s coaches and was at as many sporting events as possible. Older sisters Karisha and Shakira are always a phone call away. “Any time I had an issue, my family was there,” says Dixon. “My mom is a super positive person and she wouldn’t let me get down. She drove home being positive. My sisters are two different personalities but they were always available. We didn’t talk too much about West Point just more about life. They would let me vent away and then do everything they could to take the stress off of me. They are my biggest fans. They have always been there for me, always supporting. It was great to have them at graduation since they played such a huge part of it.”

(from left) Sister Karisha Stanley, mother Laura Ashley and sister Shakira Jarin pose with Larry during Graduation Week at West Point in May.

By his sophomore season, Dixon was a staple in the starting lineup and a key part of the tripleoption rushing attack. He picked up 839 yards in 2012 and scored six times. He topped 100 yards rushing for a game for the first time in his career with a 136-yard effort against Northern Illinois at Michie Stadium. He also ran for 128 yards opposite Boston College and 106 versus Temple. During his junior campaign, Dixon scored an additional six touchdowns on 705 yards. He ran for 125 yards against Boston College, scoring on an 80-yard scamper. He added a 71-yard run to paydirt and 113 yards at Ball State as well. Prior to his senior season, Jeff Monken was introduced as Army West Point’s newest football coach and overhauled the staff. After spring practice, Dixon and Geoffery Bacon were named team captains. The upperclass football players were able to do their summer training early and then returned to West Point to work in the weight room and take a class. Under the direction of head football strength coach Tim Caron, Dixon was able to add muscle while getting leaner. “The biggest change was the longevity I felt,” Dixon says. “The strength staff crushes you from January to August and it’s hard. When you get to the season, it matters. Coach Monken knows how to get it done. His process is hard and to go through his process means working with Coach Caron and his staff. It’s hard but you see the point. My senior season was the first where I played all 12 games and still felt good at the end of the season. I was very fortunate and blessed to work with the staff. They get to know you. Not just your name or your major but YOU. It’s easy to respect them. They are grinding through workouts just like you. How can you not have respect for those guys. I wish I had more offseasons to work with them.”

“Coach Monken is building something special and I want to be a part of it. While I won’t be in the same position, I will be able to be on the field with the guys and be around the team. This was a ‘no-brainer.’ I want to be a coach one day and I have so much respect for this coaching staff.”

- 2nd Lt. Larry Dixon

Dixon rushed for 26 touchdowns during his career and is tied for sixth all-time with Heisman Trophy winner Felix “Doc” Blanchard. Eleven times, he topped 100 yards rushing in a contest. Before he heads off to Basic Officer Leadership Course at Ft.Sill, Okla., he will join the coaching staff, for six months. He is unsure of what his career holds after branching Field Artillery. “I go back and forth,” Dixon says of his plans. “Some days, I want to do 20 years and retire. Some days join Special Forces. Some days do my five years. So many things can and will happen that will dictate what happens next. I will focus on meeting great people and taking it one day at a time.” The focus now is on helping the football team and being an asset to

the program as an athletic intern. It’s not a glamorous job by any means, lots of hours, breaking down film, preparing practices and whatever the staff needs. It’s a job he will gladly take for an opportunity to give back to a program that has given him so much. “I wanted to be around the team, the coaches and players,” says Dixon of his role. “Coach Monken is building something special and I want to be a part of it. While I won’t be in the same position, I will be able to be on the field with the guys and be around the team. This was a ‘nobrainer.’ I want to be a coach one day and I have so much respect for this coaching staff. How could I not come back and get the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to work with Coach Monken and be around guys I have been friends with forever.”

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That hard work in the weight room paid off as Dixon posted 1,102 rushing yards during his senior campaign. He averaged 91.8 yards per contest and 5.8 yards per carry while scoring nine touchdowns. Dixon opened the season with a 140-yard effort that included two touchdowns in a victory against Buffalo. He followed that up a few weeks later with a career-best 188 yards in a home win against Ball State. He concluded his career with 115 yards at Western Kentucky, 158 yards and three touchdowns against Fordham and a 90-yard contest versus service academy rival Navy. “Two games stick in my mind,” Dixon says. “San Diego State my freshman season and Ball State during my senior season. Both of those were significant, both at West Point and both I played in. I had three fumbles against San Diego State and I was awful and we lost by three points so you do the math. Ball State was my senior year and I ran for a bunch of yards and we won and my family was there. It was cool for my family to be a part of it. They remarked how much I had progressed and had grown, and that made that game really special for me.” He was rewarded with an invitation to the East-West Shrine Game to cap his illustrious collegiate career and several postseason honors. In all, Dixon earned four varsity letters and concluded his career with 3,188 yards rushing, a total that is now fourth all-time. He passed Heisman Trophy winner Glenn Davis late in the season and trails only Mike Mayweather, Carlton Jones and Trent Steelman on the all-time charts.

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2nd Lt. Dion Hart In The Deep End BY Wayne Coffey

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Long before he ever got to West Point, or had even heard of Army West Point’s Crandall Pool, Dion Hart lived his life in the deep end. He knew intuitively that meant he had better learn to swim, in the pool and out of it. Even as life lessons bombarded Dion Hart like incoming fire, he found a way not only to stay afloat, to dodge discouragement and dysfunction, but to keep moving water and everything else out of the way, powered by the example of the one person he could always count on, his mother, Leah Chavez, who gave birth to him when she was 14 years old. People in her family told Leah Chavez she should abort the pregnancy, think hard about giving the baby up for adoption. She was kicked out of her home, got nothing from the baby’s father, spent 10 terrifying days at the hospital when Dion was a newborn in an oxygen tent, fighting for breath against a respiratory virus. Leah Chavez, a sexual-abuse survivor, wound up living with her baby in a crack house and other sorry outposts in the poorest precincts in Phoenix. She wound up getting by with food stamps and public assistance. But she had her son, and he had her, and now look. Now that baby boy is a 22-year-old West Point graduate, a stalwart on the Army West Point swim team whose teammates became the family he never had, a 6-0, 185-pound man with an Economics degree and a commission as a second lieutenant. Dion Hart wants to be an engineer diver, water apparently coursing deep into his soul. More than anything, he wants to honor Leah Chavez. “My mother dropped everything in her life to support me,” Hart says. “She never gave up wanting to be my mother. She was the one to teach me that if you want something you have to be the one to make it happen. I wake up every morning with the intent to work towards achieving my goals because I know it will reinforce the fact that my mother was the best mother I could have ever asked for.” Says Leah Chavez, “Before I had my son I could care less about living. He did not ask to come into this world. I told myself I was going to protect him at all costs. My strength came from my son.” She pauses and tries to steady a voice choked with emotion. “I am very proud of him,” Chavez says. ★★★ Leah Chavez has a saying, and repeated it often to her son. “Everything starts small,” she would say. You take a step, and then another. She would eventually get married and have four other children, and heeded her own advice. It was never easy. Dion’s life had all the stability of a desert tumbleweed. In fifth grade he was tormented by bullies who called him a mistake and beat him up in the bathroom, and spit in his hair. They mocked him because he loved to dance – ballet, tap, jazz, you name it. As Dion got older he stayed with a grandfather who he said was so worried about money and Dion’s voracious appetite that he would lock up the food in his bedroom. Dion spent a few hungry months there, and moved on. Movement was a constant. Hart would hear other kids talk about their families,

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“My mother dropped everything in her life to support me. She never gave up wanting to be my mother. She was the one to teach me that if you want something you have to be the one to make it happen. I wake up every morning with the intent to work towards achieving my goals because I know it will reinforce the fact that my mother was the best mother I could have ever asked for.”

- 2nd Lt. Dion Hart

their traditions and vacations, and wondered what that would be like. He never felt sorry for himself. As he got older, he shared his life journey with only the closest of friends and teammates, among them Dan Borchik, a former West Point swimming teammate who is now a United States Army lieutenant based

in Savannah, Ga. “I’m sure there are a lot of people he’s around every single day who don’t even know about (what he went through),” Borchik says. “I’ve tried to eliminate complaining and making excuses in my life, and a lot of that has to do with Dion. He had all the cards against him, everything

Dion Hart poses with his mother, Leah Chavez, following commencement exercises at Michie Stadium in May.

in the world against him, and has still been able to achieve and do great things.” Hart, who had started swimming recreationally as a young child, decided in middle school he wanted to be in the military, and wanted to be a leader, to his four younger siblings and anybody else he might positively impact. You have to get your education first, his mother told him. He studied hard and started to swim fast, emerging as a top area competitor though he’d only competed out of a public pool. He went to a summer swimming camp at the United States Naval Academy as a junior, lining up the requisite recommendations. When he finally joined a club team, his times plummeted, Navy recruited him and Hart verbally committed. He was all set to head to Annapolis when he came across a story in Forbes magazine about West Point and its leadership record. Hart decided he wanted to visit. The coaches at the Naval Academy tried hard to dissuade him, saying that there was no point. Hart knew that, judging by records and rankings, that Navy had a stronger swimming program, but this was not a decision that was going to be based on numbers. Something in his heart told him he needed to check out West Point. Dan Borchik was Hart’s host. They walked around the campus, visited Trophy Point, the majestic Hudson overlook on campus. It was snowing. It was perfect. Hart met the guys on the team and felt as if he were part of a brotherhood almost immediately.

“Dion really embraced the family aspect and the camaraderie from the beginning,” says Mickey Wender, the Army West Point swimming coach. “He is tough, he’s selfless and has this ability to connect with people. He’s just a loving, soft-hearted guy with a heart of gold who is a great athlete, the kind of person who makes any team better.” Hart knew this is where he wanted to be. He told Chris Maiello, the Navy assistant who was recruiting him, that he was sorry, but he had changed his mind. “You’re making the biggest mistake of your life,” Hart says Maiello told him. Hart did not agree. That does not mean that life on the banks of the Hudson was easy. Early on, Hart got kicked out of an English class because he didn’t have a rough draft of a paper. He got disciplined for it, and then got in more trouble when he displayed a shortage of contrition and ownership. “I had attitude,” Hart says, a faint smile crossing his face. There were times he’d see photos of friends on Facebook, being college kids and partying on spring break, and he’d have a passing pang

or two, but it wouldn’t last. The team and the bond he felt, the family he was finally a part of, always pulled him through, always made him feel connected. With his mother so far away and not having the means to get back to Arizona, he was often invited to spend holidays with teammates, such as fellow swimmer and classmate, Michael Dustin. Everybody always included him.

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“I’m sure he appreciates that more than most with some of what he’s been through,” Wender says. Hart’s swimming specialties were as a freestyle and breaststroker, and his sub-specialty was being the team’s resident entertainer. He would break into dance without warning, his energy and enthusiasm spilling to all corners of Crandall Pool, which, over four years, became much more than a rectangular body of water to Hart. It became a place of refuge, the home of a chlorinated brotherhood. When his final year in the pool ended with the Black Knights placing second in the Patriot League, and second in the Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference Championships, it was bittersweet for Hart. There was pride in how the team finished, but sadness that the end to his West Point swimming career had come. From start to finish, Dion Hart loved the challenge of putting it all out there, touching the wall as fast as he could, giving his mother one more reason to be proud, and to honor her example. “She’s my role model in everything I do,” Dion Hart says.

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Kevin Houston Circle Of Life BY John Feinstein

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Kevin Houston sat at a corner table in a coffee shop called ‘Jane on Main,’ that sits across the street from the train station in Pearl River, N.Y. When he had walked in the door a few minutes earlier, everyone in the place had greeted him by name, not so much in the manner of Norm from ‘Cheers,’ as in the manner of the kid everyone has known all his life. It was a comfortable April afternoon and it was pretty clear that Houston was in a very good place in his life – literally and figuratively. “I guess you could say I haven’t gone very far in life,” he says with a laugh. “This is where I started and, all these years later, this is where I still am.” Perhaps. But the full circle story would be incomplete without filling in all the stops along the way. Even at 51, Houston still has the freckle-faced boyish looks of the kid everyone thinks they want to guard until a basketball game starts. Then he takes his first shot and all of a sudden no one wants to guard him anymore. “When I came out of high school, I was 5-feet, 11 inches and I might have weighed 145 pounds,” he says. “I wasn’t very impressive to look at in a basketball uniform.” He smiles. “But I could always find a way to get the ball in the basket.” That ability to get the ball in the basket came in handy during Houston’s four years at West Point. By the time he graduated in 1987, he had gotten the ball into the basket enough to score 2,325 points. He was Army’s all-time leading scorer then and today, as his jersey hangs from the rafters in Christl Arena, he’s still the all-time leading scorer. When Houston was a senior at Pearl River High School, two Army coaches saw something in him in spite of his unimpressive physique. One was Les Fertig, who was an assistant to Pete Gaudet when Gaudet was Army’s head coach. The other was Les Wothke, who kept Fertig on his staff when he succeeded Gaudet in 1982 and then heeded his advice to go see the kid with the freckles shoot the basketball during tryouts that were being held on the post that summer. Like Fertig, Wothke understood that a player who can score from almost anywhere is valuable, regardless of his size. He suggested that Houston consider going to Army’s prep school. Houston wasn’t sure. “It was the military thing,” he says. “I wasn’t so sure I wanted that.” That was where his father stepped in. Jerry Houston was a gifted player himself, who once scored 69 points in a high school game, before going on to play for Joe Lapchick at St. John’s. He was the captain of Lapchick’s last team in 1965 and made the clinching free throws in the National Invitation Tournament championship game against Villanova. Jerry Houston believed his son could be a very good college player. He also knew that he was going to need more than basketball once he graduated from college. He liked the idea of the prep school, especially because he was friends with Harry Beale, who happened to be the Dean of Students at the prep school at the

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time. What’s more, Jerry pointed out, if military life was too tough, Kevin would have another year to get bigger and hone his game and then choose somewhere else to go to college. “Once I settled in academically, I loved the experience.” He certainly had no complaints about his basketball experience. In four years Houston never failed to start a game – 113 in all. He still remembers his first game at the University of San Diego when he was about to be introduced. “Coach Wothke looked at me and said, ‘First of more than 100.’” Even Wothke couldn’t have imagined how good the tough little guard with the sweet jumper would become. He was named Rookie of the Year in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference. As a sophomore, he averaged 15.1 points per game and combined with captain Randy Cozzens to lead Army to a 16-13 record – the only winning season the Black Knights would have from 1979 to 2013. As a junior, with Cozzens having graduated, Houston’s scoring average jumped to 22.3 even though defenses were gearing to stop him. “We knew he was coming,” says Jim Calhoun, then the coach at Northeastern. “And we still couldn’t stop him.” Those three seasons were just a prelude, though, to Houston’s senior season. It was the first year that college basketball had a three-point shot and no one was a better threepoint shooter than Houston. Even though Army had no other doublefigure scorer. Houston averaged 32.9 points per game to lead the nation in scoring and scored 953 points. To put that point total in perspective consider this: In the 112 seasons of Army basketball 28 other players have scored 1,000 points – in their CAREERS. Houston’s final regular season game was a loss – at Navy – to a David Robinson-led team. The

