Feature story about how the West Point Digital History Department is using drones to better visualize the past

Cadets primarily focus on the strategic level of war during classroom instruction, but it’s during Cadet Summer Training when they begin to realize how they work together.

A study group of five cadets are on the fourth floor of Grant Barracks when they hear a loud disturbance coming from room 4102. There is screaming and yelling and a male voice asking for help...and then silence. One of the cadets reports the incident to their chain command and is then ordered to communicate with whoever is inside.

West Point’s most winning men’s team added a top trophy to their case in 2022 when they won the Men’s Division 1A Rugby National Championship for the first time in program history.

"‘The desire to reach for the stars is ambitious. The desire to reach hearts is wise.’ Dr. Mae Jemison has the distinction of having done both: touching the stars—and, more importantly—touching hearts and minds.”

West Point encompass over 16,000 acres of land, from military training ranges to historic trails, and includes access to several bodies of water, including the Hudson River. This diverse landscape allows instructors from all departments and disciplines to expand the limits of their classrooms and use the great outdoors to supplement cadet learning.

West Point magazine had an opportunity to interview eight cadets about the kind of lives members of today’s Corps lead.

Nearly every member of the West Point Class of 1966 served in Vietnam, and one in five classmates from that class were killed or wounded during the war. This year’s Ring Memorial Ceremony began with a special tribute to the fallen brothers of the Class of 1966. This year, our nation commemorates the 50th anniversary of the departure of the last American combat troops from Vietnam (March 29, 1973).

Every year since his plebe year, Cadet Ty Homan ’22 has traveled to Stanford University to help conduct innovative experiments using their coveted MRI system. However, these experiments do not use Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) for its most common use—to produce images of organs and tissues within the human body—instead, Homan and other cadets are working on mechanical engineering projects that use Stanford’s MRI system to measure contaminant dispersion.

When the 2021 recipient for the Alexander R. Nininger Award for Valor at Arms, then Lieutenant Colonel James R. Enos ’00, addressed the West Point Corps of Cadets, he told his audience of future Army officers to prepare for anything.

While in middle school, Second Lieutenant Kevin King ’21 watched his cousin, Dan Berschinski ’07, graduate from West Point. Only a few years later, King visited his cousin at Walter Reed Army Medical Center: Berschinski lost both of his legs while leading his platoon in Afghanistan. After four months of inpatient surgeries and three years of intense physical therapy and prosthetic limb training, he became the military’s first above-the-knee and hip-disarticulation amputee to walk on a daily basis. King had thought about going to West Point in the past, but after witnessing his cousin exemplify the Class of 2007’s motto—“Always Remember Never Surrender”—he was inspired more than ever to serve.

Cadet Valentina Vincent ’22 never met her grandfather, Harvey Jokinen, a Class of 1972 West Point graduate whose ring was a part of this year’s annual Ring Melt. Her mother was only three years old when he was killed in a helicopter crash while serving in Germany. Anytime Vincent asks her grandmother about Jokinen, she immediately cries. She says that he was a saint, and his sisters believe that he was the most amazing man to ever be placed on the earth.

Received 1st place award for best multimedia element | Full story: http://bit.ly/skoolie

Series on supervised injection sites | Received responsible journalism/public service award

This was a Veteran's Day feature story that ran in all nine Straus News community newspapers

A fully-accessible baseball field is coming to Warwick and will feature a rubberized playing surface to better accommodate players with greater mobility challenges. The baseball field will be named after Daniel Fratto, a 16-year-old who volunteered with Beautiful People as a game announcer and was instrumental in raising funds for the project.