West-Point.ORG, The West Point Connection

*If it seems like Gregory D. Gadson, who is making his acting debut in “Battleship,” seems like he knows what he’s doing it’s because he does. Gadson is an active-duty soldier with nearly 24 years of military service. A United States Military Academy (West Point) graduate, Gadson served in every major global conflict of the past two decades, including Operation Desert Shield/Storm (Kuwait), Operation Joint Forge (Bosnia-Herzegovina), Operation Enduring Freedom (Afghanistan) and Operation Iraqi Freedom (Iraq). A decorated officer, Gadson was commander of the 2nd Battalion, 32nd Field Artillery in Iraq when on the evening of May 7, 2007, he was severely wounded by an improvised explosive device and lost both legs above the knee. He remains on active-duty service in the military and currently serves as the director of the Army Wounded Warrior Program.

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In the last meeting of 2011-12 for The Leaders for Life Program, retired Brigadier General Rebecca Halstead, the first female graduate of West Point to be promoted to the rank of general, spoke to the group of Columbia student-athletes who participated in the year-long leadership workshop. Halstead, a member of the second West Point class that admitted women, is a 1981 graduate of the United States Military Academy, earning a B.S. in engineering.  She also has an M.S. in National Resource Strategy and an M.S. in Advanced Military Studies. "I cannot think of a better way to close out our Leaders for Life Program this year than with Brigadier General Halstead," said M. Dianne Murphy, Director, Intercollegiate Athletics and Physical Education.  "The leadership lessons Rebecca speaks to are invaluable.  In August 2011 she spoke to our head coaches and they absolutely loved her.  We brought her back to speak to our student-athletes and they felt the same.  It was the perfect ending to a fantastic year."

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The East Union High JROTC just wasn’t for Bryan Blair. He spent a semester in the uniform – learning the marches, focusing on the classes and learning a bit about the chain of command. His true passion, however, was on the pitch – he poured his heart and soul into soccer. He couldn’t just grasp on the JROTC concept. But things change. On May 26 Blair will be graduating from the United States Military Academy at West Point. It is a big change for the former Modesto Junior College student and Military Channel buff that once spent most of his time watching other people put on the uniform.

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More than 400 cadets from around the world are competing at the U.S. Military Academy in the annual Sandhurst Military Skills Competition. Sandhurst teams will compete in 11 events Saturday ranging from marksmanship to water crossings. Each team consists of eight men and one woman. The annual Sandhurst competition began in 1967 and is named for Britain’s Royal Military Academy. Institutions fielding teams this year include West Point, Sandhurst, the Naval Academy, the Air Force Academy, Canada’s Royal Military College, Afghanistan’s National Military Academy and the Spanish Military Academy. The competition is open to spectators.As the only representative team of the Chinese military academies participating in the competition for the first time, the cadets of the University of Science and Technology (UST) of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) stood out among the 55 teams after two days of fierce competition, and mounted upon the podium of team award, claiming the champion in two individual events and a second prize in one individual event as well as the honor of Sandhurst armband.

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It took one practice during a summer exercise in which cadets at the U.S. Military Academy are required to try out for a competitive team for Lelan Namy to get the rugby bug. The senior from Cazenovia High School is now a senior at West Point. He’s scheduled to graduate with a degree in economics on May 26. He’s assigned to infantry duty and will soon head to basic training in Fort Benning, Ga. But he’ll leave West Point with something different: He’s the captain of Army’s rugby team. Namy joins two other cadets from the Syracuse area who served as captains of their Army athletic teams this school year. The other two are Devin Lynch of Skaneateles and Tim Henderson of Tully. Both were senior captains of the school’s lacrosse team.

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Longwood University Patrick Finnegan today announced his resignation, effective June 30, citing health reasons. The retired brigadier general, who has been on medical leave for several weeks, submitted his resignation to the board of visitors after less than two years in the top position at the public liberal arts university in Farmville. Finnegan, who served 39 years in the Army, became Longwood's 25th president on July 1, 2010, after serving 11 years as a law professor and administrator at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. He was dean of the academic board for the U.S. Military Academy, West Point's chief academic officer, before coming to Longwood.

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The family of Capt. Paul Peña, the City of San Marcos, the San Marcos Academy, and representatives of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point will dedicate a park in honor of the fallen soldier at a special Memorial Weekend ceremony at 10 a.m. on Saturday, May 26.The ceremony will be held at the new Capt. Paul Wenceslaus Peña Park, formerly the neighborhood park for the Hills of Hays, 1209 Crystal River Parkway. A graduate of the San Marcos Academy in 2000 and the U.S. Military Academy at West Point Military in 2004, Capt. Peña was killed by a roadside bomb in Afghanistan on January 19, 2010. Following services at the SMA, a funeral mass was held in San Antonio with burial at the Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery on January 28, 2010.

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Students graduating from local colleges are set to take words of wisdom from a mix of municipal and world leaders, including Vice President Joe Biden, social advocates and entrepreneurs in addition to their diplomas, starting this week. Biden will deliver an address at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point commencement on May 26, the White House said.

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Wedding at West Point Military Academy. The wedding started at the Thayer Hotel; ceremony at the Cadet's Chapel; reception at the Dutchess Manor.

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Say the name Figueres in Costa Rica and it's bound to get a reaction. José "Don Pepe" Figueres led the 1948 revolution, was president three times, nationalised the banks and gave women and black people the vote. His daughter Christiana is the UN's climate chief trying to steer almost 200 countries through the most complex international negotiations ever attempted; and her brother José María was one of Latin America's youngest ever presidents at the age of 39.But José María says that when 18 he wanted a change and chose to go to leading US military academy West Point, whose alumni included presidents Ulysses Grant and Dwight Eisenhower as well as five people who have walked on the moon. This is remarkable, he accepts, because his father is the only president in modern history to have abolished a standing army. "Father had a fit when I went to West Point. He never went there. Perhaps it was my challenge to him," he says.

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