Midshipmen needed overtime to win the game in large part because Houston poured in 37 points. “He humiliated me that day,” says Doug Wojcik, Navy’s point guard and an excellent player in his own right. “I simply couldn’t stop him. I tried everything except pleading. Then I started to plead: I kept saying, ‘It’s Senior Day, you’re embarrassing me in front of all my friends and my entire family.’ Please stop.” In the end, Robinson simply wouldn’t let his team lose. But he never forgot how tough it was to play against Houston. Both men graduated in the spring of 1987 and spent part of their post-graduate time playing as teammates on the All-Armed Forces team. They became good friends, close enough that Houston was invited to Robinson’s induction into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame. Like most “gym-rats,” Houston found it tough to give up the game. He was invited to the United States Olympic Trials in 1988 but head coach John Thompson cut him fairly early in the tryouts. He only kept one player who was a true shooter – Bradley University’s Hersey Hawkins. When Hawkins rolled an ankle during the Games, the U.S. had no outside shooting threat and lost in the semifinals to the Soviet Union. As it turned out, that was the last U.S. team made up of college players. Four years later, the “Dream Team” represented the United States in Barcelona. By then, Houston had moved on with his life – although he did have brief training camp stints with the Washington Bullets and New Jersey Nets and played on weekends in the Eastern Basketball League for several years. He married Liz Cuccia, his high school sweetheart right after graduation and went to work for Verizon in their corporate security division. Three children came along – Lauren, Luke and LeAnne – and Houston stayed connected

(clockwise from top) Liz and Kevin pose with their children, Luke, LeAnne and Lauren to basketball, first through brother Jerry, who became the coach at Pearl River in 1997 and then by coaching at a nearby private school. Life was good. And then, it became a nightmare. In 2004, Liz began to feel weak for reasons no one could explain. Tests revealed she had a rare disease called Scleroderma, which affects and infects the connective tissues in the body. There’s no cure and it is degenerative. “The doctors told us it shouldn’t be fatal – at least not right away,” Houston says. “They thought she could live into her 50s.” They were wrong. Right after Christmas in 2008, Liz came down with pneumonia. Her immune system was already weak and she had to be hospitalized. There had been other hospital stays and she had always bounced back. This time, she didn’t. On Jan. 3, 2009, she passed away. Lauren was 20, Luke 16 and LeAnne was 14. “In a sense, basketball helped us get through that time,” Kevin says. “Luke was playing for my brother and we all kind of rallied around him and the team and tried to throw

home. It was starting to snow and Eileen suggested he spend the night. Kevin wanted to be home to help LeAnne get up and out for school in the morning. It was a mistake. “By the time I got on the Palisades it was snowing HARD,” he says. “I came around a curve and lost control,” he says. “I spun out and I can still remember wondering if I would hit something or plunge over the restraining wall and down a cliff.” He hit a wall and felt a sharp pain in his shoulder and knew that he had bumped his head. Dazed, he got out of the car and, when another car stopped to call 911, he called Eileen. As luck would have it, Eileen was watching an old VHS tape she’d been given by Kevin’s mother of a game at Fordham his senior year. Seeing Kevin’s number come up she picked up the phone and said, “Did you play ANY defense at all?” “If I hadn’t been so banged up I’d have told her, ‘Yeah, but I scored 42 that night and we won,’” Kevin says. “But I figured I’d better just tell her what happened.” The next day, Kevin and Eileen won the dream wedding. They were married a month later. Now, Luke has just finished a superb Division III career at Southern Connecticut University and Eileen’s

son Joe is going to play junior varsity ball as a ninth grader at Pearl River next fall. His coaches will be Jerry Houston Jr; Kevin Houston and Jerry Houston Sr. – who helps his sons coach the team. Life, once again, is good. “It’s funny, I think all the time about the old joke cadets tell about West Point being a great place to be FROM,” Kevin says. “I was one of those guys who actually enjoyed myself while I was there. “When I was a cadet we were always told that the key to success was to cooperate and graduate. Back then, they were just words to me. “Now I realize they apply to everything in my life. You need to know how to treat people to get the most out of them – and out of yourself. You want to maximize potential every single day. That’s what West Point is really all about. That’s what I learned that I’ve carried with me – with my kids, all seven of them – and with everyone I’ve ever worked with. “I’m not sure I understood it then, but I promise you I understand it now.” Kevin Houston may be back where he started. He may joke about not having gone very far in life. But it’s pretty apparent that he’s had a

Kevin and Eileen with children (from left) Katreana, Brielle, Jack and Kieran.

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ourselves into basketball. “But the other thing was being a grad of West Point. The support I got from my teammates, from classmates, from guys I’d barely known when I was in college was unbelievable. I was wounded – badly wounded. And they were all there to try to help me get back on my feet.” Nine months after Liz’s death, he was re-introduced to Eileen Bellew, who had been through a tragedy much like what Kevin had been through. In January 2005, her husband, John, had been one of two New York City firefighters killed while battling a huge fire in the Bronx. Eileen was left with four very young children. A mutual friend suggested it might be cathartic for the two of them to talk to one another. It was cathartic and it was fun. Kevin heard himself laughing again. The same was true for Eileen. They had plenty in common: Both had grown up in Pearl River – in fact, they later discovered that Eileen and Liz had lived on the same block, though at different times. Eileen had also been a college basketball player, at nearby Dominican College. And, of course, both were dealing with the shocking loss of a young spouse and the challenges that came with suddenly being single parents. “My kids were older,” Kevin says. “When John died, Eileen’s youngest (Kieran) was less than a year old.” He smiles. “Once we started dating we realized we were sort of a modern day version of The Brady Bunch.” They were engaged in 2011 and, on a whim, entered a contest being conducted by Kelly Ripa. The winners got a “dream wedding” in Hawai’i. Contestants were asked to tell the story about how they met and became engaged. Viewers selected the winners. The following January, on the night before the contest winners were to be announced, Kevin stopped at Eileen’s house on the way

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Charlie Jarvis One FOR THE AGES BY John Feinstein

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The numbers, or so it would seem, tell the Charlie Jarvis story pretty clearly: Start with the 2,334 career rushing yards, that still rank him eighth on Army’s alltime rushing list, even though freshmen didn’t play varsity ball in the 1960s, not to mention the fact that his alma mater has played run-oriented, option football for most of the last 35 years. There’s also the 1,110 rushing yards as senior in the fall of 1968, including the 253 yards against Boston College. He could also catch the ball AND was an excellent punter. It all adds up to a sterling career. But Jarvis shakes his head vehemently when those numbers come up, because he believes the most important numbers, the ones that sum up the three years he was Army’s starting fullback aren’t mentioned nearly enough: 23 and seven. That was the won-loss record for the Class of 1969. Jarvis has actually done some research on what that period in Army’s football history meant. “Those were the best three-year football numbers for the Academy since Blanchard and Davis,” he says, sitting in a Philadelphia restaurant on a rainy spring afternoon. “They’re also the best numbers any team has had over three years since then. Jim Young’s teams from 1984 to 1986 also won 23 games, but they played five more games than we did. I’m most proud to have played with the guys I played with and to be a part of those teams.” Jarvis’s pride is understandable. His four years at West Point were among the most remarkable in the long history of the Academy. Every cadet was supremely aware of what was going on in Vietnam and that made life on the post nervewracking, often sad and almost always poignant. “The (West Point) Class of ‘66 lost more men in Vietnam than any,” Jarvis says. “They graduated at the end of my Plebe year. As time went on, we would all hear the names of those who’d been lost, often guys we’d known, and it was a very sad time. I don’t think any of us felt fear – we knew what we were signing up for when we enrolled – but there was a definite sadness we all felt.” For the football team, the spring of 1966 was one of confusion. Ten days before spring practice was scheduled to start, Paul Dietzel resigned as coach to take the head coaching job at the University of South Carolina. Spring practice started without a head coach in place as the Academy interviewed candidates for the job. It was only after a number of ‘name’ coaches had said, ‘No thank you, ‘– no doubt scared off by the specter of trying to recruit in the midst of Vietnam – that Tom Cahill, who had been in charge of spring ball – was named as head coach. It turned out to be a master stroke, even if it happened almost by accident. “Coach Cahill was the perfect choice because he’d coached the Plebes for four years so he knew everyone on the team well,” Jarvis says. “He had a great feel for how to handle guys and he was able to put together and keep together an amazing coaching staff.” That Army staff is legendary to this day. It included Bill Parcells, John Mackovic, Ray Handley, Al Groh and Frank Gansz – all of whom went on to become head

★ MISSION FIRST ★ coaches in the National Football League. Jarvis was closest to Parcells – the defensive coordinator. “He couldn’t let his guard down with the defensive guys,” Jarvis says, smiling. “He had to be the tough guy with them. But with guys like me, on the offensive side of the ball, he joked around and told stories all the time.” Jarvis had another problem during that Plebe spring in 1966: academics. He had known, even before the first day of “Beast Barracks” the previous summer that he was going to find West Point’s academics challenging. In fact, he wanted to attend prep school for a year. “I had a great math SAT,” he says. “My English wasn’t so great. They wanted me direct though, so there I was.” Jarvis had grown up in Philadelphia. His dad, Charlie Sr., wanted to be in the United States Navy when he graduated from high school but his eyesight wasn’t good enough. Instead, he went to work in the Navy shipyards in south Philadelphia. Charlie Jr.’s first recruiting letter came from the U.S. Naval Academy. “Sophomore year,” he remembers. “A few days later I got one from Army. The difference was that the Army letters just kept coming. Tad Schroeder was in charge

of recruiting and he was very big on detail. The letters never really let up once they started.” As a senior, Jarvis starred at Father Judge High School – which was known more for basketball than for football. But, in the fall of 1964, Father Judge had 13 seniors who were all recruited by Division I schools and they led the team to the school’s first city championship in football. By then, Jarvis was being recruited by Navy, Air Force, Notre Dame and Army. He even took a preliminary test for Air Force but flunked – his vision wasn’t strong enough to fly an airplane. Navy backed off for reasons Jarvis never completely understood. That left Army and Notre Dame. “I visited Notre Dame twice because back then two visits were allowed,” Jarvis says. “I’m Catholic and I went to a Catholic school. But in the end, it was probably something my father said to me that made the difference. He said, ‘If you go to West Point and graduate, there’s probably nothing you won’t be able to do once you’re out of the Army.’” Jarvis heard his father’s words for most of his Plebe year – ‘If you graduate’ – because he was convinced he wasn’t going to survive one year, much less four. “It was just hard academically. ‘Beast Barracks’ was tough because

back then it was demeaning. Now, it’s tough and demanding – which makes a lot more sense. But I honestly didn’t know if I was going to cut it academically.” He did, though, and, as a sophomore, he became the starting fullback on a team that surprised most of the country by going 8-2. Steve Lindell was superb at quarterback and Jim O’Toole, his backup, was almost as good. Jarvis averaged 5.1 yards a carry while paired in the backfield with halfback Lynn Moore. Gary Steele, West Point’s first African-American football player to earn a varsity letter, provided a genuine deep threat. A year later, the Cadets were even better. Their only loss in their first nine games came at Duke, when what would have been the winning touchdown pass was mysteriously called back by an offensive pass interference call. What would have been a 14-10 win became a 10-7 loss. But Army rolled through every other opponent, including a 10-7 win at Air Force in the first game Army ever played in Colorado Springs. It was a memorable victory for everyone but Jarvis – who, to this day, has no memory of the last three quarters. “I got kicked in the head in the first quarter,” he says. “I was really out of it. Early in the third quarter our team doctor came down the sideline to check me out. In those days the concussion protocol was pretty simple: ‘What’s your name? What day is it? Who are we playing?’ – that sort of thing. The doctor was in front of me, looking down at his checklist. Steve Lindell was standing behind me and he whispered the answers in my ear. I had no clue what was going on.” The team doctor told Cahill that Jarvis was fine to return and he did – scoring Army’s only touchdown a few minutes later on an eight-yard-run during which he carried several Air Force tacklers into the end zone. “I guess you have muscle

Vanderbilt. At least we went out as winners against Navy.” Perhaps to prove what an extraordinary athlete he was, Jarvis went out for lacrosse as a junior – he’d never played the sport in high school – and became an AllAmerican, anchoring Army’s defense. After graduation, Jarvis was sent to Germany, serving in the 8th Infantry Division and then was called back to West Point because Cahill, Parcells and the other coaches thought he could help in recruiting. “It’s funny, given what my dad said to me in high school, but one of the things I did as a recruiter was take a list of recent Army football players with me into a home that showed what each was doing for a living at that moment. It was a good tool – I’m sure it’s a good one, maybe even a better one, now.” With Vietnam winding down, Jarvis got out of the Army in 1974 and entered the business world. He spent 10 years running a successful direct mail company and then went to work as a money manager. He’s still working today although, at 68, he’s down-sized a little bit and is now one of four partners in a small firm. He looks as if he could step into

the Army backfield today, his hair still black and his body still rock solid. He played at 6-feet, 2 inches, 210 pounds and today is 6-2, 210. “I was well over that for awhile,” he says, smiling. “But I am back to my playing weight.” He works at home, in the town of Pomona, N.J., which is about 55 miles from Philadelphia. He still follows his alma mater’s football fortunes closely and, like everyone else connected to the program, hopes for better things soon. “I met Coach (Jeff) Monken this spring,” Jarvis says. “Here’s what impressed me about him: I said to him, ‘Knowing that every coach likes his recruiting class when they’re first arriving, what do you really think about this group?’ He looked at me, smiled and said, ‘We’ll know in three to four years.’ I liked that answer – because it’s the truth.” Like most West Point graduates who have gone on to great success, Jarvis says what he learned in college, has served him well since graduation. “What you learn is that if you don’t shy away from adversity, if you embrace it and learn from it, anything is possible,” Jarvis says. “You have to have the discipline to know the difference between what needs to be done and what can be done. West Point taught me all that.” It’s hard to believe looking at Jarvis, that the 50th anniversary for his graduating class is only a few years away. If he could have one wish for he and his classmates between now and the spring of 2019 it’s this: “Remember what those teams accomplished. (Team captain) Ken Johnson should be in the Hall of Fame. He was a warrior. People talk about the non-Sugar Bowl team a lot and I understand that. But what Coach Cahill and our group did those three years should be remembered.” Even if Jarvis can’t remember one of the most memorable wins of that era. “I don’t remember it,” Jarvis says, smiling. “But I cherish it.”

