mission first: profiles of army athletics 2014
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MISSION FIRST: Profiles of Army Athletics 2014TRANSCRIPT
Mission
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PRODUCED BY:
The Army Athletic Association
EDITED BY:
Bob Beretta
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T A B L E O F C O N T E N T S
4 Introductionby Boo Corrigan
5 Forewordby Bob Beretta
6 1st Lt. Erin Anthony “Driven To Succeed”by Tracy Nelson
10 Andrew Avelino“A Profile In Courage”by Kevin Gleason
14 Herman Bulls“Knowing No Boundaries”by Harrison Antognioni
18 Maj. Ashlie Christian“A Cut Above The Rest”by Tracy Nelson
22 Dan Christman“True To The Corps”by John Feinstein
26 2nd Lt. Lindsey Danilack“Excellence Is A Habit”by Brian Gunning
30 Col. Greg Gadson“An Inspiration To Us All”by Wayne Coffey
34 Becky Halstead“Making A Difference”by Mady Salvani
38 William “Chico” Hurtado“The Magical Zamboni Man”by Mady Salvani
42 Sam Lessey“A West Point Man Through And Through”
by Harrison Antognioni
46 The Lichtenberg Family “A Father’s Legacy”by Brian Gunning
50 Dave Magarity“The Long And Winding Road”by Mike Vaccaro
54 Bob Novogratz“A Great American Story”by Mark Beech
58 Mady Salvani“50 Years Of Hard Work … And Counting”
by Ryan J. Yanoshak
62 Rollie Stichweh“All About Team”by Jack Ford
66 Trainor Family“Army Adventures Abound”by Ryan J. Yanoshak
70 Acknowledgements
72 Dedication
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Please visit the Army Athletics You Tube
page at youtube.com/armyathletics for
bonus video interview content from
each of the subjects featured in this
year’s edition of Mission First. This will
allow you to hear the voices, see the
facial expressions and feel the passion
of our subjects as they discuss a
myriad of topics related to this way
of life we call, Mission First.
It’s been nearly four years since my family and I arrived
at West Point back in the winter of 2011 and we continue to
be humbled by this wonderful institution and the people with
which it is associated.
Each day, I believe, something happens at Army West
Point that doesn’t happen anywhere else in the country. While
it may be easy to take some of this for granted, we work to
make sure we keep the people first, for after all the Army is
about people first.
This past year, we achieved success in all pillars, as is
our charge from the Superintendent, and we look forward to
continuing these successes.
Whether it is the pride of having, now-second lieutenant
Lindsey Danilack, lead the Corp of Cadets as the First
Captain (and track and field captain); seeing second
lieutenant Alex Brammer being recognized as a Marshall
Scholar; or bringing home our first Star Series victory in 18
years, the 2013-14 year was another example of how we
ensure we are always in alignment with the mission of the
Academy: to education, train and inspire the Corps of Cadets
so that each graduate is a commissioned leader of character
committed to the values of Duty, Honor, Country and
prepared for a career of professional excellence and service
to the Nation as an officer in the United States Army.
In the coming pages, we will share 16 stories of those
committed to the same values as our cadets. Some are
graduates and some are not, but they all share the common
bond of West Point and know that our goal is most easily
accomplished if we stay together, trust and have great
passion for this place.
We approached this year’s offering with very much the
same goal in mind: to feature some of those special athletes,
staff members and graduates that have performed amazing
feats of selfless service; that have placed their mission
before all else.
As athletics administrators, we constantly preach the
concept of “Team.” There is no place for selfish thoughts or
actions in a successful team environment. Most successful
teams feature rosters filled with players and coaches that
place the good of the team before any personal goals or
agendas. That is the approach our administrators take and
certainly the approach echoed by our coaches, no matter
what the sport. Everyone on a team has a role and a
purpose. Whether on the fields of friendly strife, on a court,
in a pool, or on the track, we all need to be our very best that
we can be for the team to succeed.
“Duty, Honor, Country.” has shaped the lives of so many
that have passed through West Point’s hallowed grounds. We
hope that our second edition of Mission First helps to
promote some of the virtues this lifestyle represents.
And we hope you enjoy reading some of these very
special accounts, real-life adventures my family and I have
the privilege of experiencing each and every day.
Go Army!
Eugene F. Corrigan Jr.
Director of Athletics
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Introduction
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There wasn’t much resistance in the room two years ago whenArmy Director of Athletics Boo Corrigan suggested to the executivestaff that we produce a coffee table-type book similar to a productfirst developed by the University of Notre Dame athletic department.
The publication would serve as a tastefully presented collectionof profiles, celebrating the lives and accomplishments of a numberof individuals with strong connections to Army’s athletic program.The personalities featured would have compelling stories to tell;stories about overcoming tremendous adversity; stories of greatpersonal sacrifice; stories outlining service to a higher calling forthe betterment of society. And the one common theme in all of theaccounts would be that in each instance, the subject had placed themission before all else.
That’s how the title for our publication was born. It seemedlike a natural fit: Mission First, a perfect depiction of the approachemployed by all those displayed in the publication. It all cameabout quite nicely.
We debuted Mission First last fall. It was a sleek product thatchampioned a wonderful grouping of heartwarming accounts ofgreat personal sacrifice and achievement. The book wascollectively received with great acclaim by a host of constituents,by those audiences internal to West Point and by those associatesoutside the Academy’s granite gates.
Based on the overwhelming positive response to the inauguraledition of Mission First, the next course of action was to produce afollow-up edition.
So we now present the second edition of Mission First.This latest version focuses on many similar subject matters, all with
their own compelling stories of sacrifice and selfless service to tell.As one of the new elements to this year’s project, we have
enlisted the help of several guest authors to help convey theseaccounts. Each of these gifted writers possesses a unique relationshipwith West Point or the subject they were chosen to feature.
Best-selling author John Feinstein, a longtime friend of theMilitary Academy and frequent boyhood visitor to Michie Stadium,was assigned to write a piece on former United States MilitaryAcademy Superintendent Dan Christman and the impressive breadthof goodness he has accomplished across a lifetime of public service;nationally renown legal analyst, author and television personality JackFord was selected to submit an account of former Army footballstandout Rollie Stichweh and how the meaning of “team” has shapedevery aspect of his life; Sports Illustrated’sMark Beech, a West Pointgraduate, was tabbed to pen a script on another former Army footballlegend, Bob Novogratz and the unlikely path he followed to WestPoint; Mike Vaccaro, the award-winning lead columnist for the NewYork Post and longtime colleague of Dave Magarity, contributed thefeature on Army’s veteran basketball coach and the unique set ofcircumstances that resulted in the West Point chapter of his storiedcoaching career; Wayne Coffey, the award-winning lead feature writerfor the New York Daily News, recounts the amazing story of courageand perseverance scripted by former Army football star Col. GregGadson; and Kevin Gleason, who has covered the Army athletics beatfor more than two decades, provides the narrative behind theincredibly inspirational story of Army gymnast Andrew Avelino.
We also employed some of the talented writers within Army’sOffice of Athletic Communications to portray works. Ryan Yanoshakchronicles a lifetime of selfless service put forth by Army AthleticAssociation staff member Mady Salvani and the wonderful legacyof service established by the Trainor family; Mady Salvani, herself,places personality behind the man who drives Army’s Zamboni atTate Rink, William “Chico” Hurtado, and delves into the story of thefirst female to reach the rank of General, West Point’s own, BeckyHalstead; Harrison Antognioni profiles the fascinating careers ofHerman Bulls and Sam Lessey; Tracy Nelson offers accounts of twofast-rising Army officers destined to follow a similar path as theone blazed by Haltstead in 1st Lt. Erin Anthony and Maj. AshlieChristian; and finally, Brian Gunning authors inspirational pieces onlast year’s U.S. Corps of Cadets First Captain, Lindsey Danilack,and the philanthropic legacy authored by the ever-generousLichtenberg family.
Another one of our goals in producing the second edition ofMission First was to humanize our subjects to an even greaterdegree, to allow the reader to engage with those spotlightedpersonalities in a different manner. We felt the best way to bringthese subjects to life was to add a multi-media component to thisyear’s edition of Mission First, insert a bit of shoulder programmingto the written work.
In conjunction with this printed version of the book, we askyou to visit the Army Athletics You Tube page atyoutube.com/armyathletics for bonus video interview content fromeach of the subjects featured in this year’s edition of Mission First.This will allow you to hear the voices, see the facial expressionsand feel the passion of our subjects as they discuss a myriad oftopics related to this way of life we call, Mission First.
Once again, the process to identify those represented wasmulti-faceted. We solicited all members of the athletic departmentand many friends outside of West Point for subject possibilities. Weformed a lengthy list of candidates, reviewed it carefully and finallyvetted the list to what appears in the book today.
We settled on an impressive grouping of 16 portrayals(actually 20, considering the Lichtenberg Family and Brig. Gen.Tim Trainor/Donna Brazil family combination), with each subjectconnected to the Army Athletic Association in some special way.
Through the imagery contained in the book, we hoped tocapture the true essence of our subjects in their ownenvironments, wherever that might be. You will see photosoriginating from Fort Bragg to Tate Rink, from Fort Belvoir toMichie Stadium and countless places in between.
