West-Point.ORG, The West Point Connection

Wearing drab olive Army fatigues for a few years and graduating from the United States Military Academy at West Point may not seem the best way to launch a career in women’s fashion design. But that’s the route taken by sisters and former East Amwell Township residents Ashley Jung and Paige Dellavalle, and it’s brought them success. On Friday, May 17, at 8 p.m., the former Hunterdon Central High School swimmers take another plunge: into ABC-TV’s Shark Tank to pitch to the investment sharks their line of fashion jewelry, stella valle. At West Point, the sisters majored in management and minored in systems engineering. A shoulder injury prevented Dellavalle from deploying to a combat zone. Jung served in Afghanistan for 15 months between March 2007 and June 2008. 

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How do you properly welcome the winningest D-1 college basketball coach when he stops by your neighborhood? You give him the Stryker treatment, of course. Duke University and U.S. Olympic Men's Basketball Coach Mike Krzyzewski stopped by Joint Base Lewis-McChord on Thursday to chat with members of I Corps about, among other things, team-building.

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Nearly 50 years after leaving the University of Pennsylvania for Vietnam, Lt. Col. Mortimer Lenane O'Connor will receive a posthumous Ph.D. today in a ceremony honoring academic achievement and sacrifice on the field of battle. My father, who set aside his dissertation to lead soldiers in war, will be included in the Class of 1968, the year he would most likely have completed his doctorate had fate not intervened. Born in 1930, my dad grew up in the company of oldier-storytellers on Army garrisons from Manila to the Old West, and watched his own father and three uncles set off for war in Europe. The whiff of cordite and tales of valor turned him into an infantry officer with a taste for ballads and bravado. He walked off demerits at West Point while reciting Rudyard Kipling and told the story of Beowulf around the family campfire as a bare-knuckled brawl between an Airborne Ranger and a Nazi monster.

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The Illinois Army National Guard is among the nation's leaders taking advantage of a U. S. Military Academy at West Point program that sets aside 85 appointments to the academy for enlisted Army National Guard or Army Reserve Soldiers. At least five Illinois National Guard Soldiers have secured seats at West Point, with a sixth Soldier, Pfc. Jacob Weiss of Sherman, receiving a Congressional appointment to the academy. This currently ties the Illinois Army National Guard with the Georgia Army National Guard for the most appointments to West Point this year, said Lt. Col. Mark Alessia, of Sherman, the Recruiting and Retention Commander for the Illinois Army National Guard.

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On May 1, Lt. Steven Kinney deployed to Afghanistan with the 10th Mountain Division, where his unit will be stationed for the next nine months. A 2006 graduate of Wayland High School, Lt. Kinney attended the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, graduating with honors in 2010. He selected Army Aviation as his branch and was stationed at Fort Rucker, Ala., where he completed flight school. After flight school, Lt. Kinney joined the 10th Mountain Division stationed at Fort Drum, N.Y. He pilots Apache Longbow helicopters, the Army’s primary attack aircraft. He is a platoon leader, responsible for 12 men.

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U.S. Army Lt. Col. James Spence, Army ROTC leader at Michigan Technological University, was honored with a special retirement ceremony Thursday. The 45-year-old was commissioned at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point in 1989, serving in Army Special Forces around the world and serving as a professor of military science at Michigan Tech since 2009. "I've had some tremendous opportunities to work with some phenomenal students," Spence said in a Daily Mining Gazette interview. "The cadets are energetic, driven ... in general a very committed, dedicated group.

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Lynn Perey, a West Point Military Academy graduate and experienced real estate broker, is the first candidate to take advantage of the financial benefits the program offers. Prior to moving to Oregon in 2003, Perey was a Principal Broker in Montana. He learned about Prudential's Vet program through a neighbor and decided this was a good time to get back into the real estate business.

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The starting point of this scenic 29-mile West Point-Cold Spring loop ride begins and ends near the Thayer Hotel and the Buffalo Soldiers Field at the corners of Swift and Knox Roads in West Point, N.Y. The hotel, built in 1926, was initiated under a campus expansion plan initiated by General Douglas MacArthur, superintendent of West Point at the time. You will need a photo ID to enter West Point. Enjoy the ride. At the 4 1/2-mile mark, you will be riding past the Fort Montgomery Historic Site. It was built by the Patriots in 1777 and was outfitted with cannon batteries to protect the Hudson from advancing British ships. In October of that year, British troops attacked from land and quickly overran the fort.

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The service academies are the U.S. Military Academy (Army) in West Point, NY; U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md.; U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colo.; U.S. Coast Guard Academy in New London, Ct.; and the Merchant Marines Academy in Kings Point, NY. In many ways, they are like other colleges — students compete in intercollegiate athletics, participate in school clubs and take final exams. However, students wear uniforms, learn military leadership and often must get permission to leave the campus.

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Before starting his second season in the National Football League, Army Reserve 1st Lt. Collin Mooney embarked on a two-week tour of area schools to support Army recruiting. The Tennessee Titans fullback visited 13 high schools across western Kentucky and middle Tennessee during his annual training period. “There are a lot of Titans fans in the middle Tennessee area who like to see somebody from the team and be a part of it,” Mooney said. “It was good to be able to spend time with them and see the support Titans are getting from them.” Mooney, 27, signed with the Titans in May. Shortly afterward, he was released from his active-duty commitment after serving three years as a field artillery officer at Fort Sill, Okla., and he moved into the Army Reserve.

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