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memory in a situation like that,” Jarvis says. “I don’t remember even being in Colorado and I certainly don’t remember the touchdown, but I guess I played okay. The guys told me we won. I took their word for it.” When Army rolled into lateNovember with an 8-1 record against a tough schedule, the team was invited to play in the Sugar Bowl. Unlike Navy and Air Force, Army had never played in bowl games. Now though, came a golden – or at least a sweet – opportunity. Except that the Pentagon, concerned that sending the football team to New Orleans in the midst of the Vietnam War would send the wrong message, ordered the U.S. Military Academy’s Superintendent to turn down the bid. “It was devastating,” Jarvis says. “To this day I don’t think we understand the logic. Think about what a morale boost it could have been for the guys over there to get to watch THEIR team play in the Sugar Bowl. It wouldn’t have been disrespectful, in fact it would have been a way to honor those who were serving overseas.” This, though, was 1967, a different time than now, when the military is revered by most Americans. Vietnam was an unpopular war and the military leaders didn’t want to shine a spotlight on the Army football team. “We were so upset about it, so disappointed that we came out flat against Navy,” Jarvis says. “That’s inexcusable. By the time we woke up in the fourth quarter we were down 19-0. We still almost pulled the game out (losing 19-14) but it was a loss that never should have happened.” Jarvis and his classmates got a measure of revenge a year later when they closed their careers with a 21-14 win over Navy. That team went 7-3 – all three losses by four points. “That was probably our best team,” Jarvis says. “We lost tough games at Missouri and Penn State and probably should have beaten

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Col. Nick Mauldin Coming Full Circle BY Kelly Dumrauf

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Col. Nick Mauldin will always live amongst the greats in Army West Point wrestling history. A poster in the team’s Arvin Gymnasium workout facility shows him atop the winners’ podium, beaming as he holds his hardware after besting the nation’s top-ranked wrestler, who just happened to be a Navy Midshipman. “Going in there I had wrestled him two times before,” recalls Mauldin. “He had beat me both times. The first time, when I was a Plebe, he beat me pretty handily. The second time he took me down in my Yearling year in the last 10 seconds. Going into the Eastern Tournament, he was seeded No. 1 and he was the No. 1 ranked wrestler at 158 pounds in the nation. I wrestled him in the finals and to be able to beat him at the Eastern Intercollegiate Wrestling Association Championships was just incredible.” What he recalls as his proudest moment as a cadet, Mauldin was named the tournament’s Most Outstanding Wrestler, in addition to winning bragging rights over his service academy foe. “It’s a memory that I’ll never forget,” he adds. “I can’t remember too many people that I ever wrestled, but that is clearly one that I will always remember.” While Mauldin’s success against his Navy counterpart is clear, the Army West Point wrestling team has struggled as of late to capture a “Star” meet win over its top rival. Heading into the 2015 contest, the Black Knights had not seen a victory over the Midshipmen in the “Star” meet since the 1996-97 season. That changed in 2015 when the Black Knights snapped Navy’s 17-year unbeaten streak by earning a 21-10 victory over the Midshipmen in front of 1,004 fans at Christl Arena. One of those fans: Col. Nick Mauldin. “I went crazy,” Mauldin says. “The ‘Supe,’ the atheltic director, his wife, my kid, we were all in the stands going crazy. We had a blast. That was a huge, huge win. I always say when I do Founders Day that it took me 25 years to see us beat Navy, and to be able to do that right before I left was pretty rewarding.” Mauldin returned to West Point in June 2012 to serve as a regimental tactical officer (RTO) for the United States Corps of Cadets. After 12 months, he was promoted to brigade tactical officer (BTO), a position he held for 14 months before joining the Army Athletic Association as the deputy military athletic director. In his role with the athletic department, Mauldin received the opportunity to work with and mentor cadet-athletes, having the ability to relate his time as a cadet to the struggles and triumphs of today’s Corps of Cadets. “That’s probably the most rewarding thing about West Point is being able to mentor those young men and women,” Mauldin says. “As an RTO, I got here three years ago and to see some of those Plebes who are now Firsties or Cows, it’s just incredible to see the growth. Usually as the RTO when you saw someone in your office it was probably because they were in trouble, and to see them mature over the 47-month process at West Point, it makes you feel confident that they will succeed

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and that they’re going to be great leaders.” Mauldin reflects on being able to watch the careers of some of Army West Point’s top cadetathletes in wrestler Cole Gracey and gymnast Jesse Glenn. The first seeded Army West Point wrestler in the NCAA Tournament since 2008, Gracey led the 2014-15 squad with 35 wins. Glenn represented the Black Knights as the only Army West Point gymnast to advance into the final rounds of the NCAA Championships, taking ninth on high bar in Oklahoma this spring, in front of a crowd of supporters, including Mauldin. When asked about his favorite moments in the athletic department, Mauldin smiles, easy to quote stories of Army West Point cadet-athletes’

accomplishments. “Clearly, seeing Jesse at nationals, just one away from being an All-American and seeing Cole wrestling at the Southern Scuffle; how he just continually fought to get to that next round to win that next match, and at the end of the tournament he looked like he had been beaten up by 20 people but he was always just smiling,” says Mauldin. “I’ll always have a picture of his face at the end on the podium ... just the smile on his face to get fifth at a very tough tournament and just loving it.” A unique aspect of Mauldin’s role with the Academy was his ability to relate to what the day-to-day struggle of being a cadet-athlete could be like. For most cadets, their

four years at West Point is finding a way to survive and make it to the next day, completing military, academic and athletic requirements. The ultimate test of time management skills, cadets are forced to fight every day to make it through the premier leadership institution in the world. Having the ability to assist in the development of the nation’s future leaders is something that Mauldin took to heart. He valued the opportunity to work with cadets who thrive, not only in athletic competition, but academically and militarily, and he relished the chance to help produce graduates who exemplify the pillars of the Academy. “Every day that I was at West Point I woke up with a smile on my

(from left) Nick Mauldin, head coach Jack Effner and Doug McCormick are pictured in the Army wrestling room during Nick’s senior year in 1991.

“That’s probably the most rewarding thing about West Point is being able to mentor those young men and women. As an RTO, I got here three years ago and to see some of those Plebes who are now Firsties or Cows, it’s just incredible to see the growth.”

- Col. Nick Mauldin

change for the Mauldin family, they’re ready to use the opportunity to grow and expand their knowledge. “I would say the Number One thing I’m looking forward to is the food,” he jokes. “Yongsan, the way it’s been explained to me, is kind of like Central Park in New York City. You have this military base that looks kind of normal and Americanized and then as soon as you step off you’re in a big city with skyscrapers. So, we’re looking forward to getting to see that and getting to experience that. We were stationed in Norway for three years and everyone really enjoyed that time. It’s an experience that kind of opens your eyes up to get to see that there’s a lot out there. It’s not just about us, sometimes you’ve got

to get out there and experience.” Anticipating his trek to Korea as his final mission with the United States Army, Mauldin is ready to again go back to a place where he called home, this time not at West Point, but on the family farm in Oklahoma. “That’s Number One on my list right now … to get to spend some good, quality time with my family,” he says. “I owe all of my success to my mom and dad. I look at what they did for me and my brothers and the time that they spent developing us into leaders and developing us into pretty good wrestlers. I would love to get back, and, as they get into their ‘golden years,’ spend some time with them and let them see the kids.”

Nick was nicknamed “The Hangman” for his proficiency on the wrestling mat during his West Point career.

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face, knowing that I was there and I was able to do what I did. Being able to finish in (the intercollegiate athletic department) was as rewarding as it could be,” adds Mauldin. “I would never have gotten into West Point if it had not been for ODIA (Office of Directorate for Intercollegiate Athletics) recruiting me as a wrestler. I owe a lot to ODIA taking a risk and taking a chance on me, and to be able to finish my last year working in the department has just come full circle.” After spending nearly three years at West Point, Mauldin and his family were given a new assignment and a new journey to Yongsan, Korea. “My family and I have loved our time (at West Point),” he states. “When I got the opportunity to come here I was asked by my boss, ‘Why do you want to come here?’ I said, ‘I really want to go to West Point so that my kids can see what ‘right’ looks like.’” The time spent at West Point afforded Mauldin the opportunity to not only advance his professional career and work at the institution where he got his start, but also provide a culturally enriching experience for his family. The ability to raise a family in an environment in which young men and women are volunteering to serve their nation in a time of war, will be something that he believes his family, and especially his children, will cherish forever. “This is where I started,” explains Mauldin. “I thought this would possibly be my last assignment and thought there would be no better place to end my military career than where it started. While it’s not my last, it’s pretty close.” While Korea will be a drastic

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Maj. Anne McClain The Final Frontier BY Mady Salvani

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When Anne McClain was in kindergarten, she innocently wrote a children’s story about going into Space. She fell in love with aviation watching air shows at Fairfield Air Force Base in her hometown of Spokane, Wash., and dreamed of walking in Space. Thirty years later, that dream became a reality with her selection to NASA’s 2013 Candidate Class. Now Maj. Anne McClain (USMA ‘02) is among eight candidates (four men and four women) chosen from a pool of 6,300 applications to prepare for missions that might include exploration and travel to new destinations in the solar system. Those destinations could include Mars or distant asteroids. In order to complete the candidacy training, she had to be qualified in five areas: flying T-38 jets; training in the astronaut’s suit for Space walks; Space Stations systems; robotics; the Russian language. From the tender age of four, what many might have considered a child’s fantasy of being an astronaut (just around the time Sally Ride became the first American female astronaut and third female to be part of the Space program), proved to be the path McClain would follow in fulfilling that dream. The first step was acceptance to West Point. Initially McClain knew little about the United States Military Academy. Her foray into finding information about West Point came via the Internet, but after looking on its web site, it would be the only school to which she applied. “My parents have always been supportive of whatever we wanted to do,” says McClain. “They would have been happy and proud wherever I ended up. Like any parent who sees their child off to the military, it is not the first thing you would choose for your child, but at the same time there is an enormous amount of pride.” McClain was delayed a year before attending West Point as a broken ankle suffered on the softball diamond the spring of her senior year at Gonzaga Preparatory School forced her Academy admission to be deferred one year. Instead of joining West Point’s Class of 2001, she entered with the Class of 2002. When McClain attended Gonzaga University that interim year, she did not want to lose a year of athletic eligibility playing softball, so instead she joined the rugby team. It proved to be a sport that she would continue to play after college. “My intention was to play softball in college, but that was not a driving reason why I went to West Point,” explains McClain. “I went for military leadership and the education aspects. Getting to play softball was a huge bonus.” McClain was not among the recruited athletes coming in with her class to West Point, so she initiated contact with Army softball head coach Jim Flowers. The

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longtime Black Knight mentor knew from their conversations that she was the type of player for which he was looking. “Anne notified us she was interested, and early-on in the recruiting process, we could tell that she was very mission-oriented and highly motivated,” says Flowers. “She had goals she wanted to do from the onset. Playing softball was part of her life as well as playing rugby. “One of Anne’s goals was to fly, and she participated in an airplane design course under the guidance of the Department of Engineering. She was interested in the Space program, probably not as an astronaut at that time, but it was something she might do some day.” The softball team qualified twice for the NCAA Regional Tournament during McClain’s four years, and Flowers felt she was a key part to the Black Knights’ success. She contributed in various roles as a catcher, third baseman, outfielder and designated player, the latter more so at tournament time. “I remember Anne hitting a home run at the Patriot League Tournament that put the game out of reach her junior year,” recalls

Flowers, who retired as the Black Knights’ head coach in 2009. “She was always ready, always in the game and brought a lot of spirit along with aggressiveness and determination. She was willing to do whatever I asked in order to help the team.” Flowers laughs when he remembers “a few times that we did not start out on the same page, but she was able to negotiate, compromise and understand what the long-term results would be. Anne wanted it to be positive, and she always took away from our conversations something that could help her reach her goal.” He summed it up best by saying, “Her motivation, spirit, drive and mission-oriented philosophy of life was a major contribution to winning and going to the NCAAs twice.” McClain says, “I think sports of any kind teaches a lot of good lessons that transitions into being on a team out in the United States Army. I feel you have to take responsibility for self-preparation so you are ready when the team needs to rely on you. The teamwork aspect and understanding the most you can do is to fill only a part of the bigger picture. I think the ‘fields of friendly

Anne McClain (back row, second from left) and her fellow seniors celebrate a Patriot League softball championship in 2002.

strife’ is very applicable here. “I loved being on the softball team, it was that bright spot that every day I knew I was going to softball practice. In hindsight, I was probably too hard on myself as I am a perfectionist, but I think the biggest takeaway I learned was being on the team.” In addition to playing softball, McClain worked hard to develop a women’s rugby team at West Point. Though she was not able to bring that about during her stay, it helped set the wheels in motion for the sport joining the club ranks not long after she graduated. Last fall, women’s rugby, along with men’s rugby, earned varsity status at the Academy. McClain also shined academically in a leadership role. A four-time member of the Patriot League Softball Academic Honor Roll, McClain was the highest ranked female in the Department of Civil and Mechanical Engineering her senior year. She was her company’s battalion executive officer and graduated 49th in her class, earning a bachelor’s degree in Mechanical/ Aeronautical Engineering. Reminiscing about her cadet days, McClain credits Flowers’ mentorship in making the transition into the next stage as an officer. “The cadets are in a transition period between being a high school kid and being an Army leader,” explains McClain. “For me personally, in looking back, it was adjusting to my role in the military environment. “Being a good follower and then becoming a good leader was where most of my conflicts came, and you have to let go of some of that immaturity you come in with. For me, it was very effective when I came out the other side ready to do my job.” Gaining a Marshall Scholarship following graduation, McClain headed to England where she earned two master’s degrees. She was awarded a master’s degree in

Aerospace Engineering from the University of Bath in 2004, and the following year earned a master’s degree in International Relations from the University of Bristol. Her stay in the UK also helped McClain’s rugby career because of the higher level of play. “I had some natural talent for the game, but learned how to play when I was in England. “I tried out for the national team when I was still at West Point, but did not get an invite back; however, I was good enough to play national military rugby. After a year playing in England, I came back for a tryout for the USA Rugby Team and made it.” McClain’s first military assignment was in the state of Hawai’i where she earned her wings as an OH-58D Kiowa Warrior helicopter pilot. She began her career with the 2nd Battalion, 6th Cavalry Regiment at Wheeler Army Airfield in Hawai’i. Shortly after, McClain was deployed 15 months in Operation Iraqi Freedom where she flew more than 800 combat hours. In 2011, McClain began the twoyear process to be an astronaut, and while she was waiting, completed Command and General Staff College and the C-12 Fixed Wing Multi-Engine qualification courses. She then attended the United States Naval Test

and it was one of the easiest interviews I have had,” remarks McClain. “There are a total of 11 unassigned astronauts, three from the class before us along with my class. Some slots only send four per year into Space. Slots come down at varying frequencies. All of us now are assuming jobs in the office. I am working with Space Walk Development. We have a big pool and if there is going to be a Space walk, we run the procedure a number of times in the pool to make certain they are right. “I am passionate about exploration and human kind doing something they have never done before. Starting from playing softball to being a commander in Iraq and on this team now, I am happy to play whatever role it is to get somebody there. I would love to be on a Space walk, but I also love to be supporting the next person selected to do it. “I have already achieved my goal, so everything else is going to be a bonus,” continues McClain. “Every member of our class will one day go to Space. Whatever role they give (me) at the time, I will be thrilled to fulfill it.” Space: The final frontier. That is where the next stage of Anne McClain’s life will take her.