In the end, we hope you enjoy every aspect of the secondedition of Mission First, but truly value the publication for what itmost represents: the brightest beacons of light who have helpedmake this world a better place by thrusting the greater goodabove all else, by firmly and unyieldingly positioning the missionfirst, every day of their lives.
After all, that is what West Point and the United States Armyis all about.
by Bob Beretta
Executive Athletic Director
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Foreword
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hey say to surround yourself with good people and good things will happen.
When recently graduated women’s basketball player Jen Hazlett sought guidance,
leadership and a role model as a wide-eyed Plebe, she looked no further than Erin Anthony.
Now a First Lieutenant in the United States Army Corps of Engineers, Anthony was a senior
team captain during Hazlett’s first season with the Black Knights, and while her recent mission
was guiding her troops through round-the-clock route clearances in Afghanistan, her mission
back then was being the best possible role model to Hazlett and others that she could be.
That’s how Anthony approaches life because it’s the only way she knows how to live.
Tackle it, conquer it and do so to the absolute best of your capability. Whether it’s on the
basketball court, in the classroom, on the battlefield or at home, she is a product of an
uncanny work ethic and a never-ending drive to succeed.
“Erin is exactly what our Army needs,” Hazlett says now of her mentor, friend and role
model. “Her soldiers are some of the luckiest soldiers in the military. She leaves a lasting
impression with anyone lucky enough to meet her.”
Army fans remember Anthony for her impressive contributions on the basketball court
and a laundry list of accolades. A force to be reckoned with on the Black Knights’ front line for
four seasons, including three as a starter, Anthony still holds Army’s career blocked shots
record. She became the 15th player in program history to reach 1,000 points and stands as
the Black Knights’ fourth-leading scorer of all-time. A three-time All-Patriot League selection
who ranks second on Army’s career rebounds ledger, Anthony won the prestigious Army
Athletic Association Award, presented annually to the male and female cadet who displays
the most valuable service to intercollegiate athletics during a career as a cadet, just prior to
graduation in 2011.
What Army fans may not remember quite as keenly are her exploits off the court. To put
this in perspective, Anthony finished just shy of winning the 2011 Senior CLASS Award, an
honor bestowed nationally each year to the women’s basketball player who most embodies
the attributes of competition, classroom, community and character. Anthony, Army’s first
women’s basketball finalist, finished second to Maya Moore, one of Connecticut’s most
celebrated players of all-time who became the top overall pick in the 2011 WNBA Draft and a
2012 Olympic gold medalist.
As a two-time team captain, Anthony led from the front always and played a pivotal role
in guiding a bevy of underclassmen. When Hazlett considered leaving the Academy during
the Black Knights’ 2010-11 campaign, Anthony encouraged her to stick with it no matter how
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1st Lt. ErinAnthony
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bad things got, confidently knowing the
rookie had what it took to succeed as a cadet
and basketball player. Hazlett wisely listened
to her elder and went on to become a 1,000-
point scorer herself, all the while leading the
Black Knights to the 2014 Patriot League title.
Fittingly, when that championship buzzer
sounded, Anthony stood behind the Army
bench with tears in her eyes and a proud
smile stretching from ear to ear.
“That moment was so special for me
because Jen Hazlett was my last teammate,”
says Anthony, looking back on the historic
game. “Thinking about how far she came
from being a freshman to where she is now
is unbelievable. She truly came full circle
and is going to be a phenomenal leader.
That kind of transition is what West Point is
all about.”
It’s no wonder Anthony now thrives on
playing the role of mentor. She grew up
surrounded by the best role models around,
plucked out of a Norman Rockwell-like
painting in her hometown of Allentown, Pa.,
and placed in a setting where leaders of
character are fostered.
“I’ve been surrounded by some pretty
amazing people all of my life,” Anthony says.
“I’ve taken something from each one, traits
that I value and want to apply in my own life.
The people who have cared about me,
taught me and supported me are the ones
who made me into who I am today.”
The oldest of four children, Anthony’s
grit comes from her dad, Jim, a retired
Colonel in the U.S. Marine Corps. Her
nurturing side is courtesy of her mother,
Donna, a former elementary school teacher.
“My Dad was always really driven,” she
says. “He was that next generation of the
‘American Dream.’ His dad was an hourly
employee at the cement mill, spending his
whole life doing manual labor. My
grandfather made sure his kids all had the
opportunity to go to college. My dad instilled
that same work ethic with all of us kids.
“We were also fortunate because when
my older brother, Mac, was born, my Mom
decided she was going to stay home and
focus on just raising us,” she continues. “We
not only had my Dad working his butt off,
keeping up three different jobs to keep our
family afloat, but my Mom was able to stay
home and give us the support and attention
we needed. She helped us in school and
carted us to every activity imaginable. She
really nurtured us in that sense.”
Jim and Donna’s efforts have paid major
dividends. Their oldest child graduated from
West Point as a two-time Academic All-
American, while Mac went on to earn his
degree at the U.S. Naval Academy. Similar to
his older sister, Mac starred as a student-
athlete in Annapolis, Md., garnering Patriot
League Swimmer of the Year honors as a
junior in 2011. Erin and Mac’s younger sister,
Katy, is working towards a biochemistry
degree at the University of Notre Dame and
looking at medical school, while the
youngest sibling, Matthew, is still benefiting
from his parents’ handiwork as a high-
schooler.
Mac set his sights on attending a
service academy early in life, but Erin
wanted no part of the military and aspired to
follow her mother’s footsteps into education.
A two-time all-state performer at
Parkland High School, Anthony drew the
attention of Army Coach Dave Magarity as
the Trojans captured the 2006 Pennsylvania
State Championship. It took just one
unofficial visit to West Point to sell Anthony on
becoming a crucial piece of Magarity’s first
recruiting class at West Point.
“After my first visit, I saw what was so
special and unique about this place,” she
says. “Meeting the team and seeing their
incredible bond made me want to be part of
something that meaningful. Even if they
didn’t have it all together at that very
moment, they had a lot more direction in
their life than most 19- and 20-year-olds do. I
“I’ve been surrounded by some pretty amazing people all of my life. I’vetaken something from each one, traits that I value and want to apply in myown life. The people who have cared about me, taught me and supportedme are the ones who made me into who I am today.”
— 1st Lt. Erin Anthony
(PICTURED LEFT) Erin earned three All-PatriotLeague citations during her playing days atWest Point.
(PICTURED OPPOSITE) Erin (right) celebratesArmy’s 2014 Patriot League championship withher protégé, Jen Hazlett (left), at Christl Arena inMarch 2014.
(PICTURED OPPOSITE TOP ) Erin earned the ArmyAthletic Association Award, the highest honorbestowed to a graduating senior by the Officeof the Directorate of Intercollegiate Athletics,in May 2011.
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really appreciated and admired that.”
Anthony embraced the opportunity and
relished the challenge. She authored a
nearly unblemished grade-point average as
a Plebe and earned All-Rookie honors in her
first season along the banks of the Hudson.
She flourished under Magarity’s watch,
taking her game to a level even she didn’t
know was possible. A veteran mentor and
former head coach in the men’s game,
Magarity’s tough-nosed approach fit her
learning style perfectly.
“We got along really well because I was
used to his disciplined and very direct
approach to teaching,” she says of Magarity.
“My Dad raised me that way and it was
something I embraced from ‘Day One.’
Coach wasn’t a 24-year-old looking to climb
the ladder. I appreciated him because he
came to West Point because he believed in
the mission, believed in the Academy and
believed in the program. He is here for the
right reasons. So much of who I was while I
was a cadet was because of him.”
Magarity represented just one of a cast
of characters who helped shape the person
Anthony became and who she still strives to
be, joining countless instructors, officer
representatives and classmates.
Not long after graduation, Anthony
completed Sapper and Airborne schools
and more recently became a Jumpmaster.
She deployed to Afghanistan in February
2013 for a mission that tested Anthony’s
fortitude and toughness perhaps more than
ever before.
She and her troops spent many days
and even longer nights, tirelessly completing
route clearance in search of improvised
explosive devices (IEDs). Her platoon,
headed up by Sergeant First Class Ricardo
Young, located eight IEDs during what she
and Young considered a very successful
mission. Anthony remained deployed but
moved on to her next assignment after just a
few months. What happened next would
challenge the young Lieutenant like no
hurdle had to that point.
Not long after her transfer, Young was
killed bounding under enemy fire along the
most vulnerable stretch of roadway in the
area, “The Devil’s Elbow” in Farah Province,
while trying to help a group of wounded
Afghans. Young, a husband and father of two,
was posthumously awarded the Silver Star
for his heroic actions.
“That was one of the hardest things I’ve
ever gone through,” she reflects. “Dealing
with it in theater made it that much tougher.
He was somebody I respected as a leader,
but even more than that, I looked up to him
as a role model. He was an amazing soldier
and a true American hero.”
Less than a year after Young’s passing
and after returning to American soil, Anthony
ran her first marathon in his honor. Not
straying from her pattern of perfection, she
completed the 26.2 miles in less than four
hours and never once let Young’s memory
drift from her mind.
