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Category: USMA
McMillan: Army seniors race towards finish line in unusual 2020
WEST POINT – With every passing day, the Corps of Cadets at West Point draw closer to graduation, the end of a 47-month journey that will literally transform their lives forever.
You don’t necessarily need a calendar to track the progression, but there are milestone occasions that mark the time.
It starts with R-Day, or Reception Day, when the plebes, or incoming freshmen, arriving at West Point. A-Day, or Acceptance Day, comes at the end of basic training, and Plebe Parent Weekend is the first opportunity for the newest cadets to take a deep breath and reacquaint themselves with family.
The Yearlings, or sophomore class, have a Winter Weekend dedicated to them. The 500th Night banquet marks exactly that, the number of days remaining until graduation for the Cows, or junior class members.
Army-Navy Sprint FB Postponed
WEST POINT, N.Y. – The Army sprint football contest against Navy, which was scheduled for 1 p.m. on Sunday, Oct. 4 at Shea Stadium has been postponed.
2020 Sylvanus Thayer Award Recipient Ambassador Ryan C. Crocker
Ryan Crocker is a Diplomat in Residence at the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs. He served as Dean of the Bush School of Government & Public Service, Texas A&M University, until August 2016. He also has had appointments as the James Schlesinger Distinguished Visiting Professor at the University of Virginia and as the first Kissinger Senior Fellow at Yale University.
He retired from the Foreign Service in April 2009 after a career of more than 37 years but was recalled to active duty by President Obama to serve as U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan in 2011. He has served as U.S. Ambassador six times: Afghanistan (2011-12), Iraq (2007-09), Pakistan (2004-07), Syria (1998-2001), Kuwait (1994-97), and Lebanon (1990-93). He has also served as the International Affairs Advisor at the National War College, where he joined the faculty in 2003. From May to August 2003, he was in Baghdad as the first Director of Governance for the Coalition Provisional Authority and was Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs from August 2001 to May 2003. Since joining the Foreign Service in 1971, he also has had assignments in Iran, Qatar, Iraq, and Egypt, as well as Washington, DC. He was assigned to the American Embassy in Beirut during the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982 and the bombings of the embassy and the Marine barracks in 1983.
A Conversation With West Point’s Associate Dean for Strategy and Initiatives
By Joshua Kim
Chris Mayer is an Associate Dean for Strategy and Initiatives, an Associate Professor of Philosophy at the United States Military Academy at West Point, and a colonel in the US Army. I first ran across Chris on his active Twitter feed @ChrisMayer_WP. Chris generously offered to answer my questions about academic life within the military, his thoughts on COVID-19 and the academy, and the future of higher education. Please note that the views expressed in this article are Chris Mayer’s and do not reflect the official policy or position of the United States Military Academy, the Department of the Army, or the Department of Defense.
Q1: I’d like to start by trying to understand the world of the US service academies. These include West Point (where you are) and the four other academies for the Navy, the Air Force, the Coast Guard, and the Merchant Marine. Can you provide insights into where the service academies fit into the broader postsecondary ecosystem, and maybe some points of distinction and differentiation?
Service academies have the mission of developing and graduating leaders of character to serve as officers in their respective services. The United States Military Academy’s (West Point) graduates are commissioned as Army officers, United States Naval Academy graduates as Naval officers, United States Air Force Academy graduates as Air Force officers, United States Coast Guard graduates as Coast Guard officers, and United States Merchant Marine Academy graduates become licensed Merchant Marine officers or commissioned officers in the Armed Forces. Students at service academies do not pay tuition or room or board, but they do have a service obligation once they graduate (West Point graduates have a five-year active duty service obligation).