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Pilot School, graduating in June 2013 at the same time she was selected as one of eight members to be a NASA astronaut candidate. She ranked as the first female graduate of West Point to join that elite group. “When you send in your resume, it tells NASA what you have done and then your application process seeks out how you have done it,” states McClain. “It asks, ‘Have you been a good follower? Have you been a good leader? Are you a good person to be with?’ The missions in Space are six months long with a crew of three to six people working in very close proximity. You must have people on your team who are willing to do things for the team.” Being technically competent is an important part of the resume and one that McClain shined in as a helicopter pilot and as an instructor and test pilot who has flown over 23 aircrafts. During the application process, NASA vetted the candidate list to 500, then invited the top 100 finalists for a round of interviews that took three days. NASA then whittled the list further to 40, inviting those remaining in the process for weeklong interview sessions, before finally selecting its class of eight. “They want to meet you,

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Dr. Rebecca (Marier) McGuigan A Cut Above The Rest BY Mady Salvani

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Life is made up of many challenges; some embrace it and become leaders. Dr. Rebecca (Marier) McGuigan, a 1995 United States Military Academy graduate, embraced it and became the type of leader and pioneer for which West Point is known. When McGuigan received her diploma on June 3, 1995 from United States Army Chief of Staff Gen. Gordon R. Sullivan, she wrote her name into the West Point annals as the first woman to graduate at the top of her class. She had many accomplishments throughout her West Point career, but her No. 1 ranking was the first of its kind since the Academy was founded 193 years prior. Accepted to Harvard her senior year at Metairie Park Country Day School in New Orleans, La., McGuigan surprised her family and friends when she chose West Point over the oldest institution of higher education in the United States. The summer of her junior year of high school set in motion the path McGuigan would take when she attended an Academic Workshop at West Point as part of a group of rising high school seniors who had shown attributes as future candidates. The introductory workshop remains in place, known as the Summer Leaders Seminar. The week-long workshop offered McGuigan an opportunity to find out what life was like for a West Point cadet, and what it took to become a leader of character. McGuigan didn’t need a week to decide West Point was for her. “We lived in the barracks and I fell in love with the place and everything it stood for,” remembers McGuigan, “and I wanted nothing more than to be a part of that. “I never regretted my decision. I knew it was going to be a challenge, so I never considered leaving. I was up for the challenge. My parents, teachers and friends were supportive, but it was my decision and I was determined to see it through.” It started with the challenge of “Beast Barracks” when a few times she thought, “What have I gotten myself into?” But there was no turning back as McGuigan found herself ushering in a new era before picking up her degree four years later. She was well-suited for West Point, considered by many as the premier leader development institution in the nation. McGuigan accepted the array of responsibilities that cadets take on from the first day. The National Merit Scholar had plenty of multi-tasking experience in high school. She was a three-sport letterwinner in soccer, volleyball and tennis; was president of her senior class and participated in many extracurricular activities. “I felt blessed that I was well-prepared for West Point from the high school I attended and the household I grew up in,” notes McGuigan. “I was used to multitasking and utilizing time-management skills; it was something I did for myself as a teenager.

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“Having those skills helped me succeed in sports, academics and military training during that challenging Plebe year. I was able to do more as a cadet.” Sports provided an outlet for McGuigan from the rigors of cadet life and academics, even though she was an excellent student who made the Dean’s List every semester. “I was able to get a break from the barracks, from academics and from some of the psychological mental stress that Plebe year can present,” says McGuigan. Being a member of the tennis team helped shape the Plebe to academy life. Not only did it provide her with a home away from the barracks, but the camaraderie enabled her to focus on academics. McGuigan, who played for three different head coaches during her time at the Academy, compiled a 55-36 mark in singles and 3419 showing in doubles during her playing career. She helped fashion a combined singles record of 234-140 with classmates Allyson Toce, Hannah Chang and Kristen Argus. The group also registered a 196-107-1 mark in doubles play en route to compiling a four-year team dual-match mark of 70-40. That included a 17-3 showing her junior year. At the time, the 17 wins were the most in school history along with an Academy-record 15 straight match victories. The fall of her junior year, the last under head coach Jim Hawkins, McGuigan helped guide Army to its first-ever Patriot League Championship. In the spring, Dr. Todd Ryska served as head coach for the program. Paul Peck, a captain in the U.S. Army at the time, succeeded Ryska and continues in that role today. “I am grateful to Coach Hawkins for recruiting me,” adds McGuigan. “I knew I wanted to go to West Point, but it made it easier knowing that I was going to be on the tennis team, and that I was going to have that

Rebecca (front row, fourth from left) was a four-year standout on the tennis court for the Black Knights. team to bond with in the beginning.” With Hawkins and Ryska leaving within a few months of each other, Peck took over the coaching reins and was able to move into the role successfully with the help of McGuigan. “I was the volunteer assistant coach,” explains Peck, “and was asked to become the head coach in January 1995 when Todd left. “My impression of Rebecca was everything you would expect of a cadet and more,” says the Army West Point coach. “I was an officer, and she was respectful, on time and always giving 110 percent. Having Rebecca as the team captain my first year made life a lot easier. I only coached her for a year, but she made a good impression and is someone to point out to the team when considering what she accomplished,” adds Peck, who has compiled 375 wins while leading Army West Point to 13 Patriot League championship titles and NCAA appearances. That is the best record in West Point history. McGuigan continued to be busy throughout the next three years. Then, during her First Class year, she was selected as a Regimental Commander for Fourth Regiment, the third-highest position a cadet can hold. She also was captain of the women’s tennis team and continued

her strong academic performance. “I had great support in helping balance classes, homework, tennis practice, company and staff meetings,” reflects McGuigan, “and I can’t stress how much that helped. I will always be grateful to all the people I had around me from friends on the team, Coach Peck, and our team sponsor, Lt. Col. Jim Armstrong. I spent a lot of time with him and his family, and they were wonderful to me as well as everyone on the team.” The challenges in the classroom, on the court, and leadership in the United States Corps of Cadets came full circle graduation day, taking McGuigan to an even loftier role. She etched her name into the history books as the first female to graduate No. 1 in academic, military and physical programs in a class of 988. McGuigan earned a plethora of honors to include the Maj. Gen. Francis Vinton Greene Memorial Award, the Peruvian Army Award and the Gen. Robert E. Wood Distinguished Cadet Award. McGuigan blazed another path as the second West Point graduate to attend Harvard Medical School as a recipient of the Mason Award. “I found out at graduation practice that I would not be sitting with my company, but up front as part of the top 50 cadets,” recalls

that took McGuigan on another road in life. The couple drew a six-year residency at Ft. Lewis, Wash., that included three deployments, the births of four children and her final tour of duty at Ft. Benning, Ga., where McGuigan closed out an Army career that spanned three decades, including four as a West Point cadet. She retired from the Army last July. McGuigan entered another stage of her life as a stay-at-home mother after retiring from the Army. The family is currently living in Alabama, where her husband is finishing his fellowship as a specialized orthopedic surgeon at the University of Alabama. The timing was perfect as McGuigan became a full-time stay-athome mom after being away almost a year-and-a-half of her children’s lives following a trio of six-month deployments when they were young. “It has been a challenge and I have new-found respect for mothers who choose to stay home fulltime during the duration of their kids’ childhood,” notes McGuigan. “Moms everywhere are raising the next generation. They provide for the future security of our nation, and I don’t think anyone will underestimate the importance of what moms are doing. “For me, it was a challenge being a wife, a mom, an Army officer and

being a surgeon all at the same time,” relays McGuigan. “I am fortunate as I have a very supportive husband, and a good support system in my family to help out with the children.” Life has so many stages and McGuigan has embraced each one during that point in her life. “I loved being a cadet, and as challenging as it was, I made the most of my time there and would do it over again. I fully enjoyed being at medical school, then being a surgical resident as challenging as that can be. There were weeks I worked 100120 hours. It was exhausting and I was sleep-deprived, yet I enjoyed it. “If I had to take a favorite time of my life not looking back and not knowing what the future holds, I would have to say my favorite job so far is that I love being a mom. “I was very ‘gung-ho’ about my career and I believe in living for the moment. As important as it is to keep an eye on the future, you have to make the most of the present. Otherwise, you will wake up and life will have passed you by.” That certainly won’t be a problem for McGuigan, who has been blazing new trails throughout her life, and will be forever remembered as the first female to graduate from West Point ranked No. 1 in her class. She has set lofty standards in every phase of her life and is looking forward to what the future holds.

Rebecca became the first female to graduate No. 1 in her class at West Point in 1995.

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McGuigan. “I didn’t know that I was the first female to be No. 1, and I think it was news to everyone. “My parents were excited and proud. At one point they had their doubts about it being the right decision, but they had come around long before that and were happy with how things turned out.” There would be four more years of schooling for McGuigan, who deferred her military commitment until after medical school, giving up an active commission for the U.S. Army Reserves. Capt. McGuigan returned to military service obligations after earning her medical degree, serving as a general surgeon. Medical school proved to be very rigorous, but McGuigan had personal knowledge since her father is a physician. “I was well-prepared by West Point and I was able to do more in medical school. There were not as many distractions.” In 1999, McGuigan picked up her medical degree and a new commitment of nine years, which suited her just fine. As a general surgeon, she faces a different range of challenges and the trauma unit was the one she felt was her calling. “Trauma was one of the main reasons I wanted to be a doctor in the Army and care for soldiers,” explains McGuigan. “It turned out we went to war and I was happy to have the skills to contribute during wartime to the troops on the battlefield. I wound up with three deployments to Afghanistan during my active duty time.” Following medical school, McGuigan attended the Basic Medical Course at Ft. Sam Houston, Texas, where the newly minted doctors trained in their field of specialty. It was then McGuigan met her future husband, Don McGuigan, who earned his way through college and into medical school through the Health Professions Scholarship Program. They married in 2001 and

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Tom and 2nd Lt. Jasmine Morgan Glidepath To Greatness BY Kevin Gleason

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She was going to do it. You bet she was going to do it. When Jasmine Morgan set her mind to something, anything, she succeeded. And, not to brag or anything, things came kind of easy to her. Didn’t matter if it was in gymnastics or cheerleading. Didn’t matter if it was pledging to the sorority at Louisiana State University (LSU) or deciding to quickly scrap her college career in Baton Rouge for West Point and four years later becoming a second lieutenant as part of the Class of 2014 at the United States Military Academy. And now, heading toward the finish line of her 12-mile hike carrying a 45-pound pack, Jasmine Morgan was going to be one of the first female United States Army Rangers in history. Whoa! Say what?! A gymnast with zero interest in West Point until she attended a friend of her brother’s graduation from the Academy, till she saw the pageantry and heard the words spoken from the alter, till she read devotionals while at LSU forwarded by mom that screamed from the page, “In with the new, out with the old. Get your butt to West Point Jasmine Morgan!’’ OK, well they didn’t exactly say the last part, but might as well have, for she suddenly recognized a higher calling. But this was Ranger School, one of the most grueling physical and mental military training missions on the planet. Getting to Ranger School was hard enough, managing a similar grind completing RTAC, the Ranger Training Assessment Course, also at Ft. Benning, Ga., which she failed once. Morgan was amongst the second class of women being given the opportunity to complete RTAC. She buzzed through it on her second try and was off to Ranger School with 18 other women. She was going to join the “crème de la crème” of Army forces. Army Rangers. “I wasn’t that nervous,’’ she says. ★★★ Tom Morgan learned real fast the art of discipline. You screw up in the Morgan household, you get your butt kicked by dad. Plain and simple. We aren’t talking a couple taps on the back side. We are talking a good old-fashioned kicking. Thomas Morgan’s idea was to mold responsible, disciplined, accountable young men – leaders of character, in Army terms. He was a 30-year Army man, retiring as a Command Sergeant Major, and Tom was born right there at Ft. Benning, home of Ranger School. So the boys made their bed, did the dishes, washed their clothes, cleaned the house and yard, shined their shoes (and dad’s boots). If you screwed up any of these chores, or maybe even if you didn’t, or made that fateful foray into acting like a kid, you got, in Tom’s words, “jacked up.’’ Young Tom Morgan had a football scholarship to the University of Texas. It seemed to be an easy enough decision – competing at one of the finest football

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colleges in the country, surrounded by beautiful girls … football, girls, girls, football. Dad suggested Tom apply to West Point, and Tom replied, much how his daughter would initially react to the place three decades later, “What the hell is that?’’ He went to West Point. He chased a “higher calling.” You hear that phrase a lot around West Point graduates. The epiphanic realization that other places could net acceptable results, maybe even sprinkle some greatness, but that no sheepskin and four years of sweat equity could produce the same potential as the teachings of the Academy. “This was a way to not only get a greater education, but to enhance your leadership abilities,’’ he says. Army head coach Lou Saban didn’t recruit Morgan, which might help explain Saban’s departure in July 1980 after a 2-8-1 season. Morgan “walked on” and played on the 150-pound football team as a freshman. The spring of that Plebe year he made the varsity squad and lettered for three seasons, as a defensive back. Those were nondescript teams by the numbers. Army went a collective 10-21-2 playing an insufficient I-back offense that left Morgan and fellow defenders sucking air by the third quarter. But Morgan’s teams hold

a special place in Army Football history. Army had just named a new coach as Morgan graduated in 1983, and it was only a year before Jim Young brought his fancy, clock-eating wishbone offense to the 1984 Cherry Bowl followed by years of gridiron success at Michie Stadium. After all, sometimes if you can’t reach the top of the mountain, you can show others the way. “We take great pride in that,’’ Morgan says. Tom took a unique route to becoming an Army Ranger through the Aviation branch of the United States Army. He met his wife, Vanessa, and they had Michael, a football and baseball player at Hardin-Simmons University. Michael, 28, has gone on to a successful career as a crude oil trader. Along came Jasmine. She was blessed with dad’s physical gifts and both her parents’ inner toughness. Dad was always Jasmine’s biggest fan, but the whole West Point thing caught him off-guard. He didn’t drill West Point into his daughter’s ear the way his own dad had with him. Tom was speechless the day Jasmine announced to the family that she was attending the United States Military Academy. Tom was emotionally overwhelmed. His mind and body needed time to process the news. His baby was going to West Point. And he worried that Jasmine finally was in over her head. “You are out of your mind,’’ he eventually told her. ”West Point will eat you up and spit you out.’’ “She was always a ‘never-saynever,’ ‘I-can’ kind of person,’’ Tom says. “She’s been able to do a lot of things that most guys can’t. I didn’t see that come out until West Point. West Point drove her to do amazing things. She loved West Point, and talks about West Point using the ‘love’ word all the time.’’ ★★★ Jasmine Morgan was captain of the Rabble Rousers, Army’s cheerleading squad. She branched

Adjutant General, working closely with the Chief of Staff as something of a Human Resources director, ensuring that soldiers had everything necessary for combat. It’s not as strenuous as other branches, instead requiring exceptional organization and administrative skills. Her sharp mind and bubbly personality seemed perfectly suited for it. She also wanted to become Airborne qualified and part of the 82nd. An article caught Morgan’s attention. It referred to the possibility of women being allowed into Ranger School. She started investigating the idea, but Ranger School remained mostly a myth to her. After all, there were no Adjutant Generals becoming Army Rangers. She expressed interest to a mentor and he passed along a training program that could help prepare Jasmine should she give it a shot. Always exceptionally conditioned, she followed the program while at Ft. Jackson, S.C. She graduated from Airborne School at Ft.Benning and took leave time around Christmas 2014. Ranger School was still in the back of her mind, but the status of female Army Rangers wasn’t expected to be determined until Jan. 15. Jasmine reported to her unit at Ft. Bragg, N.C. Before that, she had received a career-changing email while at Ft. Jackson. She had been selected as part of the 1st Special Forces Command Airborne Provisional, G1, working in her chosen branch for all of Army’s Special Forces. Few recent graduates received such an immediate opportunity, and Jasmine had no idea why she was selected. “There are definitely a lot of perks with being with the best,’’ she says. “Not to say others aren’t the best, but this is definitely a unique group.’’ Jasmine wanted to be one of them. She was initially denied a chance to go to RTAC, the pre-Ranger course, before a spot opened up.