Anthony, currently stationed at Fort
Bragg, N.C., will head to her Captain’s
Career Course this fall and has her sights on
returning to West Point in a teaching role at
some point in the future.
Quick to credit those around her for her
perpetual success, Anthony now sees it as
her turn to return the favor. She started by
pinning Second Lieutenant bars on Hazlett’s
shoulders during a May 28 commissioning
ceremony, the same gesture Anthony’s father
performed for her four years prior.
“I’ll be forever grateful to each and
every person who has shaped who I’ve
become,” she says. “I hope that I can pay it
forward.”
Surround yourself with good people
and you just might become someone’s
best. �
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ndrew Avelino lost his right leg in about the freakiest of freak accidents for a
gymnast. Jumping on a trampoline. Gymnasts torture their bodies almost daily
with hours of pushing flesh to extremes, competing in a physically and mentally grueling
sport because, as Army Coach Doug Van Everen likes to say, others can’t.
Yet the spring of a trampoline couldn’t save Avelino on November 19, 2010, freshman
year at West Point, during a workout at Gross Center, Army’s campus facility. He
hyperextended his leg when it came down straight, tearing all four ligaments in his right
knee. He ruptured the popliteal artery behind the knee, hindering blood flow to his thigh
and calf.
“Mind-blowingly strange’’ is how Avelino describes the accident. He had walked away
from worse falls. Surgery was performed to try to save the leg. Weeks later, Avelino’s right
leg was amputated below the knee.
Connor Venrick got wind of Avelino’s injury the summer leading to Venrick’s arrival at
West Point. “Did you hear about that guy, Andrew Avelino, who lost his leg?’’ future classmate
and teammate Jeremy Cahill said to Venrick. Avelino had hosted Venrick on his high school
recruiting trip to West Point.
“I never thought he could stay (at West Point),’’ Venrick, a senior now, remembers
thinking. “I never heard of anyone joining the Army with one leg.’’
Venrick didn’t really know Avelino. Not yet anyway. Van Everen was fast learning his
freshman’s fortitude that helped make him one of the top scholastic gymnasts in California.
Van Everen saw the fire in Avelino’s eyes on his hospital bed after the amputation.
“I want to finish what I started,’’ Avelino told his coach.
First he needed clearance from West Point. This was uncharted territory for the
Academy. Piles of papers needed signing before allowing Avelino to pursue his degree and
five-year postgraduate military commitment. “The Academy’s feeling on this was, ‘If this kid
can do everything expected of him with no considerations, then why not?’” Van Everen says.
Avelino got his prosthetic two months after the injury and returned to West Point in
March 2011, just four months after landing wrong on a trampoline. He made his college
debut at Penn State as a sophomore in January 2012, stunning teammates and competitors
alike with the second-best score on the high bar and placing seventh overall. The crowd
gave Avelino a standing ovation and he earned the Gene Wettstone Award, honoring the
former longtime Nittany Lions coach, as the meet’s outstanding competitor. Army’s only
other Wettstone winner, 1996 graduate Steve Marshall, made West Point’s Hall of Fame.
Venrick was among those shaking his head in awe that day. “After the high bar, I
remember everyone on our team and the Penn State team were just amazed at what he
did,’’ says Venrick, soon one of Avelino’s best friends. “Especially the dismount. It was
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Andrew AvelinoE
A ProFILE In courAgEBy Kevin gleason
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incredible. I didn’t know if he could do it and
he shocked the (heck) out of me.
“I’ve never seen him actually talk
about, ‘Why did that happen to me?’ He
works when other people aren’t looking.
Days when we don’t have practice, I see him
down in gym or in the back of the barracks
running. He’s always trying to better himself
and the team.’’
“He didn’t really skip a beat, honestly,’’
Van Everen says. “There were some initial
mixed feelings right off the bat, but they
were put to rest quickly. There was some
education amongst everybody to make sure
that, ‘Hey, he’s in your company; let’s drive
on, move out.’ Andrew was never asking for
any help or favors, and he didn’t miss
anything. Physically, he’s in the upper part of
his whole class.’’
Avelino was back. But Van Everen
worried about Avelino getting hurt trying to
do too much. One of his best events, the
high bar, involves difficult, high-impact
dismounts. Van Everen cut Avelino’s high
bar competitions to a chosen few, instead
focusing him on the pommel horse.
“He was kind of (mad) at me,’’ Van
Everen remembers. “The pommel horse
was great because he was good at it and he
was not going to get hurt on that event. The
skills that these guys are doing to be
competitive – they are high level. They are
no joke.’’
Avelino set a personal best in the
pommel horse as a junior. He turned in
another fine season as a senior this past
year despite being unable to crack the
starting lineup on many occasions.
So with his senior season finished, his
career over, what was Avelino doing at
Gross Center on this spring day? The
answer crystallizes Andrew Avelino’s
journey to becoming a successful major-
college gymnast on one leg.
He was at Gross Center with his season
over, his career over, because it was home.
He was surrounded by teammates that have
forged an incredible bond. They are
reminders of why Avelino fell in love with
gymnastics, perhaps not initially when
pointed to the gym by his parents at age six,
but soon enough when the sport and the
athletes became linked. Sure, he inspired
them competing on one leg. But they inspire
him as well.
They are bonded by courage, by
pushing and prodding their bodies, and one
another, 20-30 hours six days a week, every
week, from club to college. They are
bonded by the adventure, by flying through
the air and flipping and twisting and
contorting their frames in ways that seem
impossible.
And they are bonded by the unspoken
virtue that lies deep inside their souls.
Don’t quit.
“It’s different from other sports,’’ Avelino
says. “The kind of people you are around all
the time, the hours you put in. All of us know
each other.’’
Avelino always considered himself an
underdog in gymnastics. He thrived by
outworking competitors in a sport filled with
athletes trying to out-sweat one another. It
made him a star recruit out of Tabuco
Canyon, Calif., finalist on the pommel horse
at the 2010 Junior Olympic Nationals and a
Southern California State All-Star. He was
destined for greatness, Van Everen
confirmed, and would have qualified for
NCAA meets.
Avelino’s desire wasn’t going to wilt
when he lost his leg. Heck, his adventure
was just beginning. He spent his last three
seasons arriving at practice early, usually
first, and coming in on off days. Never mind
that he awoke to pain on many days, that
sometimes every step hurt from the
prosthetic’s fit or the stump, that the stump
would swell and fit uncomfortably in off-
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weather. Never mind the pain he felt almost
every day his first year in the prosthetic as a
sophomore.
So he took basketball and boxing that
year to prove to himself and others that he
would be undeterred. So he showed, first
semester that sophomore year, that he
could still do a standing back flip, despite
Van Everen’s protests, by taking to the mats
at Gross Center one day and flipping and
flipping and flipping… about a half-dozen in
all. So he refused to use his crutches in
public, even after another spring day when
he tripped and fell on stairs, landing on –
what else? – his right knee. So he ran by
fellow cadets while passing Army’s
challenging physical fitness test.
“It’s been a struggle, for sure,’’ Avelino
says. “Before, I did all six events. Coach Van
Everen limited me to the pommel horse
where there’s no real landing. Missing all
five events the last three years hasn’t been
fun. I had to relearn how to walk and run. It’s
kind of sad sometimes thinking about how
far I could have gone (with two legs).
“But the part that I attribute most to
coming back on one leg is the support of
the team and growing up in the gym.’’
“When he was a freshman (before the
injury), he was one of the leading guys on
the team, an All-Arounder,’’ Venrick says.
“The fact that he was able to lose a leg and
come back and compete on this team, I feel
like this is his life. This team and just the
whole gymnastics thing, has made him
accomplish as much as he can, and
especially the coaches because they have
all pushed him. I don’t know if he lost his leg
and quit gymnastics and stayed at West
Point, I don’t know if he would be able to
have the physical readiness and mental
preparation in knowing that he could do
anything he wants. I think gymnastics
definitely pushed him to do that. He’s not
afraid of anything.’’
So on this spring day, Andrew Avelino
is sad. He is not sad because he has one
leg. He is sad because he has no
gymnastics career. He is sad because he
can no longer announce in classes the first
day of each semester, “Andrew Avelino,
Company G-3, I’m on the gymnastics team.’’
He will soak up every minute with
teammates in Gross Center, practicing
without an upcoming meet, ever. Avelino
knows his doldrums will pass. Other
challenges remain. He will graduate in
December with a foreign area studies
degree and head off to Fort Sill, Okla.
Unable to branch Infantry because of the
injury, he chose military intelligence and
was granted his second choice, Air Defense.
He wants to work in the CIA or, like his dad,
in the FBI.
“I feel the injury definitely made me
who I am today,’’ Avelino says. “I enjoy who I
am right now.’’
Avelino stood up from his seat in the
balcony at Gross Center. It was time to head
downstairs to join teammates working out.
Time to practice. There was no meet ahead,
but rather the high-stakes playground of life
filled with inner acrobatics. Oh wait,
Avelino’s new life will be filled with
gymnastics meets. It’s just that the barriers
will change, and Andrew Avelino will be
more prepared than ever. �
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“I’ve never seen him actually talk about, ‘Why did that happen to me?’ Heworks when other people aren’t looking. Days when we don’t havepractice, I see him down in gym or in the back of the barracks running.He’s always trying to better himself and the team.”
