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Stronger for Having Gone Through It
Dear WP-ORG users,
Our abbreviated Fund Drive will be ending on 8/12. This is the last fund drive message you will receive from us during this fund drive.
Our donation page may be found here:
https://secure.west-point.org/donate/
As you’re aware, this past April, we decided to delay the start of our semi-annual fund drive related to the impact of the virus on each of us and the economy. We cut back to only essential activities, and expenditures. We delayed as long as possible and have operated on just what we could raise in this four-week period. Many of you have been very generous. Thank you.
I have been a part of WP-ORG for about 20 years. It has brought me immeasurable joy in the past, but like all of you, I have realized how my online connections have been extremely important in the past many months. WP-ORG has provided connections with the West Point community through class lists, societies, parent lists, and lists where information and opinions can be shared. These connections are invaluable. I personally found a great deal of comfort from our members even before this pandemic occurred. Our ransomware attack last fall was daunting, but we survived. I had a joint replacement, which left me better for it. My hours were cut due to necessity, and I found time for other interests. Five of my immediate family members contracted Covid-19 and all are continuing to improve. My youngest son was laid off, yet he remains positive and upbeat. Like all of you, the personal hits have just kept coming, and yet, we continue through adversity to thrive. The one constant in my life is the contact I have had with so many of you through all of this. Our moderators and users contact me for assistance, and those contacts almost always involved a mutual sharing of how this period of time is affecting each of us. The West Point family takes care of their own, if only through kind words and generous hearts. I pray we all can lift ourselves out of the many trials that this year has given us, and find ourselves stronger, healthier, and better.
Please help us finish this fund drive strong, so that we may continue to bring you the services you have come to expect from WP-ORG, and maintain those important connections with one another. On the 12th, we will stop this abbreviated drive regardless of reaching our goal. We will begin our normal fund drive cycle in October. It will seem a very short time between this fund drive and the next, but that break will permit us all to take a necessary collective breath between now and then.
Thank you for being a part of this community. I pray you all stay well.
Dian Welle
WP-ORG, Inc.
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After entering Donation Amount, login to PayPal account. On next screen, please click on “Add special instructions to the seller”; enter class year and affiliation, and comment if you wish.
Budget: https://www.west-point.org/budget/
Fund Drive Donation Report, sorted by WP-ORG member group, etc.: https://secure.west-point.org/donate/report/
What is WP-ORG & Why Donate?: https://www.west-point.org/why_donate/
IRS Letter Confirming WP-ORG 501(c)(3) Status: https://www.west-point.org/publications/501SUMMARY.PDF
Army Starts Construction On Prototype Lasers
WASHNGTON: After years of lower-power field tests and more than one thousand hours of soldier feedback, the Army is on track to field-test two different types of high-energy lasers in 2022: a 50-kilowatt weapon to destroy enemy drones and incoming artillery rockets, and a 300-kW weapon that could potentially shoot down cruise missiles.
Key components are now under construction for both systems, the directed energy chief at the Rapid Capabilities & Critical Technologies Office said. And, Craig Robin told me ahead of today’s Space & Missile Symposium, the service plans many more “soldier touch points” to come on both programs, especially once the prototypes are built and available for field tests.
Furthest along is the 50-kilowatt laser, to be mounted on an 8×8 Stryker armored vehicle. It’s known in Army jargon as DE-MSHORAD (Directed Energy – Maneuver Short-Range Air Defense). Four prototype laser Strykers – a full platoon – will be fielded to an actual combat unit in 2022.
READ MORE…
Army to Speed Up Testing of Planned Hypersonic Missile
The lieutenant general overseeing the Army’s hypersonic weapons program said the service will soon accelerate testing of the ultra-fast missile effort to compete with Russia and China in the race to field the deadly new technology.
In a joint effort with the Navy, the Army has been designing the Common-Hypersonic Glide Body, which will be used by all U.S. services, and is preparing to transition it to the defense industry, which will mass produce the technology.
The Army will soon begin ramping up the testing schedule so it can field the first operational hypersonic missile battery by fiscal 2023, Lt. Gen. Neil Thurgood, director of Hypersonics, Directed Energy, Space, and Rapid Acquisition, said Wednesday during a Defense News space and missile defense webinar.
Army SFAB enterprise changes leaders as it begins sending smaller teams out globally
The Army’s security force assistance brigades are preparing for more global missions in the coming months, the outgoing commander of the SFAB enterprise, and his successor, said in interviews last week.
Some new missions will dispatch SFAB advisers to more austere and far-flung locations where the U.S. military footprint is less developed. That presents opportunities to work with new foreign militaries, but it can also complicate how advisers are protected and sustained.