Jasmine had almost no time to get ready for the two-week course, a brutal test of physical and mental strength consisting of hour upon hour of training wrapped around a couple hours sleep a night. The point was to weed out the weak through whatever means necessary. Jasmine passed the physical test on Day One but flubbed the Land Navigation test, in which soldiers are dropped off in the middle of the woods with a map and compass, and must reach a destination in the allotted time. She got lost. That meant five straight days of the fivehour Land Navigation in addition to other physical requirements. She failed Land Navigation a second time and was told she would have to complete the entire RTAC course again to qualify for Ranger School. No way was she going through that whole thing again, Jasmine thought initially. But she had too much fight in her to quit. She worked out three times a day from February to April, using a keen program to better prepare her for RTAC. She zoomed through RTAC to qualify for Ranger School. “I was better, faster, stronger than I had ever been,’’ she says of breezing through RTAC this time. “It was so easy. I literally didn’t blink.’’ The word “easy” and Ranger School will never encounter the same sentence. First was the physical

Jasmine served as team captain of Army West Point’s Rabble Rouser squad as a senior. at becoming an Army Ranger. It all depends on where Jasmine’s career sits when or if the opportunity presents itself again. But she knows more about herself than ever. She knows she can accomplish anything she wants, knows that given another shot, she can become an Army Ranger. She also knows she doesn’t need to join Army’s most elite special forces to prove her worth. Jasmine Morgan knows she has made her two main mentors proud. Mom, Vanessa, wrote Jasmine letters of encouragement every single day during the first of all brutal West Point exercises, Cadet Basic Training – Beast Barracks – all while battling Stage 4 cancer. “Stay strong!’’ Vanessa told her girl. “You can do it!’’ Vanessa passed away during Jasmine’s freshman year, the hardest thing Jasmine has ever endured. “I got my strength from her,’’ Jasmine says. “Just a very strongwilled person. She was incredible.’’ Dad’s pride oozes from his words. Jasmine didn’t quite understand all of Tom’s teachings when she was young; “Learn from the front,’’ he would say.’ But lessons have long shelf lives. They turn into wisdom, create character, and in some cases, lead to greatness.

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fitness test: a five-mile run in under 40:00, 49 pushups, 59 situps, six pull-ups. No problem. Last was the 12-mile hike with a 45-pound pack to be completed in three hours. Soldiers either met the time criteria after each mile or failed. Jasmine flew through the first six miles. By mile eight she was still OK. By Mile 10 she was shot. Her mind told her to move faster but her body didn’t respond. With just two miles to go, Jasmine was informed that she had failed to meet the 10mile time requirement. “I honestly didn’t think it was real,’’ she says. “I thought it was a joke.’’ Six weeks later, Jasmine still struggled to express her disappointment. She was certain she would go on to become an Army Ranger if she passed. “It’s devastating. I thought I let so many people down.’’ Jasmine realized if she wasn’t going to make the first class of female Army Rangers, she was going to be a better person for the effort. There were eight women remaining when Jasmine left Ranger School. The number was down to three shortly thereafter. She might take another stab

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Maj. Steve Reich The Natural BY Les Carpenter

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Ten years have passed since their son died and yet Sue and Ray Reich still hear from the soldiers. They come from nowhere and everywhere – each with a word, a story, a memory they are compelled to share about Maj. Stephen Reich whose helicopter was shot down during an attempted rescue of four Navy SEALS under siege in Afghanistan. As the soldiers speak, they say the same thing. “I would follow your son into combat anywhere.” “What they are telling you as a parent is they have so much confidence in your son as a leader,” Sue Reich says, “That was one of the most gratifying things anyone has ever said to me.” Once, Steve Reich was going to be a Major League baseball player. He had what the big league scouts loved: a big body, a strong left arm and a blazing fastball. He was smart, mature and unfazed when things went wrong. But he also had a dream – one molded on a high school trip to West Point to watch a friend play soccer. He saw majesty in the Academy. Everything about it held a challenge. And if there was anything Steve Reich loved, it was a challenge. “I remember him coming home and saying he thought the cadets were – there’s a term they used – ‘squared away.’” Sue Reich says. “I think the process of getting in to West Point is so difficult and he liked that. Just being accepted is a feat in itself.” There was a time when Reich had to choose between baseball and West Point. It came following his second year at the Academy, when his baseball promise had blossomed enough to make him a legitimate prospect. He decided to stay, starting the clock on his five-year post-college military commitment. He made his decsion in peacetime, years before September 11, though there seems little doubt he would have picked something different in a world with wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. A commitment is a commitment. Once he walked into West Point he couldn’t walk away. He was 34 years old when he died on June 28, 2005 and he never got to know if his rugged left arm was good enough to take him to the Major Leagues. As a child, Reich wanted nothing more than to be a baseball player. Ray Reich played baseball in their Ohio hometown and Steve went to all of his father’s games. At home, the boy stood in front of the television, watching baseball, imitating the windup of the pitchers he saw on the screen, hoping one day that could be him. Years later, after the family had moved to Washington Depot in northwestern Connecticut, he pitched at Shepaug Valley High School, a tiny school that was nonetheless a baseball powerhouse. College coaches noticed him. Strong Northeast programs like Connecticut and Maine tried to lure him to their campuses. Dartmouth and Princeton were interested, too. But his heart was set on the Academy. He applied through early admission, signaling it as his top choice. When he was accepted at West Point no place else mattered. “West Point was a good fit for Steve,” Sue Reich says.

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He thrived academically his first two years – not an easy feat for someone playing a sport. He also pitched well; so well, in fact, that a baseball career seemed a reality. If he left West Point and transferred to another school before the start of his third year he would not be obligated to serve the mandatory five years in the United States Army, required of all cadets who make it to their third year at the Academy. Sue Reich remembers the decision tormenting her son as he sought the opinion of his coaches, instructors and even his father. Ultimately he chose to stay. “I wanted to see how I stacked up against the best kids,” he told Adrian Wojnarowski of the Waterbury Republican-American at the time. “I wanted to see how far I could push myself. Before I came here I had no idea what my potential was.” Looking back, Sue Reich, thinks there was more to her son’s choice. West Point is hard. Many of those who survive the rigorous admissions process leave early, overwhelmed

by the rigors of life at the Academy. He couldn’t be another cadet who walked away – even if he had the perfect excuse to do so. He had to prove he could survive a place that crushed so many others. He had a double-language major, studying Spanish and Arabic. He began training to be an aviator because it was the most-glamorous of the disciplines at West Point and also one of the most difficult. But that was Steve. If there was a challenge he wanted to seize it. After he graduated, baseball remained a possibility. In the mid1990s, with the country relatively at peace, the government began cutting back on the size of the military. Exceptions to the five-year service requirement had been made for high-profile athletes like Navy basketball star David Robinson. Suggestions were made that Reich, who pitched well for Team USA at the 1993 World University Games, could get one, too. Eventually, the military told Reich that if a team offered him a professional contract, he would be granted an exemption. Early in 1996 he reported to spring training with the Baltimore Orioles. The organization assigned him to its Class A squad outside Lancaster, Calif. He pitched two games and played another two in the outfield before the Pentagon rescinded his exemption. The Army needed pilots. Just a handful of games into his professional baseball career, he was called back. “At that point he was 24, he knew that was the end of his baseball career,” Sue Reich says. She and Ray never went to see Steve play professional baseball. They had two daughters who were busy with sports themselves, getting to spring training was difficult and when he was sent to California they couldn’t just fly across the country. There would be time, they figured. Nobody expected his baseball dream

to end a few games after it began. Sue Reich knew the callback was devastating to Steve. Here was a challenge he would never meet, but as she thinks back to that time she is reminded of something else, something that surprised her son and even disturbed him. After years of living the unrestrained joy that comes with playing on state championship high school teams and the shared purpose of academy life, Steve Reich was confronted with a kind of desperate ambition he didn’t recognize or like. “Maybe (baseball) wasn’t all that it was cracked up to be,” she says. “I remember him telling me this was the first time in his baseball career that guys on his team were not playing for everybody to be successful. Everybody was competing with everyone else for spots.” Back in the Army, Reich was sent to Germany and was soon flying helicopters through the conflict in Bosnia. A couple years later he went to Ft. Campbell, Ky., to begin training for the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment known as the “Night Stalkers.” Another challenge,

“I wanted to see how I stacked up against the best kids. I wanted to see how far I could push myself. Before I came here I had no idea what my potential was.” something more to prove. Then came September 11 and a series of deployments – mostly three months at a time – to the Middle East. Those next few years were torture for Sue and Ray Reich. Because of the nature of his work, Steve could say nothing about what he was doing or even where he was. When he called home, he was short on details, telling little about his life. Everything was cloaked in secrecy. “He’d say he was ‘down range’ and you would have to put two-andtwo together,” Sue Reich says. She and her husband became addicted to the news, constantly watching television for updates, unsure if he was in Afghanistan, Iraq or someplace else. Knowing Afghanistan – through a time zone quirk – is 9.5 hours ahead of her, Sue once asked Steve what time it was as they chatted by phone. Her son laughed. “Nice try, Mom,” he said. At the end of each deployment, Steve returned home to Washington

- Maj. Steve Reich son’s work. The reports said he was an officer on the rise. They suggested he could someday be a battalion commander. They portrayed him as a leader. This leaves her with the satisfaction that Steve kept meeting challenges right up to his death. “I think Stephen got the same kind of satisfaction about completing a mission as he did winning a tough game,” Sue Reich says. She knows the comparison is not exact. A baseball game is hardly a military mission with lives on the line. But the zeal with which he pursued both was the same. Her son loved baseball and he loved West Point and was determined to succeed at each. As the 10th year after Stephen Reich’s death began, a television network came to Washington Depot to do a story on the boy who loved baseball and West Point. Sue and Ray gave the network producers some video cassettes they had kept from his playing days including a mysterious one they had never watched. The cassettes were almost 20 years old, unable to fit in the family’s DVD player. They hadn’t been touched in years. The television producers took the cassettes and transferred them to a digital format, including that mysterious one Sue and Ray Reich had never watched. The tape turned out to be an MTV interview Steve had done during spring training in 1996. He wore an Orioles uniform and he talked about choices and opportunity and the chance to live two dreams. Then the video showed him on the field. He ran and stretched and played catch with his teammates. As baseball images go they were mundane, far from anything special. Except in the Connecticut house where Sue and Ray Reich finally saw their son play professional baseball.

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Depot, where he would take long hikes in the nearby hills. Sue always marveled at how comfortable he seemed in both Army boots and Birkenstocks. He rarely talked about what he had seen in combat. When he was home it was as if the battles had never happened. After September 11, Sue and Ray parsed every war report for updates about battles, straining to hear any word about helicopters or special operations. When Steve’s helicopter was shot down as he and 15 others attempted to rescue the four SEALS surrounded by Taliban troops in the Afghan mountains, it was big news. The story was everywhere, but details were sparse. No one said anything about the 160th or Steve Reich but deep down the Reichs knew. Years of piecing together clues made them savvy. The chance of the helicopter being Steve’s was too great. The next day a car pulled into their driveway and a soldier stepped out. Every year as the anniversary of the attack draws near, a Facebook page, called Seal of Honor, remembers the 12 men killed in the attack by posting a picture of each in the days leading up to June 28. This year, on the morning Steve’s picture appeared, the likes and comments poured in. Within a few hours, the photo had 4,000 responses. Sue Reich was amazed. She kept coming in the house from the garden to check the page and see the “likes” piling up. As with the words of the soldiers who still approach Sue and Ray this was another validation that said Steve had made a difference. He changed lives. Sue Reich has read the Army’s personnel reports on Steve. She has seen glowing notes from superior officers and sterling reviews of her

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Ben Russell office of responsibility BY Ryan J. Yanoshak

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His office, neat and tidy inside Holleder Center, tells the story, or at least some of it. With the air conditioner turned on high to combat the stifling late-July humidity, looking around Ben Russell’s office starts to explain some of the many accomplishments of the long-time athletic department employee. In the middle of July in 1974, he took a job at what is now the Department of Public Works at West Point in the role of supervisor. Fast forward 12 years later and Russell made the move to the Office of the Directorate of Intercollegiate Athletics (ODIA). A host of folks applied for the job, more than 75, but it was Russell who pointed out improvements that could be made and offered solutions for issues during his interview. He was offered the position and now holds the title of Associate Athletic Director for Facilities and Logistics. Originally he worked out of Kimsey Athletic Center but moved to Holleder Center in 2007 to his current office, which contains plenty of family photos. It’s a big title with loads of responsibility. It’s also one he knew a little bit about. On the walls of his office is a black and white photo of a Zamboni at the old Smith Rink and behind the wheel is his father, a career United States Army sergeant, Tom Russell. Russell is often on the move, clad in a short sleeve polo shirt until the temperature dips into the 40s. He can be spotted around post, walking fast, to solve the next problem. Most of his responsibilities are visible in his cool office. The shot of Tate Rink with a huge crowd, Christl Arena with fans everywhere, an overhead shot of Michie Stadium and much more. In his role, Russell oversees all of the athletic department’s facilities so Michie Stadium, Howze Field, Kimsey Athletic Center, Foley Athletic Center, Holleder Center, Shea Stadium, Johnson Stadium, Clinton Field, Anderson Rugby Complex, Gross Center, Lichtenberg Tennis Center, Malek Tennis Center and the Army Softball Complex, as well as all athletic department housing, falls under his watchful eyes. A lot of his work is completed with no one realizing it. The elevator is down in Michie? Call Ben. Having problems with locks in Gillis Field House? Call Ben. CBS Sports Network wants to have camera platforms built? Call Ben. Need to schedule summer camp and use one of the facilities? Call Ben. To keep up with the demand, Russell carries two cell phones. One for calls and one to use the walkie-talkie type feature so he can stay current with all of the projects that are happening. In addition to the athletic department facilities, Russell also oversees the teams’ housing in which Army West Point coaches reside. He also handles the football team’s air travel and the precise movements of the football equipment truck. Russell charters the aircraft, works closely with the airlines and Stewart International Airport