— Connor Venrick
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15
pon enrolling at West Point, cadets receive the best leadership training the country
has to offer. During their 47 months at the Academy, cadets endure a demanding
and disciplined lifestyle which pushes them beyond their limits. Many choose to add to
those limits by seeking even greater responsibilities, thereby enhancing their leadership
growth and strengthening the West Point experience.
Herman Bulls was one of those people. After participating in a number of
extracurricular activities and attending Ranger School as a cadet, Bulls went on to serve
nearly 12 years as a commissioned officer in the United States Army, followed by 18 years of
service as a member of the Army Reserves.
While accomplishments such as those are more than most will hope to fulfill, Bulls
added an MBA from Harvard Business School and successful ventures in the private sector
in commercial real estate and as a finance professional in the Washington, D.C., area.
After leaving the Army in 1989, Bulls joined Jones Lang LaSalle, a professional real
estate services firm, as a developer. In 1996, he founded the Public Institutions division of
the firm for which he served as Chief Executive Officer.
In 2001, Bulls began the real estate advisory firm, Bulls Advisory Group, before
founding Bulls Capital Partners in 2004. All of these ventures were the result of Bulls’
entrepreneurial experiences gained from the military and perfected during his time at
Harvard Business School.
“The military helped in my transition to the private sector,” Bulls says. “The whole idea
of accountability is so important and those interpersonal and leadership skills honed in the
military were critical. Nobody gives you a book and says, ‘These are the five things you have
to do today.’ You have to get that from within yourself.”
During his more than 25 years at Jones Lang LaSalle (now known as JLL), Bulls has
helped senior executives design real estate solutions for a number of markets including
corporations, federal and state governments, as well as colleges and universities.
Bulls graduated from West Point in 1978 and served a number of military roles in Fort
Dix, N.J., West Point and South Korea. Following his time in South Korea, Bulls enrolled in the
prestigious Harvard Business School in 1983. At Harvard Business School, Bulls was able to
use his teachings from West Point, as well as his organization and leadership skills from his
four-plus years in active-duty military service.
“When I was at Harvard, about the fourth or fifth day of school, students select the
president for each of their student sections,” Bulls remembers. “There were nine sections
with about 90 to 95 students in each. I had been my company representative at West Point
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and when I learned of this opportunity to
lead my section classmates as section
president, my leadership skills took over,
and I decided to compete to lead my
classmates.
“It was so amazing, getting up and
speaking in front of 90 people. Most of the
people who gave speeches were looking
down at their hands or looking at the floor.
Having been a Lieutenant and a Captain in
the Army, I was accustomed to talking to
people all the time. After I finished giving
my speech, I got a standing ovation from the
students in my section and I was selected
the section president.”
Along with his military experiences,
Bulls drew on lessons learned from his time
as a cadet, specifically those from athletics.
Bulls was a two-year member of the
Army football team, playing for the Black
Knights as a Plebe quarterback before
lettering on the junior varsity squad as a
defensive back during his Yearling season.
Despite never seeing the field as a varsity
player, Bulls would argue the various roles
he served were just as important in building
his character.
“I probably didn’t have the most natural
talent of all, but nobody would out-hustle or
out-try me,” Bulls says. “I believe it’s work
ethic, knowing what it is to be tired and
keep going and putting yourself behind the
needs of the group. I wasn’t getting the
glory on Saturday afternoons, but putting all
of that effort in gave me my work ethic that
makes me successful today.”
After hanging up his helmet to focus on
academics and attend Ranger School just
before his junior year, Bulls transitioned to a
role with West Point’s cadet radio station,
WKDT. Not long after joining WKDT, Bulls
found himself gravitating back to athletics,
eventually working play-by-play for a
variety of Army sporting events.
Being the radio voice of Army Athletics
for two years wasn’t necessarily in the cards
for Bulls upon attending the Academy, but
just like the rest of his experiences up to that
point, Bulls found significance in making the
switch from the practice field to the
announcer’s booth.
“That is another experience at West
Point that really helped me later in life,” Bulls
says. “There were a variety of activities I was
able to do as a cadet. I wish I could tell you I
was thinking, ‘Let me go and do this
because it’s going to make me a better
public speaker,’ but I wasn’t thinking of it that
way. I was thinking of it as a passion I had to
continue to be involved in sports, and it
worked out great.”
Bulls’ first military position out of West
Point, after being commissioned in the
Army’s Adjutant General’s Corps, was at a
Personnel Control Facility in Fort Dix, N.J.
While still enrolled at the Academy,
Bulls was set to branch Infantry, but found
out he was medically disqualified after
going through the medical exam given to
each cadet as a First Classman.
“I was diagnosed as having a very
extreme high-frequency hearing loss and
that disqualified me from Combat Arms,”
Bulls says. “I was ‘gung-ho’ Infantry and I
was waiting to go Airborne and do all of this
great stuff.
“As a result of the medical hearing
profile, I did a lot of research with a lot of my
professors and one of my sponsors was an
Airborne Ranger Adjutant General Officer.
After doing a lot of research, I decided to
branch AG. I was a Second Lieutenant, but
the assignments officer at Fort Dix knew my
sponsor and, based on the sponsor’s
recommendation, he assigned me a
Captain’s job.”
After a year at Fort Dix, Bulls returned
to West Point as an Airborne Ranger to work
in the admissions office as a Project
Outreach Lieutenant. In that position, Bulls
recruited minority high school students
from the southeastern United States to come
to the Academy.
“The military helped in my transition to the private sector. The whole ideaof accountability is so important and those interpersonal and leadershipskills honed in the military were critical.”
— Herman Bulls
17
“I basically spent a week at West Point
and a week on the road,” Bulls says. “I was
going out and talking to everybody from
junior high kids to radio stations. It was a
great job for a young person who liked to
travel.”
Upon his return to Fort Dix one year
later, Bulls was engaged to his wife, Iris, also
a Lieutenant, whom he met before the West
Point admissions job. The couple soon
married at West Point before heading out to
South Korea to continue their respective
military careers. In South Korea, Bulls
worked for a personnel services company
where he continued to serve in positions
generally reserved for ranks higher than his.
Bulls worked to support troops at the
demilitarized zone in Korea, in addition to
most units around Seoul. After 14 months in
this assignment, he was given responsibility
for all personnel actions in Korea, including
awards, casualty reporting, marriages and
Congressional inquiries.
After Korea, Bulls returned stateside to
pursue a degree from Harvard Business
School in preparation for returning to West
Point as a professor. With his military
obligation up, Bulls had the option of
attending the business school as a civilian
or going as a member of the Army. Bulls
considered both options, but remembers
the decision ultimately being an easy one.
“I thought about it, but in the end it
wasn’t even close,” Bulls recalls. “Having the
opportunity to go back to West Point and
having a positive influence on cadets like
officers did on this kid from Alabama was
worth it.”
Bulls completed his MBA and returned
to his alma mater as an economics and
finance professor in the Department of
Social Sciences. He taught at West Point
from 1985 to 1988 before beginning work at
the Pentagon in the Office of the Assistant
Secretary of the Army for Financial
Management. After serving 18 months in the
Pentagon, Bulls left the Army, but remained
in the reserves and eventually retired as a
Colonel.
One of Bulls’ first major accomplishments
at JLL was helping the Army and Air Force
privatize their housing. Bulls aided in the
creation and implementation of a plan that
would result in 42 Army projects, with a
value of over $10 billion being privatized
around the nation, including projects at West
Point. Working with the Academy was hardly
a surprise for Bulls, who had dealt with his
alma mater countless times since
graduating in 1978, including many years on
the West Point Association of Graduates
Board of Trustees and Board of Directors.
Working on this project truly exemplified
how many close ties he still had to West
Point.
“When we were getting ready to do the
first Army projects, the Pentagon had a Four-
Star General who was in charge of all U.S.
forces and installations,” Bulls remembers.
“His name was Tom Schwartz. I walked in to
give him an update and he said, ‘Bulls!’ He
was the officer representative for the football
team when I was a cadet and here we were
20 years later conducting business together.
“It wasn’t two strangers, it was back to
Army Football. Completing that program is
the seminal professional accomplishment
for me in a lot of ways because it impacted
so many soldiers and their families. I can go
back to an Army Football connection to say
that it helped with communications during a
very critical time.”
During his time in the military and in
the private sector, Bulls achieved a great
deal. Along with serving for nearly 30 years
and often being tasked with the
responsibilities of a higher rank than he was
at the time, Bulls made impactful strides in
real estate, especially in introducing
privatized housing to the Department of
Defense for both the Army and the Air
Force.
Bulls’ affinity with West Point has been
carried on by two of his sons, Herman Jr.
and Jonathan, who followed their father’s
footsteps in attending the Academy. Herman
Jr. played lacrosse for two years at Army
before graduating in 2005 and entering the
Infantry branch. He is currently completing
his MBA at Duke and will return to West
Point as an Admissions Officer in 2015. Bulls’
youngest son, Jonathan played on the
football team for four years as a punter and
graduated in 2011, entering the Army’s
Field Artillery branch.
