Cadet Betterbed, USMA Class of 2010, Rhodes Scholar

Elizabeth Betterbed was selected for a Rhodes Scholarship this weekend. She joins the many West Point Rhodes Scholars from past years. In fact, West Point ranks 4th overall among American colleges and universities in the number of Rhodes Scholars, behind only Harvard, Princeton, and Yale.

Bloomberg.com story

Click for a small photo album

Cadet Tom Beirne (facing camera) Class of 2009, placed first in Sparring and third in Forms and earned a spot in the Pan Am Games and the 2009 World University Games Team Trials. (Photo by Cadet Sam Cho)

Beirne is from Federal Way, WA

Cadet Tom Beirne Received the Title of US National Collegiate Champion; the first male from the Eastern Collegiate Taekwondo League to achieve such a title since 2001. For their success at US Nationals, Beirne and CDT Angrisano qualify for the Pan American Games and the 2009 US World University Games Team Trials.

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Craig was at West Point last week – and his book signing was a sell-out … It was such a huge success that he is returning to West Point on Friday, March 13th for another book signing.

A West Point grad, Rhodes scholar, and Army Ranger recounts his unparalleled education in the art of war and reckons with the hard wisdom that only battle itself can bestow.

One haunting afternoon on Losano Ridge in Afghanistan, Captain Craig Mullaney and his platoon were caught in a deadly firefight with Al Qaeda fighters when a message came over the radio: one of his soldiers had been killed in action.

Mullaney’s education had been relentlessly preparing him for this moment. The four years he spent at West Point and the harrowing test of Ranger School readied him for a career in the Army. His subsequent experience as a Rhodes scholar at Oxford couldn’t have been further from the Army and his working class roots, and yet the unorthodox education he received there would be surprisingly relevant as a combat leader. Years later, after that unforgettable experience in Afghanistan, he would return to the United States to teach history to future Navy and Marine Corps officers at the Naval Academy. He had been in their position once, and he had put his education to the test. How would he use his own life-changing experience prepare them?

The Unforgiving Minute is the extraordinary story of one soldier’s singular education. From a hilarious plebe’s-eye view of the author’s West Point experience to the demanding leadership crucible of Ranger School’s swamps and mountains, to a two-year whirlwind of scintillating debate, pub crawls, and romance at Oxford, Mullaney’s winding path to the battlegrounds of Afghanistan was unique and remarkable. Despite all his preparation, the hardest questions remained. When the call came to lead his platoon into battle and earn his soldiers’ salutes, would he be ready? Was his education sufficient for the unforgiving minutes he’d face? A fascinating account of an Army captain’s unusual path through some of the most legendary seats of learning straight into a brutal fight with Al Qaeda in Afghanistan, The Unforgiving Minute is, above all, an unforgettable portrait of a young soldier grappling with the weight of his hard-earned knowledge while coming to grips with becoming a man.