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Ben (right) with Carl Ullrich at the Army Sports Hall of Fame Induction Banquet in 2007 personnel, as well as the equipment staff to ensure the plane is loaded properly and on-time to make the trips as seamless as possible. The 53-foot equipment truck carries the bulk of the team’s equipment to road games, often leaving midweek with uniforms, coaches gear, exercise bikes, a bevy of equipment trunks and everything the team could possibly need for a game. The key is for the truck to arrive at its destination by early Thursday so it can be unpacked and its contents ready when the team comes to town on Friday for a Saturday game. While a host of facility upgrades have been made during Russell’s tenure, one of the most impactful additions has been to the housing provided to head coaches near Keller Army Community Hospital. What used to be the site of the old Non-Commissioned Officers Club has grown into a housing area for Army West Point’s head coaches. The immaculate homes have been

constructed over the past 13 years and provide a well-manicured community for head coaches. Russell oversaw the lengthy transformation. As you can imagine, Russell spends plenty of time working and is successful at his job thanks to his wife of 40 years, Mary, and a great staff, including assistant athletic director for facilities Mike Rubbino. Russell and Rubbino meet nearly every morning before the sun rises, planning out the day over large cups of coffee. “Even though Ben’s day begins at 4 a.m., he never complained once about his job,” says Mary. “He loves what he does and is so happy doing it that the long hours are just a part of life. We feel very privileged to be part of the Army West Point family.” Together, Russell and Rubbino have had an even busier year. With new branding and a fresh new logo, all of the athletic facilities have been updated with the new mark. The two ensured that the new logo at center ice was correct, that the new floor

at Christl Arena was laid on time and on budget and that the new field turf surface at Michie Stadium was installed properly. All of the new surfaces and branding upgrades were made in addition to the usual slate of work. Ensuring fans can safely get to facilities, that pipes don’t freeze, that each team has adequate practice time at their facility of choice, that bathroom fixtures are installed … the list is seemingly endless. The job can be thankless at times with a “to-do” list measuring pages and pages. It’s a simple reason though that Russell has happily remained with the athletic department. “The cadets,” is Russell’s quick and brief answer when questioned about his longevity at West Point. Russell’s goal is to provide a tremendous experience for the cadet-athletes. His reward is the appreciation of cadet-athletes. “The kids are the reason,” Russell says. “They are so great to work with. They are thankful, they are appreciative and they are full of energy. They keep you young.” One of the most enjoyable parts of Russell’s job is when cadetathletes return to West Point. It doesn’t matter if they hold the rank of major or general or they are retired from service, they are always quick to find and check up on Mr. Russell. That appreciation is visible in his office. A massive tray holds commemorative coins from athletic directors, generals and military leaders from across the country. To the far right of the wall-length bookshelf sits a clock from former Army West Point Director of Athletics Carl Ullrich, who presented it to Russell when he left West Point to oversee the Patriot League. Ullrich used to try and call Russell on his birthday every year and offer well wishes. Trying to get Russell on the phone was time consuming so Ullrich

“The kids are the reason. They are so great to work with. They are thankful, they are appreciative and they are full of energy. They keep you young.”

- Ben Russell

has resorted to sending a card every year. Inside of the many cabinets on the other side of Russell’s office is a letter from former football head coach and Army Sports Hall of Fame inductee Jim Young. Young guided Army for eight seasons and won both the Cherry Bowl and Peach Bowl during his tenure. Young was so impressed with Russell’s work and dedication to the program, he sent him a letter stating his appreciation. Russell’s office also contains plenty of memorabilia. The autographed hockey stick is near game-used pucks, signed basketballs sit next to game balls from the football team and hats collected from the years fill empty space. The football helmet lamp sits next to the U.S. Army Rangers creed on a large piece of posterboard. Blueprints are on the conference

room table on this day, showing exactly what the new field turf on Michie Stadium will look like as well as the color and design of the Christl Arena and Tate Rink playing surfaces. Football season is underway and while Russell is plenty busy with the team, he is also keeping an eye on the rest of the facilities. All head coaches now live at West Point but there is yet another new project. Construction on the Foley Enners Nathe Lacrosse Center is underway near Gate 3 of Michie Stadium, adding to the pile of blueprints in Russell’s office. The project is expected to be completed in 12 months and will provide locker rooms, athletic training rooms, team rooms and more for both the men’s and women’s lacrosse programs. Ben and his wife, Mary, a frequent visitor to support the Black Knights, have been married for 40

years. They have two children and seven grandchildren. Son, Ben Jr., is married to Lori and the couple has five children, Declan, Gavin, Aislin, Addison and Braden. The Russells’ daughter, Faith, and her husband, John, reside in Fort Montgomery, N.Y., and have two children, Jack, and his namesake, Ben. All of the grandchildren have supported Army West Point at a host of events. Between his demanding job and his family, Russell also found time to serve as a foster father, recently retiring from a role he served for more than 100 children from Orange County, N.Y. The work will continue. The facility upgrades will be constant and the issues many. And like always, Russell will continue to solve problems and ensure that cadets, coaches and staff have a tremendous experience.

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Schretzman Family Staying the Course BY Harrison Antognioni

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Since arriving at West Point in 1985, Chuck and Stacy Schretzman have become strong ambassadors of the United States Military Academy’s morals. The Schretzmans adopted United States Army values, such as personal accountability and responsibility, and have used them as the foundation for handling many of their lives’ experiences, including numerous relocations around the country and around the world because of deployment, and raising their three children, Zackary, Olivia and Chloé. Their ties to West Point began in 1985 when Chuck entered the Academy following a year at the U.S. Military Academy Prep School and Stacy enrolled as a direct-admission cadet. Chuck was recruited to play football at West Point under Jim Young, who took over as head coach of the Black Knights’ program in 1983. Growing up in Philadelphia, Pa., Chuck was a multi-sport athlete during high school, but settled on football as his top sport. He had other college offers, but ultimately chose to enroll in the Prep School after seeing the direction the Army football program was heading. “I wanted a challenge for myself and I wanted to play Division I football,” Chuck says. “I got into the prep schools at all three service academies, but West Point seemed like it was up-and-coming. I knew at that young age that I needed discipline and I was excited to do something different. Nobody in my family was from the Army, Navy or Air Force, so I thought it was going to be a great test for me both academically and physically.” Chuck was a three-year letterwinner on the football team, starting as a defensive back before transitioning to linebacker. He was a member of the Black Knights during two postseason appearances to include the 1985 Peach Bowl win over Illinois and the 1988 Sun Bowl showing versus Alabama. Stacy (Pahl) Schretzman was recruited to play on the Academy’s basketball team by then-assistant coach Lynn Chiavaro. She was offered scholarships from other Division I schools, but it was a moment during Chiavaro’s recruiting visit that tilted the scales in favor of West Point. “During Lynn’s recruiting trip, she had this book that explained what West Point was,” Stacy remembers. “One of the pages read, ‘At West Point, it is often said, much of the history we teach was made by the people we taught.’ I remember feeling so unbelievably excited that I could be a part of something like that. “I knew that getting offered full scholarships to other Division I programs was very special, but I figured that I can always go to college, but I can’t always go to West Point.”

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“We were in the civilian world for a little bit and I realized how much I loved the values of the Army and I knew I wanted to go to school at West Point.” Stacy played on the basketball team for a season and a half and earned a varsity letter before transferring to Bentley University in Waltham, Mass., in January of her sophomore year. She was a center on the 1985-86 Army team that finished 19-11 under head coach Harold Johnson and advanced to the Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference South Tournament championship game. After redshirting for a season, she competed for three years at Bentley and appeared in three consecutive Division II NCAA Tournaments to include Final Fours in 1989 and 1990. Chuck and Stacy dated as cadets and continued their relationship following Stacy’s transfer to Bentley. The couple married in the summer of 1990, less than a week before Chuck was set to begin U.S. Army Ranger School.

Chuck starred on the gridiron for the Black Knights during the 1980s.

The Army required the Schretzmans to move around a good amount while raising their young family, including stops around the United States in Georgia, Hawai’i, upstate New York and Kansas, as well international relocations to Canada and Germany, where Zack and Olivia were born. “It’s hard enough to have to grow up and be unpacking all your stuff,” says Stacy, who estimates the family has moved 12 or 13 times. “Our kids had to toe the line and chip in, everybody had their role. It was a real team effort.” Along with their jobs assisting in the family’s numerous moves, Zack and Olivia learned at an early age how to be accountable for their own actions. They weren’t unlike many pairs of siblings, as the two had their share of arguments growing up, but because of Chuck’s career in the Army, many of the altercations came while he was deployed and away from the family for extended periods of time. Stacy had experienced her own version of sibling rivalry during her childhood and made it a point to show zero tolerance for her children’s verbal fighting, instead using the arguments as teaching moments. “Any time they would get on each other’s case and start fighting, I would put them nose-to-nose and I would have them literally within an inch of each other,” Stacy remembers. “I would have them stand like that for a minute and if their eye contact broke, they would get another minute. They would have to stand nose-to-nose and tell each other, ‘I love you because…’ and they would have to go back and forth. “Eventually, the tension would break and it would all diffuse into

- 2nd Lt. Olivia Schretzman laughter, but I would not tolerate the disrespect of each other. I think that made them grow very close and it made them really forge a bond.” That bond continued into Zack and Olivia’s high school and college years, where they attended Springboro High School just outside of Dayton, Ohio, and then the United States Military Academy. Chuck and Stacy made the decision to keep the family in one location and give their children a taste of civilian life after watching them come of age with the continual changes associated with growing up in an Army household. Chuck chose to work as a professor of military science and an ROTC commander at the University of Dayton, serving as a battalion commander in the Army, while Stacy worked for Brian Gregory, who was then the head men’s basketball coach at Dayton. “I had the opportunity to keep them in the same high school, Zack for three years and Olivia for four years, and to get grounded and be in one place,” Chuck says. Olivia, who says she enjoyed changing hometowns and learning different cultures, was grateful for the opportunity to attend the same high school, but ultimately recognized how much she appreciated the Army lifestyle. “My dad wanted to get us to stay in one place and have us go to one high school,” Olivia says. “We were in the civilian world for a little bit and I realized how much I loved the values of the Army and I knew I wanted to go to school at West Point.” In the midst of their travels, the family made it back to West Point for three-year tours in 1997 and 2011 and lived at the Academy each time.

Nearly three decades after her father graduated from West Point, Olivia served as a stalwart on Army basketball teams that earned trips to three consecutive national postseason tournaments.

respective Army careers as second lieutenants and their youngest in the midst of her high school years, Chuck and Stacy know how important the Army has been – not only to themselves, but now to their entire family. Chuck recalls his days on the Army football team when summarizing the opportunities afforded to him and his family by the Army. “I got a chance to be a part of a great culture with Army Football,” Chuck shares. “On the football team, we believed we could win every week and that’s the attitude you have to have in the Army. We believed in each other, we believed in the program and we believed we could succeed in the most difficult situations. That’s the lesson I took out into the Army and it meshes well with what Army athletics is about. “There are so many times in athletics when you get frustrated, but if you stay with it and give 100 percent, you are a champion. To me, the most important lesson I can pass down to my kids is getting after it and giving 100 percent because, if you stay with it, you’ll reach your goals.”

The Schretzman family: (from left): Chuck, Stacy, Zack, Chloé and Olivia.

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The Schretzmans’ youngest daughter, Chloé, was born at West Point during the family’s first trip back and Zack and Olivia both attended the Academy during the second tour. The second return to West Point proved bittersweet however, as almost as soon as they got settled, Chuck deployed to Afghanistan, Zack reported for training at Camp Buckner and Olivia began Cadet Basic Training, with everything happening during a period of two weeks. Olivia played on the basketball team for four years at Army West Point and served as team captain during her junior and senior seasons. She contributed to three consecutive 20-win seasons and three straight appearances in national postseason tournaments, including the Black Knights’ second trip to the Division I NCAA Tournament in 2014. Both

accomplishments were firsts for the women’s basketball program. Zack kept close ties with his sister, serving as a manager on the basketball team during her freshman season and continuing to support her on and off the court for his final two years at West Point. Stacy worked in the admissions support branch of West Point’s athletic department in 2011 before moving to the Army West Point “A” Club, where she was eventually promoted to operations manager. Chuck worked in the athletic department’s team operations unit as part of his final tour at West Point before retiring from the Army with the rank of lieutenant colonel following the 2013-14 academic year, concluding 26 years of military service. Zack graduated from West Point in 2014 and is currently stationed as a second lieutenant in Ft. Carson, Colo. Olivia graduated with the Class of 2015 and is beginning her Army career in Ft. Campbell, Ky., and Chloé recently entered her sophomore year of high school. With their two oldest children now in the early stages of their

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2nd Lt. Katlin VanWye setting the bar BY Harrison Antognioni

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Katlin VanWye is not one to seek praise. She didn’t call attention to herself as a defender on the Army West Point club women’s lacrosse team, and her decision to become involved in Cadets Against Sexual Harassment and Abuse (CASH/A) was not made to gain recognition. Even after receiving the Army Achievement Medal from West Point Superintendent Lt. Gen. Robert Caslen in early March, VanWye was not sure she had done anything worthy of earning the honor. “Every Friday, they announce someone who has done something awesome in the Corps from the ‘poop deck’ in the Mess Hall,” VanWye says. “I was announced as the winner of this award and at first, I was shocked because I didn’t think I deserved it.” VanWye was presented with the Army Achievement Medal thanks to being a central contributor to the development and execution of West Point’s “It’s On Us” campaign video in support of President Barack Obama’s national initiative to prevent sexual assault. The video featured cadets speaking out against sexual harassment and was played in Michie Stadium between the first and second quarters of Army West Point’s football game against Air Force on Nov. 1, 2014. The video included appearances by VanWye, United States Corps of Cadets First Captain Austin Welch, as well as a selection of varsity team captains and CASH/A representatives. The football team added to the event by donning teal helmet stickers in awareness of sexual assault, and teal t-shirts were handed out to the Corps to be revealed in conjunction with the video. “It was really awesome to see the committee come together and I definitely couldn’t have done it without them,” VanWye says. “It was an honor because it shows that we are doing things that matter and people are realizing this is an issue.” The idea for the “It’s on Us” video began with instruction from Caslen to get West Point involved in the presidential initiative. VanWye got together with her CASH/A committee and brainstormed ideas on what they could do to bring the campaign to West Point. “The Superintendent said, ‘The It’s On Us campaign is the President’s initiative and we need to make it our initiative,’ and I said, ‘Roger that, Sir,’” VanWye recalls. “My committee sat down and we thought about what we could do to make this impactful. That’s when we had the idea of coming up with a video and revealing it at the Army-Air Force game.” The final video did make an impact as it received praise from Vice President Joe Biden before drawing an honorable mention nod in a national contest sponsored

★ MISSION FIRST ★ by the NCAA Division I National Student-Athlete Advisory Committee in early April. Army West Point joined contest-winner University of North Carolina at Charlotte as one of only two schools among over 40 NCAA Division I institutions from across the country to have its video recognized. VanWye became involved in CASH/A during her Yearling year, starting as her company’s CASH/A representative before working her way up to her current role as the Brigade CASH/A Captain. “Being a part of CASH/A is so neat,” VanWye shares, moments before a women’s lacrosse practice at West Point’s Shea Stadium. “Sexual harassment has been an extremely important issue during my time at West Point, and being involved in CASH/A has opened my eyes to how important the issue really is. I’ve seen such a change in the atmosphere and how leadership has approached these issues from my Plebe year to my Firstie year.” As the Brigade CASH/A Captain, VanWye serves as the group’s

highest-ranking member within the Corps of Cadets and is responsible for preventative training around the subjects of sexual assault and sexual harassment at the brigade level. VanWye took the lead in developing monthly training sessions for CASH/A representatives from the 36 companies that make up the Corps. “In some of the topics we go over, we create ‘X, Y’ cases, which show an example of a sexual assault or a sexual harassment case that took place,” VanWye describes. “I brief my CASH/A committee on these cases and they brief the Corps.” VanWye and her CASH/A representatives have tried to take a more personal approach in their training sessions in order to show some of the real-life impacts of sexual harassment and assault. “The idea behind the ‘X, Y’ cases was to make it more personal,” VanWye says. “There is a lot of, ‘This is so vague, you say this is a problem, but we don’t see it.’ But these are actual cases that happened.