Additionally, Bulls’ wife, Iris, completed
a tour as an admissions officer at West Point,
and his sons, Nathaniel and Jonathan, were
born at West Point.
Along with his duties at JLL, Bulls serves
on the Board of Directors of three New York
Stock Exchange-listed companies in
addition to USAA. He continues to stay close
to football as a board member for the
Military Bowl, which is played each year in
Annapolis, Md. Of everything Bulls
accomplished, he continues to credit his
education and experiences at West Point as
among the important factors in leading him
to where he is today.
“West Point showed me that my limits
were much further than I thought they were,
and that’s from a physical, as well as a
mental aspect,” Bulls says. “If I could do it all
over again, I would definitely include West
Point in it 100 percent.” �
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(PICTURED ABOVE) (from left) Jodie Glore,former West Point Association of GraduatesChairman, and Herman Bulls pose at a recentAcademy function.
(PICTURED OPPOSITE) (from left) Iris, Nathaniel,Herman and Jonathan Bulls gather on The Plainat West Point.
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19
ajor Ashlie Christian will never forget her first collegiate start. During a spring
break trip to Florida, with two outs and no runners on in the second game of the
Black Knights’ 2001 season, the freshman pitcher out of tiny Payette, Idaho, felt pretty good.
That feeling disappeared in a hurry, however, as she let an 0-2 count get away and
surrendered her first career home run to Cornell’s third batter. The next hitter who stepped
into the batter’s box ripped a homer as well. As did the next. Three straight home runs later
and Christian’s collegiate debut quickly brought her first exit.
The rattled Plebe glanced at the Army dugout and caught the eye of her head coach, Jim
Flowers, as if to say, “Take me out, please!” The long-time veteran mentor, who retired after
nearly two decades with the program in 2009, sent in a reliever and calmly addressed his
freshman pitcher.
“He looked me right in the eye and said, ‘Ashlie, you can’t just throw fastballs in college
softball,’” Christian recalls. “As soon as we got back from that Florida trip, I knew I needed to
add breaking pitches to my repertoire. I could always throw the ball anywhere I wanted, but I
didn’t have any movement on it. Once I learned a drop-curve, my entire collegiate career
changed.”
That drop-curve helped Christian author an impressive resume that included All-Patriot
League plaudits, the conference and program record for career saves (12) and a fourth place
national ranking for single season saves (6) in 2004, her final season along the banks of the
Hudson. Her single-season and career saves marks still stand atop the league and program
record books.
Embracing opportunities and overcoming obstacles are two character traits that have
followed Christian from the softball diamond, through West Point and currently as a recently
promoted Major in the United States Army. Yielding three home runs in her collegiate debut
would pale in comparison to the challenges she would face in the future.
“Ashlie was not a dominating pitcher, but she had so much internal fortitude that she
was able to compete at any level and as often as you needed her,” says Flowers of his former
star. “That notion carried over into her Army career, too. She is an extremely, extremely
strong young woman who has and always will lead from the front.”
Christian spent her formative years on the family farm. The only child of beamingly
proud parents, Del and Deb, the family still owns the 100-year-old feed mill in Payette, located
an hour west of Boise, Idaho.
Not unlike any other farming families, her parents instilled a strong work ethic at a young
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age as they, too, had grown up on the farm.
Christian’s maternal grandfather owned a
cattle farm, once served as the Angus
President of Idaho and raised racehorses.
Her paternal grandfather had the feed mill
that has since been passed down to her
father, keeping it in the family for 100 years.
Christian was always the “outdoorsy-
type.” When she wasn’t throwing around a
softball, camping, fishing and hunting were
regular activities.
“I was the grand champion pig
showman of Payette County,” she recalls with
a telling grin, but a tinge of pride as well.
Former Army pitching coach Michelle
Gerdes, responsible for teaching Christian
that elusive drop curve, first saw the future
Black Knight throwing in a Colorado
tournament for the Idaho Golden Gloves.
Impressed, Gerdes took video back to
Flowers and the two began aggressively
recruiting Christian. An already stellar
student with a laundry list of traits desired in
a cadet-candidate, Flowers made a bold
move in presenting Christian with a Letter of
Assurance at a Newark Airport gate upon
her arrival for an official visit.
Christian, along with her parents, toured
West Point and left knowing that would be
the best possible opportunity out there. She
became the first softball player out of Payette
to play at the Division I level. Her success
carried far into her collegiate career as well.
Christian became the first player in program
history to serve as the lone team captain as a
junior, and remained in that role during her
senior campaign. An American legal studies
major with a civil engineering track, she
made the Dean’s List every semester, Patriot
League Academic Honor Roll all four years
and earned National Fastpitch Coaches
Association All-America Scholar-Athlete
plaudits following the 2004 season.
Christian graduated with honors and
became a commissioned Aviation officer.
Flight school at Fort Rucker followed, where
she powered through flight school in less
than a year and posted at Fort Lewis, Wash.,
with an Air Cavalry squadron for the next
five-plus years.
Thrilled to be stationed closer to her
childhood home, Christian took every
opportunity to go back to the farm when
leave permitted. As her unit readied for
deployment in December 2006, she headed
back to Payette for the holidays. During her
visit home, two warrant officers and a soldier
flying her platoon’s aircraft went down. A
combination of poor weather and conditions
ultimately led to the fatal crash. All three lives
were lost just three days before Christmas.
“That was a huge blow,” she
remembers. “We were getting ready to
deploy and knew that there was a possibility
of something happening overseas. But you
never expect for it to happen here. It was a
complete shock.”
Christian wept at the foot of her parents’
bed, thrust into a harsh reality and one she
did not yet know how to deal with. She
learned quickly, however, as she had all her
life, and that unexpected lesson would prove
invaluable in the months ahead.
Christian headed back to Fort Lewis
after the holidays, out of which her unit
deployed in early May 2007 in support of
Operation Iraqi Freedom. The 4th Squadron,
6th U.S. Air Cavalry Regiment soon touched
down in Tel Afar, Iraq, located in the
northwestern part of the war-torn country.
Responsible for patrolling an extremely
large area, stretching multiple borders, her
unit operated out of Tel Afar and Kirkuk.
Christian, who led the unit’s Tel Afar
contingent, was known for her laid back,
quiet approach with her soldiers. She
learned to become stern, but was always fair
and respectful, two qualities Flowers vividly
recalled her having during her two year
team captainship.
“I perfected my stare,” she jokes.
With an ocean between her unit and
their loved ones, like many, it became a
family. They functioned as one, looked out for
one another and fostered deep and powerful
bonds while surviving in one of the most
distraught areas of Iraq. That family, however,
was about to be tested in a way most of its
members would never imagine possible.
While Christian served as the Executive
Officer and Detachment Commander in Tel
Afar, a fellow West Pointer commanded the
Kirkuk area. Captain Corry Tyler, a Georgia
native and member of the West Point Class
of 1999, was in the midst of his third tour in
Iraq.
In their short time together, Christian
and the senior Tyler worked extremely well
together. She says “He was hands-down the
best leader I have ever come in contact with.
He was so serious, but had just enough of a
funny side to him. He had that perfect
balance that is so hard to come by.”
The two commanders were scheduled
to trade locations in late-August, but
unpleasant weather in the area kept
Christian in Tel Afar for a day longer than
scheduled. In the meantime, Tyler’s group
boarded a Blackhawk helicopter and
headed out on another mission, during
which something went wrong. Something
went very, very wrong the night of August
22, 2007. A mechanical failure in the aircraft
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led to a violent crash and Tyler, his co-pilot,
Chief Warrant Officer 2 Josh Flynn, two crew
chiefs and 10 members of the 25th Infantry
Division perished. Fourteen lives lost.
Christian, now in command, had the
unfortunate responsibility of relaying the
news to the rest of the unit in the wee hours
of August 23. She recalls there being very
little eye contact.
“It was one of the hardest things I have
ever had to do and something I hope I never
have to do again,” she says. “Even today, it’s
so hard to verbalize all that I was feeling at
that moment.”
With the comforts of her childhood
home half a world away, Christian mustered
the courage to charge on as the unit’s
commanding officer. Those remaining
participated in an emotional ramp ceremony
in Kirkuk.
“We’d seen ramp ceremonies done
before because we’d flown them,” she
explains. “This one was different though.
They were our own.”
A C-17 had to be used due to the
amount of bodies headed back to the States
for proper burial. Christian and her fellow
soldiers saluted for over an hour as each
made its way onto the massive plane.
Three weeks after the crash, Christian
got word from her parents that her paternal
grandfather, a former Marine, had passed
away. He and his granddaughter shared a
love for baseball and his death hit Christian
hard, especially given the unfortunate timing.
She returned to the United States in
October 2008 and soon after, a group
internment at Arlington National Cemetery
for all 14 lives lost brought everything back
to the surface. Christian emotionally
addressed the families of the deceased
during a moving ceremony at one of the
nation’s most hallowed grounds.
“I met their parents and children; it was
one of the most powerful experiences of my
life,” she says. “It brought much-needed
closure to me personally, but it gave us all a
chance to honor the memory of those who
we lost that day.
“I was the one in charge, so I had to
compartmentalize everything,” she
continues. “I had to be strong for my soldiers
while we were over there. This gave me a
chance to mourn.”
Over the next 19 months, Christian
became an Executioner Troop Commander,
which was the aviation unit’s Maintenance
Troop, still at Fort Lewis. She then headed to
Fort Rucker to complete the Captain’s
Course and later earned a master’s degree
in Aeronautical Engineering from Purdue
University in May 2013.
“The crashes got me very interested in
the maintenance side of flying,” Christian
explains. “I wanted to know all about how
aircrafts worked and learn how we can
redesign them to make them better.”
As the small-town girl from Payette
walked proudly across the stage to collect a
hard-earned degree, she did so with her
parents and Flowers, along with his wife,
“Miss Nancy,” in the crowd.
“I have the best parents in the world,”
says Christian, who has since returned to
West Point as an instructor in the Math
Department and a volunteer assistant coach
with the Army softball team. “They have
done so much for me and always shown
such unwavering support. Coach Flowers
believed in me, challenged me and got the
best out of me. I owe so much of my growth
to him.
“In my current role, I hope to give back
and do the same Coach Flowers and his staff
did for me,” she continues. “I want to
hopefully be an Army female role model
who they can look up to and ask questions.
I’m someone who has been through what
they are going through now and what some
of them are going to face in the future. If
there is any way that I can help prepare them
through softball, academics, military and any
aspect, that is what I want to do.”
Coach Flowers knew when to pull
Christian, just a few batters into her first
college start over a dozen years ago. He also
knew his young pitcher well enough to know
she had the resolve, toughness and
character to prevail. She did just that, and
she’s been coming out on top of anything
thrown her way ever since.” �
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an Christman never played a down of football during his four years at West Point.
In fact, he knew by his junior year in high school that his chronically injured
shoulder would probably make college football completely out of the question for him.
But it was football that brought him to the United States Military Academy – specifically
the 1958 Army team, which went undefeated in Coach Earl “Red” Blaik’s final season on the
sidelines of Michie Stadium. And so, even though Christman was never an Army football
player, it was Army Football that launched one of the more distinguished lives – military and
civilian – among those who have graduated in the last 50 years.
Christman retired from the Army in 2003 as a Lieutenant General after a 38-year career
that included time spent in Vietnam during the war there – he is the owner of two Bronze Stars
and four Defense Distinguished Service Medals – and time as an advisor to Henry Kissinger
in the 1970s and the No. 1 military advisor to Secretary of State Warren Christopher in the
1990s. His last assignment was as Superintendent of West Point, meaning he had come full
circle in a journey that was launched by Army’s last undefeated football team.
“I just loved that ’58 team,” Christman says on a bright Washington spring afternoon,
sipping coffee about a block from his office at the United States Chamber of Commerce.
“Back then I didn’t know Pete Dawkins or Bob Carpenter the way I came to know them but I
admired not only the way they won but the way they played. I remember saying to my dad
that fall, ‘How about if we drive up to West Point and take a look?’
“At that point I had no thoughts about a military career. But when we got there, I not only
fell in love with the place but the people. I met all these Captains who were in their mid-20s:
teachers, officer reps, coaches, admissions people. By the time I left, there was no question
about what my first choice was going to be for college.”
Christman had grown up in Hudson, Ohio (just outside Akron), and attended Western
Reserve High School. An outstanding student there, he was accepted at West Point and
showed up for “Beast Barracks” in the summer of 1961 convinced he was more than ready
for what was to come.
“I was wrong,” he says with a laugh. “’Beast’ was very discouraging for me, especially
the sophomoric behavior of the juniors. (who were the squad-leaders for the Plebes). I still
have my first letter home to my mother in which I said this is a lot harder than I thought it
would be.
“I never thought of quitting, I was going to stick it out. I thought I’d done my research but
it didn’t prepare me for the way we were being treated. I was surprised and disappointed.”
He pauses. “That memory greatly affected my approach to being Superintendent 35
years later.”
Life got better for Christman once classes began. From ‘Day One’ he was a star in the
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classroom. A little bit less than four years
after being so discouraged by “Beast,” he
graduated No. 1 in the class of 1965. He
gives a lot of the credit for his academic
performance to his high school.
“I did NOT finish No. 1 in my class at
Western Reserve,” he says. “It was an
amazing academic school. I’d had two years
of calculus by the time I arrived at West
Point. A lot of my freshman year
academically was review. It kind of set me up
for the rest of the 47 months there.”
Christman is not a man who likes to
beat his own drum. He constantly pauses in
the re-telling of stories about his life to list the
people who made his success at one
posting or another possible. But one doesn’t
graduate No. 1 in his class at West Point
without extreme smarts and discipline or go
on to accomplish what Christman
accomplished without extraordinary drive. It
isn’t apparent in Christman’s demeanor. He’s
outgoing and friendly, almost relaxed in his
approach to conversation. But when he talks
about issues that are important to him, a little
bit of steel creeps into his voice.
He went on to receive postgraduate
degrees from Princeton University and
George Washington University (in law) and
the National War College. Because he had
gotten his master’s degree from Princeton
during his required five years in the Army, he
wasn’t eligible to return to civilian life until
1973. By then he was married and had a
daughter and there were plenty of
opportunities in the private sector.
“I was torn for a while,” he says. “I had
enjoyed the Army a lot but wasn’t sure with
the change-over to an all-volunteer Army
what the future might hold. I had interviewed
for jobs in Washington when I got an offer to
join the White House staff, specifically to
work for Dr. (Henry) Kissinger. That really
made the decision for me. I just thought that
was the kind of opportunity and experience
that was too good to pass up.”
It wasn’t always easy. When the House
Select Committee on Intelligence decided it
wanted to look into how Kissinger had
operated, the person sent to testify was the
young Major on Kissinger’s staff. “That,”
Christman says, “was not what you would
call an enjoyable experience.”
He survived though and went on to
work for Brent Scowcroft and, later,
Christopher—which meant he spent a lot of
time travelling with President Bill Clinton. It
was shortly before going to work in the
Clinton White House that the prospect of
returning to West Point as Superintendent
first came onto his radar.
“It’s funny because my wife (Susan)
reminded me later that I had talked about
wanting to be the ‘Supe’ as far back as when
I was a Captain,” he says. “I had taught at
West Point after Vietnam and, of course,
loved being back there and working with the
cadets.
“In 1991, I was told that Howard Graves
was going to be named the Superintendent
that year. The question was: Did I want to be
the person to succeed him five years later?
“I thought it through. If I was ‘Supe’ for
five years I’d be 58 when I retired. I still
wanted to see what life in the private sector
might be like and I thought going back to
West Point would be the perfect way to finish
my Army career. There would have been
other opportunities but once this came up,
those other opportunities became moot.”
And so, in the summer of 1996, exactly
35 years after reporting for “Beast Barracks,”
Dan Christman reported for “Beast
Barracks” again—this time in a different role
and with the notion that one of the things the
new Superintendent of the Academy
needed to do was change the way “Beast”
was conducted. He worked closely with John
Abizaid, who arrived as his Commandant a
year later, to make “Beast” a different
experience for the incoming Plebes.
“I think John put it best,” he says. “He
said, ‘tough and demanding doesn’t equal
demeaning.’ ‘Beast’ should be a time to build
on the principles of West Point. We
professionalized ‘Beast,’ made it
developmental rather than a weeding out.
When I met with the Plebes’ parents on “R-
“At that point I had no thoughts about a military career. But when we gotthere, I not only fell in love with the place but the people.”
— Dan Christman
(PICTURED BELOW) Lt. Gen. Dan Christmanencourages Army football players prior tothe 1996 Poulan Weed Eater IndependenceBowl while he served as West Point’s 55thSuperintendent.
(PICTURED OPPOSITE BOTTOM) First ClassmanDan Christman interacts with legendaryMajor League Baseball manager CaseyStengel during the New York Mets’ visit toWest Point in 1965.
25
Day” after they’d said their farewells I would
tell them, ‘We’re not going to tear them
down, we’re going to build them up.’”
Christman faced a lot of other
challenges when he took over. West Point
was just beginning its bicentennial
fundraising campaign and that involved a lot
of “grip-and-grin” events with alumni and
other contributors. He also knew that the
athletic facilities were outdated and money
needed to be raised to change that.
Christman was so successful that he
was actually asked to remain as
Superintendent for a sixth year. He loved the
job–but turned down the chance to stay.
“Some of it was wanting to try private
life,” he says. “But a lot of it was more basic
than that: I was exhausted. There are so
many aspects of the job that there’s really no
down time. It was time.”
Almost 30 years after first looking for
work in Washington, he finally landed there:
first as the Senior Vice President for
International Affairs at the Chamber of
Commerce and now as Counselor to the
President of the Chamber, a job in which he
is frequently asked to make certain United
States businesses are aware of the dangers
in the world that may lie ahead and how to
prepare for them.
Three years into his new life as a
civilian, he had a serious scare that he now
looks back on as a stroke of luck.