“We’ve really tried to personalize some of our training, because when something happens to someone, you don’t know how much it affects them unless you’re going through it yourself or you know someone who is. This year, my goal has been to make it personal for the Corps. To know these people and to know their stories will help make us better leaders as future officers.” Along with the strides she has made in the Corps’ understanding of sexual harassment and assault as the Brigade CASH/A Captain, VanWye has contributed to a different kind of growth as a member of the Army West Point club women’s lacrosse team. The 2015 club lacrosse season marked a historic time for the program, as it was the team’s final year as a club squad before making the transition to the Division I level and becoming the Academy’s 28th varsity program beginning in the 2015-16 academic year. Despite having no formal lacrosse experience growing up, VanWye played two years on the team and appeared in and started every game as a senior, except for two she could not make. While playing on the lacrosse team provided unique outlets away from the day-to-day life of a West Point cadet, VanWye acknowledges that all she has learned from CASH/A also applies to her position as a collegiate athlete. “I try to bring a lot to the lacrosse field that I’ve learned in my position in the Corps,” VanWye says. “Leadership is everywhere you go, it’s in your military position in the Corps, but it’s also on the field with everyone you work with.” Noto Family Head Women’s Lacrosse Coach Kristen Waagbo was hired in the summer of 2014 to oversee the club program’s transition into the Division I ranks. After beginning practices with the team during the fall season, Waagbo relied

“This senior class has been a special group for us in terms of setting our program up for success in the future. Through their various leadership positions, this class has really shown our underclassmen and our new staff what it means to serve as humble leaders and remain active in the Corps as top-level athletes.” - Noto Family Head Women’s Lacrosse Coach Kristen Waagbo on her seven seniors as leaders who would begin to take Army West Point women’s lacrosse to the next level. “This senior class has been a special group for us in terms of setting our program up for success in the future,” Waagbo shares. “Through their various leadership positions, this class has really shown our underclassmen and our new staff what it means to serve as humble leaders and remain active in the Corps as top-level athletes.” Waagbo has also appreciated the impact that VanWye’s role as the Brigade CASH/A Captain has had on the women’s lacrosse program and on the Corps as a whole.

“Katie is an absolutely remarkable cadet-athlete and we are lucky that she has represented our women’s lacrosse program while serving in an important leadership position in the Corps,” Waagbo says. “Through Katie’s role in CASH/A, we have seen her make tangible positive changes to our Academy and our community by bringing awareness to sexual harassment and assault.” VanWye and the rest of the seniors helped lead the Black Knights to a successful 8-3 season in their final year at the club level that included an appearance in the New England Women’s Lacrosse League’s championship game.

VanWye envisions herself taking the important lessons she’s learned through her experiences in CASH/A and on the lacrosse field into her career in the United States Army. VanWye will report to Camp Red Cloud in South Korea to join the Ordnance branch of the United States Army this winter. “CASH/A has definitely helped prepare me for the future,” VanWye says. “It will be my job that the soldiers in my platoon know that sexual assault is an issue and if they have something that comes up, I know how to guide them in the right direction and be a support system for them.”

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Mike Viti A Walk To Serve BY Ryan J. Yanoshak

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To say that the United States Military Academy and Army Football had an impact on Mike Viti would be a gross understatement, akin to saying “Mike’s Hike For Heroes” was a stroll. Rather, his time at West Point helped shape him into the selfless leader he is today. And now, Viti is giving back to something that holds a special place in his heart. A 2008 West Point graduate who was not only a standout fullback but also held leadership positions within the United States Corps of Cadets, Viti returned to West Point over the summer as a member of Jeff Monken’s football staff. In his role as director of high school and alumni relations, Viti has the opportunity to make an impact on future leaders of characters and connect the “Long Gray Line” to a place that means so much to him. “It’s a cliché, but football is so much more than a game,” Viti says. “It’s a way to approach life and a way to toughen yourself mentally. Football is where I learned leadership and that’s what I practiced in combat. Football is a means, not an end. The sport absolutely challenges and pushes you. There are so many carry-overs to life. Football has done so much for me. It’s a trust and loyalty and brotherhood that I want my kids to know.” Viti entered the U.S. Military Academy out of Berwick (Pa.) High School, a place that collected its share of local, regional and national attention for its tremendous football program. Huge crowds under the lights on Friday nights were the norm and Viti helped the Bulldogs to rank as high as third in the country according to USA Today while being selected to the all-state team. He was also a standout wrestler, reaching 100 wins faster than any other athlete, despite serving as the class president – twice – and serving the student newspaper as a sports writer. The opportunity to attend West Point, gain a tremendous education and serve his country saw Viti make the three-hour trek from Pennsylvania. His contributions on the field and off were immediate. He played in 10 games his rookie season and was just one of seven freshmen to earn a varsity letter in 2004. Viti established himself as the starting fullback during his sophomore season when he appeared in all 11 contests and started six games. His blocking and strength continued to earn him playing time. He rushed four times that season and hauled in six passes. American Law and Legal Studies was his choice for a major, a fitting selection for someone looking to serve others. Law school was always a possibility and the major kept that option open. Viti was also making his mark in the O’Meara, Malek, Dawkins Class of 1959 Strength Development Center where he was establishing bench press records. During his junior season, Viti started all 12 games, rushed 55 times and hauled in 13 passes while scoring once, a 25-yard touchdown run against Texas A&M. He

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was third on the team in rushing yards with 239 and averaged 4.6 yards per carry, often going up the middle and pushing tacklers for that extra yard. He rushed a career-best 15 times for 57 yards against Navy and also snared two passes. His passion, competitive nature, willingness to play through injuries and leadership helped Viti gain a pair of honors prior to his senior season. He was elected football team captain and selected as the regimental commander of the U.S. Corps of Cadets. Viti continued his role as blocking back in his senior season, opening holes for his teammates. He rushed 32 times and scored twice and also caught nine passes despite a pair of injuries. Although playing one of the most physically demanding positions

on the field, Viti never missed a game due to injury and gathered interest from several National Football League teams due to his physicality, his 5-foot-10, 241-pound frame and record 470-pound bench press. He was invited to the Buffalo Bills’ rookie camp but his focus was always on his military service. The newly minted second lieutenant began his military career at Ft. Carson, Colo., and his leadership was quickly evident. He was promoted twice and served two deployments, including 12 months in Afghanistan. He retired from the United States Army and was working in a hospital in Las Vegas while his wife, Laura, continued her career path as a clinical pharmacist. Viti, down around 50 pounds from his playing days, likes to hike

to clear his head. During one of those workouts, he was pondering whether veterans would be properly celebrated for their service to country and those who made the ultimate sacrifice. He broached the idea about a hike across country to Laura and then some friends. What began as an idle thought turned into “Mike’s Hike For Heroes.” “I lost a teammate, several classmates and fellow soldiers I was close with,” Viti says. “When I retired from the Army, I knew I wanted to volunteer and give back to the families. While soldiers signed up to serve, families were impacted the most. “I enjoyed my job in Las Vegas, but servant leadership was missing,” Viti continues. “I was watching the 2013 Army-Navy Game and was so emotionally charged watching the game. I wasn’t that charged up for what I did every day yet Army Football brought that out in me. You don’t realize the impact the football team has on you until a few years later. You are a young man in your formative years and you know you are on the right path, you just don’t understand it. The guys you share the locker room with are the most amazing people you will meet and you don’t realize how special they are at the time. “Those guys are strong enough to write a blank check for America. I felt like there wasn’t enough being done to recognize guys who paid the ultimate price. I wanted people to pause and reflect on what that means not only for the individuals but for the families as well. I had a passion to give something back and a chance to do something special. I wanted to do something where I had to sacrifice. I had to walk away from a well-paying job, my wife and my life in Las Vegas. I wanted something that would take a really long time and be difficult. I wanted to go through hometowns and meet the friends

In 2014, Mike completed a 6,830kilometer walk across country to honor 6,830 fallen service members and their families. thankful for someone to open their home or walk along so he could share his cause and hear their stories. A web site helped track his progress, and he co-founded Legacies Alive with fellow former Army football player Mark Faldowski to raise awareness. Slowly, but surely he made his way across the country, traveling east until South Carolina and then heading north. “The hardest part was the emotion toll,” Viti reflects. “I didn’t think I would connect with as many families as I did and they would impact me so much. Hearing stories of loved ones and what they meant to families was really sad in a lot of ways. The biggest takeway I had was those nearly 7,000 families will forever sacrifice so the rest of the country doesn’t have to. They took so much of the burden off of others because their loved ones volunteered for service. Hearing different stories and different backgrounds was so eye-opening and it was all in service

to country.” The hike culminated in Baltimore, Md., on Dec. 13, a fitting conclusion to a walk to honor service members just before the start of the Army-Navy game presented by USAA. Viti and his team received a standing ovation when introduced during the contest. Viti returned to Las Vegas and explored what was next. Law school continued to be a possibility and the University of Las Vegas had accepted him into the program. There was also thought of a master’s degree from Johns Hopkins for nonprofit management or to explore a coaching career. Then Viti was invited to serve as an honorary captain of the BlackGold Game, Army’s end of spring scrimmage. Inspired by Monken’s desire to improve the Black Knights, his vision for the program and his commitment to building leaders of character, Viti began to consider a return to West Point. After spending time with Monken at West Point and getting to know the coaching staff, Viti accepted his current role. He returned east, this time driving, for a new opportunity to serve. Viti is now responsible for working with potential cadetathletes, serving as an example of what kind of individual the Academy produces. He is also energizing the alumni base, reaching out to former players and sharing Monken’s vision for success. “This was the right choice and one I am passionate about,” Viti says. “I want to give back and serve a program that has given me so much. My next career was going to have an impact and include service. That was non-negotiable. And that’s what Army Football is. Teaching young boys and turning them into men. Helping a program that has given not only me, but my friends and those before me so much was an easy decision.”

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and families who know these people best.” Viti wanted to walk one kilometer for one soldier killed in action. Leaning on a growing support system that included his fellow teammates and classmates, he mapped out a 6,830-kilometer trek to honor 6,830 service members who were killed in action. Beginning in DuPont, Wash., on April 26, 2014, Viti walked across the country, somberly remembering those who fought for freedom, those soldiers and those families. He connected “Gold Star” families, those immediate family members who lost a family member in combat, and heard stories of bravery and selfless service. For each kilometer he walked, he added their name to an American flag, using 14 in all. Along the way he picked up crowds, not only his wife and support staff but teammates and classmates, families of veterans and those who wanted to support his cause. He stopped in San Francisco after then-49ers’ head coach Jim Harbaugh learned of his mission and Viti addressed the teams’ rookies. The hike was a challenge, a challenge Viti needed to undertake to ensure people remembered. Often times he was alone on side roads, a hat and sunglasses to provide protection and a cot when he was ready to stop for the night. “Several times I asked myself if I was nuts,” Viti chuckles. “My first thought was if I make it to the West Coast, I will be in good shape. All that happened when I got to San Diego was that I was tired and worn out and still had to walk across the country. Several times I took tactical pauses to remember what I was doing and why. The great part was having a cause attached to it and seeing the families and getting their reassurance for what I was doing.” He met thousands of people as he made his way across the country,

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Jimmy Wallace Making His Mark BY Matt Faulkner

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During the second half of the 20th century, Army’s athletic program featured more than its share of magical names on the fields of friendly strife – names like Krzyzewski, Knight, Blaik and Young. During that time, there was another name that was a constant in the athletic training room along the banks of the Hudson, helping to bridge Heisman Trophy winners with National Invitation Tournament appearances and bowl berths. Beginning in 1957, Jimmy Wallace roamed the sidelines or sat on the bench and was at every practice, for nearly every sport at West Point until his retirement as an athletic trainer in 1995. He was a fixture for 38 years caring for cadet-athletes and making sure they got on the field, court and ice. He was part of a football team that won a National Championship two years into his job and worked with Army’s great basketball teams alongside Bobby Knight and Mike Krzyzewski. However, it wasn’t certain where he would start his career. After finishing physical therapy school in Florida, Wallace had offers to join the staffs at Dartmouth College and the United States Naval Academy, as well as a chance to be part of the New York Yankees’ farm system. He wanted to be close to home, get married and not spend a load of hours on the road. That would not have been the case had he accepted the position with the Yankees. Dartmouth wasn’t the place for him either because he didn’t know anybody. It all worked out after Wallace received a call from legendary coach Earl “Red” Blaik’s office and set up an early morning meeting. “We sat down and we didn’t talk about football,” Wallace says. “He asked general questions and he had two sons. I knew his younger son Bob because he went to the local high school. We talked about general things and went on for about an hour.” Wallace was impressed by Blaik with how much he cared about people, especially local businessmen that were looking for work. From that day until 1995, he didn’t work for any other institution besides the United States Military Academy, a dedication that lasted more than 38 years. Wallace grew up around West Point and followed the football team and Blaik during the 1940s when he was in high school. “We always followed the football team here,” Wallace says. “When I was growing up in high school, Earl Blaik had all those undefeated teams in the 1940s. Blaik’s first three years he didn’t beat Navy, but he didn’t have a lot to work with either. But then he took off and won the three national championships.” Following high school, Wallace enrolled at Ithaca College, in its five-year physical therapy program. He was attracted to Ithaca because it was a five-year program and the final year the students would work in New York City. However, his chance to get a degree was cut short by the Korean War. “I came home for Thanksgiving and all my friends were coming back from New York because they went to the draft board,” Wallace states. “They were all getting