“Shortly after President Clinton had his
bypass surgery he was on “The Larry King
Show” talking about it,” Christman says. “He
described himself as being like a lot of men
in their 50s and 60s who were in denial
about the symptoms they had. When he
started talking, I realized he was describing
me: Feeling like I had an anvil on my chest
after working out; getting short of breath
sooner than I should. I had rationalized it all
telling myself I was tired, not in the shape I
should be in. When I heard President Clinton
talking I told Susan what I thought. Needless
to say, she had me at Walter Reed soon
afterwards.”
Sure enough, Christman had a
blockage in a key artery: the left main
coronary. He had surgery right away and, 10
years later, is in great shape at the age of 71.
“About a year after my surgery I saw
President Clinton at the Clinton Global
Initiative conference,” Christman says.
“When he saw me, the President said,
‘General, how are you?’ I said, ‘Well Mr.
President, I’m fine and I owe my life to you.’
“He turned very serious, said to the
people he had been talking to, ‘Give me a
minute with General Christman,’ and took
me aside. I told him what had happened and
he actually became a little emotional. He
said, ‘The reason I went on Larry King that
night was because of people like you.’”
These days the 55th Superintendent of
West Point is quite busy both with work and
family. Two grandchildren live a mile away
from his home. In an act of bravery that
probably merits some kind of medal he and
Susan voluntarily took both of them – ages
six and eight – on an eight-day vacation last
spring to give their parents some down time.
He meets often with officials from the
CIA, FBI, Homeland Security and the NSA to
be kept abreast of what is happening
worldwide and still has a very high security
clearance. He enjoys doing what he knows is
important work. But there’s one thing he
wants to see happen in the world perhaps as
much as anything.
“I just KNOW,” he says, the steel coming
back into his voice, “that we’re going to start
winning in football again. That simply HAS to
happen and I know it will very soon.”
All those decorations, all those stars, all
those achievements and Christman is still
very much the 16-year-old Ohio kid who fell
in love with Army Football 56 years ago.
Which, if you think about it, makes perfect
sense. Army Football is critical to life within
The Corps. And, like another former West
Point Superintendent, Dan Christman’s heart
and mind will always be with The Corps. �
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27
t isn’t often that a picnic lunch is a life-changing event, but for 11-year-old Lindsey
Danilack one afternoon on the banks of the Hudson was all it took for her to
determine her future.
While not from a military background, Lindsey’s father decided that a trip to West
Point would be a good place for the family to learn about some of the most important
events in the United States’ early history. One look at a group of new cadets practicing
combative exercises on Daly Field, and the oldest of the three Danilack children knew
she had found her place.
“At the time I had no idea what the new cadets were or what they were doing, but I
was so interested in everything I saw,” Danilack recalls. “I went home, and talked to my
parents about West Point a lot. My mom constantly reminded me that I needed to get
good grades and excel at everything I did. Literally, from that point on it was the only
school that I wanted to go to. Coming out of high school, it was the only school I applied
to. I wanted to come here so badly. It was the only thing that I wanted to do.”
It may have been the past that originally brought Danilack to West Point, but since
her arrival she has charted a track that portends a bright future.
A four-year member of the Black Knights’ track and field team, the Montville, N.J.,
native not only became the captain of that team, but was chosen to serve as the First
Captain of the United States Military Corps of Cadets for the 2013-14 academic year,
achieving the rank held by such historical figures as John J. Pershing, Douglas MacArthur
and William Westmoreland. Since women were first admitted to West Point in 1976, she is
the fourth woman to serve as the Brigade Commander. While such a prestigious list of
predecessors may leave some star-struck, Danilack prefers to remain humble.
“I will reflect on this past year, and the opportunities provided to me, later in life”
she says. “I know that it’s an honorable position, and I know it’s a blessing, but for me
right now, I am focusing on doing the job well. I greatly appreciate the opportunity
provided to me. I love being the one who makes critical decisions. I just want to get the
job done and get things working for others. I think most of my reflection will come when
I’m older and I can sit back and think of the things I was able to do and some of the
people I was able to meet, and hopefully, some of the lives that I’ve impacted.”
Danilack’s journey to the top rung of the Corps of Cadets’ chain of command began
midway through her Cow year when she was nominated by her Tactical Officer for a key
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summer leadership position. With her
leadership profile on the track team rising,
Danilack was originally unsure she would
be able to take on any additional roles as a
Firstie. She ultimately decided to move
forward and after going through the
rigorous selection process, she was
named the Cadet Basic Training I
Regimental Commander, guiding the
cadet candidates through their Reception
Day experience. After turning over the
reins for the second half of “Beast,”
Danilack was informed last August that she
had been selected for her lofty position.
“I got a call from the Commandant
congratulating me on being selected First
Captain,” Danilack recalls. “I didn’t know
what to say. I knew the competition was
between me, the (Cadet Basic Training) II
Commander and the Buckner Commander.
Those guys are the most incredible
people. They are beyond qualified for the
First Captain position. I was blown away
and just so excited. I was so eager to start
the academic year and start leading The
Corps.”
Her leadership was utilized working
on issues ranging from the cadet alcohol
policy and civilian dress code to the
development of sexual harassment and
assault programs aimed at cadets.
Whatever the initiative, Danilack’s goal was
to better the lives of her fellow cadets.
“We changed a lot of things from
previous years,” she explains. “I think we
definitely made a difference in The Corps
and bringing life back into The Corps,
However, I don’t think I’ve done anything. I
think it’s the Superintendent, the
Commandant and the entire brigade staff.
Everyone works tirelessly, and for them to
be able to put these new policies in place,
enforce them and see the outcomes has
been impressive. I definitely think it’s
made a difference.”
While obviously driven to succeed
from an early age, it was a quote from
Aristotle that Danilack came across as a
Plebe that has shaped her approach to life
at West Point. It has become so ingrained
in her mindset, that the last line adorns the
signature of her e-mail correspondence:
“Excellence is an art won by training and
habituation. We do not act rightly because
we have virtue or excellence, but we
rather have those because we have acted
rightly. We are what we repeatedly do.
Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.”
“I think it has gotten me through West
Point because you really can’t pursue
excellence unless it is a habit,” Danilack
explains. “In everything you do, you really
have to strive for excellence or you’re
going to fall into the mediocre path where
you’re accepting something below the
standard. I don’t think any cadet should go
through West Point that way.”
The path through the rigors of West
Point wasn’t without its challenges. After
finally reaching the goal she set for herself
since that day at Trophy Point, Danilack
had to learn to navigate the cadet lifestyle
while balancing her academic, military
and track and field responsibilities.
Admittedly shy and nervous as a Plebe,
the eventual leader of The Corps broke
out of her shell and found her voice.
“My Plebe year, I barely did anything
but study,” Danilack remembers. “I didn’t
really even want to come out of my room to
socialize at all. I was so focused on
academics and track that I set myself up in
a small bubble. Starting my (Yearling)
year, I realized that wasn’t how I wanted to
live my life. I realized I needed to branch
out, seek some mentors and take
advantage of the experiences that West
Point can provide.
“Once I began to come out of my
bubble, make some friends and find
mentors, I was really able to start to
develop my leadership style and realize
that I like working for others. Those slow,
progressive steps really pushed me to
always want to jump up to the next level,
help more people and find a bigger goal. I
think that it definitely sprung from a desire
to help others, as well as seeking out really
good mentorship from some of the officers
that are here who helped shape my
perspective of the Academy and what
vision I wanted to pursue.”
That vision is one of service to others.
Danilack had plenty of opportunity to do
things for her fellow cadets both in her
First Captain role and as one of the leaders
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of the track and field team. However, doing
so much for so many was often a challenge.
“I think I managed my time to the best
of my abilities, but was one of the most
complicated things,” she says. “There are
so many people asking for so many
different things that there literally isn’t
enough time in the day to take care of it all.
Balancing academics, making sure I can
always be there for The Corps and being
the best track captain I could be was the
hardest thing.”
Danilack had to learn the valuable
lesson of making sacrifices to ensure that
her leadership skills were being applied in
the best possible way.
“When I sit back and think about the
decisions I had to make in order to take on
the responsibility of the being the track
captain as well as First Captain, there are
sacrifices that have to be made because
you can’t do everything,” Danilack
explains. “You have to find the decisive
point of the day. Where is my leadership
needed the most? In the first semester, my
leadership was definitely needed with the
Corps. Second semester, I was much more
tailored to the track team. Once we were in
season and really starting to compete, that
is where the leadership was needed. My
teammates expected me to be there, and
that is where I wanted to be.”
The track at Shea Stadium was
certainly the place to be on April 5, 2014
when Navy visited West Point for the
annual Star Meet. Winless during her
career, both indoors and outdoors,
Danliack and the Black Knights upset the
favored Midshipmen, 103.5-99.5. The final
result came down to the last event, the
4x400-meter relay. Navy held the lead for
most of the race, but Samantha Reid’s kick
over the last 100 meters secured the
victory. Even with the opportunities to
meet some of the nation’s most high-
profile military leaders and have
experiences such as ringing the bell at the
New York Stock Exchange, Danilack puts
that day on the top line of her favorite West
Point memories.