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called because the Korean War had started. Next thing I know my name came up and I said to myself, “I have got to do something, so I had to find a way to get an education.’” Wallace was a Navy corpsman from 1950 to 1954 and served a stint in the Korean War. When he got back to the States, he wanted to stay in the service, but he felt that sea duty wasn’t for him, so he enrolled in physical therapy school in Portsmouth, Va. He was very grateful to the Navy for giving him the opportunity to get the experience through education. While in Portsmouth, he became interested in athletic training and moved on to Kissimmee, Fla., where he graduated from athletic training school. He made some connections while at the school and got a call from Blaik about the opening at West Point. He never had to look or pursue another job again. Wallace started at West Point in 1957 and within two years, he was working for a team that was undefeated, had four All-Americans and a Heisman Trophy winner in the backfield. “It was overwhelming when I think about it and how it all came about,” Wallace adds. “Here I am

looking for a job and I get to work with undefeated teams, outstanding people and outstanding men.” In 1967, Army’s football team was invited to play in the Sugar Bowl, but the squad was not allowed to participate due to the Vietnam conflict. Wallace still remembers the reaction from the United States Corps of Cadets after hearing that Air Force and Navy were permitted to attend bowl games the previous years. “The Corps of Cadets took all the sugar bowls in the mess hall and hid them and only put them back when the Superintendent started threatening them with penalties,” Wallace says. “That was in defiance of not being able to go to the Sugar Bowl.” He was able to work with a great group of gridiron coaches in Dale Hall, Paul Dietzel, Tom Cahill, Homer Smith, Lou Saban, Ed Cavanaugh and Jim Young. However, the football field wasn’t Wallace’s only love and some argue that ultimately, basketball was his true passion. Wallace was able to work during the finest era of Army Basketball. He worked with the likes of Bob Knight, Mike Krzyzewski and Les Wothke. He was on the sidelines during the

careers of future Army Sports Hallof-Famers Gary Winton and Kevin Houston, both of whom had their jerseys retired this past season. “Coach K” was one of his favorite coaches with whom to work “Working with ‘Coach K’ was a new ball game. He was a family man,” Wallace says. “I knew him as a cadet and when he came back he asked me to be his trainer and we took off from there. He included everyone in his program. My wife came on some great trips with us. We went to Hawai’i and San Francisco.” The relationship didn’t end when Krzyzewski moved on to Duke. They still keep in touch today and when Krzyzewski won his 1,000th career game, the Wallaces congratulated him. “My wife picked out a card and we sent it to him,” Wallace states. “With all the games he has won and all the pressure that comes with it and all the meetings and speeches he has given, he took the time out of his schedule to send us a note back thanking us for the card and how nice it was to hear from us.” That is how popular “Gator,” as he is affectionately known, remains at West Point. Every year when teams get together for golf outings and similar reunions, Jimmy drives from his home in Fort Montgomery to reminisce with his former athletes. “That is outstanding as far as I am concerned,” Wallace says with a smile on his face. “They come up and know me and it ends up being a great day for me.” He was not only well-liked by his teams and coaches, but also his co-workers. Army West Point Associate Athletic Director and Head Athletic Trainer Tim Kelly worked with Wallace from 1987 until his retirement in 1995. He viewed Wallace as a mentor, not only to him, but to countless athletic trainers that have worked at West Point. The pair spent many hours

Jimmy Wallace became only the third administrator to be elected to the Army Sports Hall of Fame in 2011. Many of those men moved onto work as athletic trainers at schools such as Purdue University, University of Iowa and Illinois University. “He always welcomed them into his home and helped young people who view West Point as a little intimidating coming right out of college,” Kelly adds. “Jimmy was always there to guide and mentor them as they became acquainted with the nuances.” Now, he wasn’t the only one that welcomed these kids from all over the nation. In 1957, West Point wasn’t the only addition to Wallace’s life. He married his wife, Sissy, and they have been together for the last 56 years. Athletic training isn’t the ideal job for a husband or wife, but every day their significant others take on a lot of responsibility at home. “She has been outstanding,” Wallace says. “A great mother and a great wife. I don’t know if anyone else would have put up with the hours that I had and raise three children. When the kids got older she was able to go on trips with us, especially with ‘Coach K.’ She has been terrific. I don’t think I could have found a better wife.” Jimmy and Sissy met after Wallace returned from the Korean War, but there was a connection back

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together as they shared a training room. Outside of football responsibilities, Kelly had hockey duties, while Wallace was with men’s basketball. The training room in the Holleder Center can be cramped on many days with the training staff and the cadet-athletes sharing a small space, so any person would want a great co-worker and that is what Kelly received. “I don’t think you could say enough about Jimmy and what a nice human being he is,” Kelly says. “He is likeable and as nice as you could want as a co-worker. More than that he was a mentor to me and countless athletic trainers that have come through West Point, individuals who have gone on to high-profile jobs within our profession.” He was there for the new hires whether that was welcoming them into his home or teaching them the West Point culture and what it was all about, which can be intimidating for a recent college graduate. Wallace had a lot of people come through the training room throughout his career, including many military interns as former head athletic trainer Ed Pillings would bring on enlisted soldiers and make their time in the athletic training room part of their military commitment.

in high school. “I was one year ahead of her in high school,” Wallace says. “My sister was in her class and her sister was in mine. We had never dated. I came home from the service and I asked her out. We went to the movies and that is how we started. I never thought she would stay that long, but when I ‘popped the question’ she said, ‘Okay.’” They have been together ever since. Working at a place for 38 years makes it hard to walk away, but the long road trips and non-traditional hours made it easier. “People often asked me if I miss it and I always say, ‘I miss the kids and the camaraderie,’ ” Wallace offers, “but I don’t miss the long hours and coming back at midnight from a long road trip.” Wallace worked with many cadets and coaches that left their mark here at West Point and throughout the world, but a countless number of those athletes that he cared for and the co-workers he nurtured, they would say Jimmy made his mark too.

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Editorial Contributors Bob Beretta is the Executive Athletic Director at the United States Military Academy. A local product with deep-rooted ties to the Hudson Valley, Beretta is in 15th year on the senior leadership team and 29th overall in West Point’s athletic department. Formerly an award-winning sports information director, Beretta now oversees Army’s football, hockey, baseball and women’s basketball programs, among other duties. He also manages Army’s athletic communications, multi-media, broadcasting and sponsorship endeavors. A graduate of St. Bonaventure University, Beretta is a member of the Football Writers Association of America, U.S. Basketball Writers Association, National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association and the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics. Harrison Antognioni is in his third year with the Army West Point Athletic Communications staff. He serves as the primary contact for the Black Knights’ men’s soccer, women’s basketball and women’s lacrosse programs. Antognioni arrived at West Point after working as an intern at St. Michael’s College in Colchester, Vt., where he assisted with the publicity and media relations of the college’s 21 sports. A graduate of St. Michael’s College, Antognioni also worked with the Burlington Free Press and Green Mountain Rock Crushers, a professional ice hockey team. Les Carpenter is a writer based in Washington, D.C. He has written for The Seattle Times, Washington Post and Yahoo! Sports. Wayne Coffey is an acclaimed sports writer for the New York Daily News and the author of more than 30 books. A resident of the Hudson Valley and a three-time Pulitzer nominee, Coffey’s work includes “The Boys of Winter,” a New York Times bestseller about the 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team, and “The Closer,” another best-seller co-authored with Yankee legend Mariano Rivera. Coffey’s forthcoming project is a leadership book he co-authored with Ohio State football coach, Urban Meyer, called “Above The Line.” Kelly Dumrauf is in her second year with the Army West Point Athletic Communications staff. She serves as the primary contact for the Black Knights’ men’s and women’s rugby, gymnastics and women’s tennis programs. Dumrauf joined the Army West Point staff after spending a year at her alma mater, Indiana University of Pennsylvania. Dumrauf was previously an intern with the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Matt Faulkner recently finished his first year with the Army West Point Athletic Communications staff. He serves as the primary contact for the Black Knights’ hockey and men’s lacrosse programs and is a secondary contact for football. Faulkner arrived at West Point after spending four years at Colgate University. A graduate of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, Faulkner also worked three years at Dartmouth College and was an intern at St. Michael’s College. John Feinstein is an award-winning sportswriter, author and sports commentator. The author of 34 books, including “A Civil War: Army vs. Navy” about the Army-Navy rivalry and “The Last Amateurs,” a book about Patriot League basketball, Feinstein is a writer for the Washington Post and hosts a weekly college basketball show on CBS Sports Radio in addition to his commentary work with the Golf Channel. A graduate of Duke University, Feinstein served as an essayist for CBS Sports Network during the 2013 football season and was featured in Army’s broadcasts. Kevin Gleason is the sports editor for the Times Herald-Record in Middletown, N.Y. An award-winning columnist since 1989, Gleason has covered nearly every sport at West Point, first as a writer and feature author, and later as the paper’s signature columnist. He is a graduate of SUNY Plattsburgh. Mark Mohrman is in his second year on the Army West Point Athletic Communications staff. He is the primary contact for the men’s basketball, women’s soccer and baseball programs. Mohrman arrived at West Point after spending three years at Lafayette College. A graduate of Monmouth University, Mohrman previously worked with the Lakewood BlueClaws, the Class A Affiliate of the Philadelphia Phillies. Mady Salvani is in her 47th year with the Army Athletic Association and is a member of the Black Knights’ Athletic Communications staff. Salvani has filled a myriad of roles and served as the primary contact for men’s and women’s soccer, women’s basketball, gymnastics, rifle and softball programs, among others. She is currently the Director of Research and Special Projects. A talented photographer, Salvani started her career with West Point’s Public Affairs Office and recently completed her 52nd year working at the Academy. Mike Vaccaro is the lead sports columnist at the New York Post, a position he has held since 2002. Previously a columnist at The Star-Ledger, Kansas City Star and Times Herald-Record, Vaccaro is also the author of several books, mostly recently “Mariano Rivera: Saving Grace,” which was published in 2013.

Ryan J. Yanoshak is in his ninth year as a member of the Army West Point Athletic Communications staff. He serves as the primary contact for Army’s football program and oversees the Athletic Communications office. A graduate of Bloomsburg University with a master’s degree from East Stroudsburg University, Yanoshak also serves as Deputy Licensing Director, and as the Special Assistant to the Executive Athletic Director.

Image Contributors S G is a retired Army Major and a civilian public affairs officer for the U.S. Army Combined Arms Center. With more than 25 years of continuous Army Service, he started his career as an enlisted soldier and is a former Military District of Washington Photojournalist of the Year. A graduate of the Army’s Officer Candidate School, he was commissioned in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and is a Graduate of the Command and General Staff College, and the Defense Information School. He served multiple deployments including tours in Kosovo and Iraq. Gibson shot the anchor photo for the Lt. Gen. Robert Brown story. C G has been a photojournalist for more than 25 years. He recently worked as Westchester Magazine’s first photo editor and previously was a staff photographer at four New York City metropolitan area newspapers. He was also a photo editor at the New York Daily News. His work has appeared in The New York Times, International Herald-Tribune, USA Today and Wall Street Journal, among others. Gordon provided the anchor photo for the 2nd Lt. Dion Hart piece. C H is a Financial Advisor who specializes in estate planning in the Hudson Valley. He began covering Army West Point athletics in 2011, shooting photos for a variety of sports. Hoffer’s work has been published by USA Rugby and Rugby International, as well as on a number of collegiate athletics web sites, including the University of Maryland, Penn State University and West Virginia University. Hoffer shot the anchor photo for the Schretzman family profile.

J M is a Professor of Geography in the Department of Geography and Environmental Engineering at West Point. Currently in his 21st year on the faculty, Jon has volunteered as a photographer for the Army Athletic Association and other West Point offices for more than a decade. His work has been published in Sports Illustrated magazine, ESPN The Magazine, and several major newspapers. He provided photos for the Kevin Houston, Col. Nick Mauldin and Maj. Steve Reich stories. J M is a professional photographer specializing in sports, portraits, and aerial photography since 2008. He is a certified hyper spectral imaging operator for the U.S. Air Force Auxilliary, Civil Air Patrol and has recently worked for the Southeastern Conference, providing images for its golf and baseball championships. Jimmy currently resides in Birmingham, Ala., and shot the anchor photo for the Dr. Rebecca McGuigan feature. J P is in his 15th year as a photographer and graphic designer at West Point. A graduate of the University of Central Florida, he spent six years on active duty in the United States Army with assignments in Panama and the Pentagon. He also served as head coach of West Point’s women’s club lacrosse team from 2009 to 2014. Pellino contributed the anchor photo for Charlie Jarvis story. M S is in her 47th year with the Army Athletic Association and is a member of the Black Knights’ Athletic Communications staff. Salvani was responsible for taking the anchor photos for the 2nd Lt. Larry Dixon, Ben Russell, 2nd Lt. Katlin VanWye and Jimmy Wallace stories. D W is in his ninth year as a reporter and photographer for MLB.com, the official web site of Major League Baseball. He began volunteering at West Point as a photographer in 2009 after graduating with a bachelor’s degree in journalism from SUNY New Paltz. His work with Army West Point has been published by ESPN.com, Sports Illustrated magazine, The New York Times, New York Daily News and more. Wild shot the anchor photos for the Tom and 2nd. Lt. Jasmine Morgan and Mike Viti pieces.

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B S is a photographer at the NASA Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. He began working professionally at NASA in 1999, and specializes in location and studio portraiture. Stafford earned his bachelor’s degree in Photography from Texas A&M University-Commerce. While at NASA, he was nominated Videographer of the Year in 2011. In early 2015, he participated with the U.S. Navy in the recovery effort of the engineering test article of NASA’s Orion Crew Capsule, which is part of NASA’s next exploration vehicle. He lives in Houston, Texas and continues to broaden his visionary skills in photography through his company, Zoomflash. Stafford shot the anchor photo for the Maj. Anne McClain feature.

Gu S J L is a public affairs staff noncommissioned officer for U.S. Marine Corps Forces Central Command. He has served 14 years on active duty and two years with the Marine Corps Reserves. He has served behind a rifle or a camera during four combat tours in Iraq, two in Afghanistan and one tour at sea with the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit. In addition to military web sites and newspapers, his work has been published by the Marine Corps Times, Tampa Bay Times, The Virginia Pilot, The Raider Patch and Fox News. Loewy shot the anchor photo for the Gen. Lloyd J. Austin III profile.

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“Mission First” is dedicated to the American Soldier

“Yours is the profession of arms, the will to win, the sure knowledge that in war there is no substitute for victory, that if you lose, the Nation will be destroyed, that the very obsession of your public service must be duty, honor, country. Others will debate the controversial issues, national and international, which divide men’s minds. But serene, calm, aloof, you stand as the Nation’s war guardian, as its lifeguard from the raging tides of international conflict, as its gladiator in the arena of battle. For a century and a half you have defended, guarded, and protected its hallowed traditions of liberty and freedom, of right and justice … … You are the leaven which binds together the entire fabric of our national system of defense. From your ranks come the great captains who hold the Nation’s destiny in their hands the moment the war tocsin sounds. The long, gray line has never failed us. Were you to do so, a million ghosts in olive drab, in brown khaki, in blue and gray, would rise from their white crosses, thundering those magic words: Duty, honor, country.” — Gen. Douglas MacArthur during his speech to the United States Corps of Cadets in accepting the Sylvanus Thayer Award, May 12, 1962

The Statue To The American Soldier was presented to the United States Corps of Cadets in 1980 on behalf of the West Point Class of 1935 and the West Point Class of 1936. It is inscribed with the following: PRESENTED TO THE CORPS OF CADETS “THE LIVES AND DESTINIES OF VALIANT AMERICANS ARE ENTRUSTED TO YOUR CARE AND LEADERSHIP”

Office of Directorate of Intercollegiate Athletics Mission statement

To provide an extraordinary Division I athletic experience that develops leaders of character committed to the values of Duty, Honor, Country.