“Beating Navy was the highlight of my
entire cadet career,” she remembers. “I
cried when the last leg of our 4x400-meter
relay was passing the Navy runner. It was
the most exciting and energetic
atmosphere I’ve ever been a part of. When
we finally got to sing our alma mater
second, it was a life-changing experience.
It was everything we’d been working for.
We have two opportunities every year,
indoor and outdoor, to beat them, and
we’d never done it. The last meet ever, we
beat Navy!”
Danilack certainly has many thrills in
her future. True to her belief that
leadership is best expressed in the
service of others, Danilack, a political
science major, will soon join the Aviation
branch of the United States Army.
“I’ve wanted to branch Aviation since I
was a Plebe,” she says. “As soon as I found
out we had the opportunity to fly
helicopters, I said, ‘Sign me up.’ I want to fly
Apaches because it’s the most combat-
oriented, and that’s really where I see
myself. Right now, females can’t branch
Infantry, so I want to be as close to the
action as possible, and being in that
Apache will allow me to support those
troops on the ground.”
Eleven years later, Danilack couldn’t
be more grateful for that afternoon picnic
overlooking the Hudson.
“The experiences that I had at
West Point are unreal, and I know it’s a
blessing.” �
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In her role as United States Corps of Cadets Brigade Commander, Lindsey Danilack presents aCadet Sabre to Medal of Honor recipient Staff Sgt. Ty Carter in August 2013.
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31
t is moments before the 108th renewal of the greatest rivalry in college sports, the
clouds gray and thick over M&T Stadium in Baltimore. The Army football team is on one
sideline, Navy’s on the other. Near the center of the field, a square-jawed man, in full fatigues and
a black beret, is about to preside over the coin toss. He has the unmistakable bearing of an
athlete, a football player’s muscled physique, even with the two canes that are helping to steady
him. He is surrounded by the some of the top military leaders in the country, among them West
Point Superintendent Buster Hagenbeck; Chief of Staff of the Army, Gen. George Casey Jr.; and
Secretary of the Army, Pete Geren.
Still, the sturdy soldier with the canes is the focus of most everyone’s attention on that first
day of December, 2007, and how could he not be?
Just over six months before, Lt. Col. Greg Gadson was lying in the roadside dust in Iraq, his
legs mangled, blood pouring from him as if from a spigot, his survival in grave doubt. It was 9:30
p.m. in Baghdad. A former outside linebacker for the Black and Gold and by all accounts one of
the toughest football players in Army annals, Gadson had been part of a four-vehicle convoy
when he was blown out of his passenger’s seat by an Improvised Explosive Device (IED).
He saw the flash of light, heard the muffled boom, and in the next instant his body was flying
and then rolling and finally coming to a stop, the shock overriding the pain in the initial seconds.
“I was angry. What is going on? How could this happen?” Those were Greg Gadson’s first
thoughts. They did not last long, as acute awareness of his plight hit him like a tank.
“God, please don’t let me die here,” Lt. Col. Gadson said.
His prayer was answered. And now here is Greg Gadson at the center of M&T Stadium,
where Lt. Col. Charles Schretzman, his friend and former Army teammate, is among those
cheering for him, one of the few on hand who knew there were two powered prosthese where
Greg Gadson’s legs used to be.
“It was amazing to see him out there after everything he’d been through,” Schretzman says.
(But) that’s how Greg is. He leads by example, by toughness, and by playing through pain.”
Says Gadson, “Football is like a gladiator sport. There’s so much power, so much energy,
and being back out there brought back all those memories.” He pauses.
“Privately, I think a lot of people didn’t think I could do it. But I did,” Gadson says.
Growing up in Chesapeake, Va., Greg Gadson, now 47 years old, knew virtually
nothing about the United States Military Academy. A career in military service was not an
aspiration; a career in the National Football League was. Gadson was an all-state football
player at renowned Indian River High School, the same school that turned out such
athletes as former National Basketball Association standout Alonzo Mourning and NFL stars
Plaxico Burress and Deangelo Hall. His goal was to play collegiately at the highest level possible,
then get drafted by the NFL. The only problem was that no big-time football powers were keen
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on him, thinking Gadson to be too small at
5’11 ½” and 195 pounds to play the line or
even linebacker – his preferred position – and
not fast enough to play in the secondary.
When the University of Virginia offered
him a scholarship and then withdrew it,
Gadson was devastated. His football future
was suddenly in serious flux, at which point a
West Point assistant coach named Ted Gill
happened to show up at an Indian River
game. Gill, on the staff of Coach Jim Young,
was recruiting a teammate of Gadson’s, but
came away deeply impressed by Gadson’s
ferocity and passion, and wound up inviting
Gadson up for an official visit.
Gadson’s knowledge of West Point was
so skimpy he didn’t even associate it with
Army Football. He just knew he wanted to
play at the NCAA Division I level, and this
seemed to be his best shot. He applied and
was admitted, and almost before he could
say “Plebe,” he was on the west bank of the
Hudson, his life changed forever.
“I went there with a chip on my
shoulder,” Gadson says. “I was going to show
these guys that I am not too small and that I
am not too slow. The value and prestige of a
West Point education was really kind of
secondary to me at that point. I was a typical
18-year-old teenager who wanted to play
football.”
Gadson came to embrace the rigors
and demands of West Point life, and ultimately
became a three-year starter and co-captain
from 1985 to 1988, wearing No. 98 at outside
linebacker for Army teams that won three
straight games over Navy. Schretzman played
alongside him at linebacker, regularly
wowed by Gadson’s strength and tenacity
and his emotional leadership, inspiring
teammates with his unrelenting effort and
generosity of spirit.
“He’s probably one of the most inviting
people I know,” Schretzman says. “He invites
you in. He has a radiant smile. People love
him. People migrate to him. He just has a
radiance about him that makes people
gravitate to him.”
Gadson had a gift for being in the heat
of the battle as a football player, and was no
different as a solider, serving in every major
area of combat in the last 20 years. He was
deployed to Iraq for Operation Desert Storm,
and was subsequently deployed to Bosnia,
Afghanistan and then to Iraq again. The
Commander of the 2nd Battalion, 32nd Field
Artillery, Gadson was returning from a
memorial service for two fallen soldiers who
he’d known from Fort Riley, Kansas, on the
night the IED detonated. The date was May 7,
a Monday. Three of the five people in his
vehicle were untouched by the explosion.
Gadson and his interpreter were not so
fortunate. Gadson quickly lapsed into
unconsciousness and when a soldier in
another vehicle rushed to help him, Gadson
woke up, saw somebody in his face and
punched him. He was rushed back to the
base they’d just left, unable to feel his legs,
knowing something was desperately wrong,
but little more. Medics told Gadson later that
he went through 129 pints of blood that first
night. The last thing he remembers in Iraq is
hearing the whir of a helicopter that would
evacuate him to a Level 1 Medical Treatment
Center.
Gadson was transported to a military
hospital in Landstuhl, Germany and then to
Walter Reed National Military Medical
Center in Bethesda, Md. Heavily sedated and
still unconscious, he remained in Intensive-
Care for days, his wife, Kim, on one side of
the bed, and Chuck Schretzman on the other,
concerns mounting that Gadson might have
suffered a traumatic brain injury. Schretzman
would sit by his friend’s bedside and read
emails, touching messages that were full of
love and prayers and encouragement.
Schretzman privately wondered if
Gadson would ever be able to comprehend
any of them. One day, an email came in from
Jim Young, Gadson’s former West Point
football coach. Schretzman noted it with
interest.
“Here’s one from Coach Young,”
Schretzman said. He began to read it. After a
few moments he was interrupted by a voice.
Greg Gadson’s voice.
“Golden Rule,” Greg Gadson said,
speaking just above a whisper.
Schretzman and Kim Gadson looked at
each other, incredulously. What did this
mean? What was he trying to say?
“Be on time!” Greg Gadson said, in the
same low voice.
Coach Young used the phrase “Golden
Rule” often, reminding his players of the
importance of punctuality. Schretzman and
Kim Gadson locked eyes again, this time with
smiles, and a few tears, on both sides of the
bed.
“He’s good to go,” Schretzman said to
Kim Gadson.
Gadson had his left leg amputated
above the knee shortly after, and his right
leg, which doctors told him would never
function properly and posed a risk of
infection, amputated a week later. He also
had sustained a serious injury to his right
arm. Now it was all starting to sink in, and a
torrent of emotions was sinking in, too, the
anger and sadness and self-pity and the rest.
Gadson had them all, and came through the
other side.Greg Gadson poses with National FootballLeague Commissioner Roger Goodell along theNew York Giants’ sideline.
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“Being an undersized football player, I
was in a knife fight every single down,”
Gadson says. “The other guy was always
bigger and stronger. I had to be tougher.
That’s where I built my tenacity and my never-
quit spirit. People see me as a larger-than-life
guy, but inside I was a smaller-than-life guy. I
had to fight for everything.
“There’s nothing that prepares you for
something like this,” Gadson continues. “You
don’t go through life and say, ‘I wonder what
happens (if my legs get amputated)?’” And
yet, Gadson believes all of us have the
capacity to endure, and even prevail, over
such life-altering circumstances.
“If you live life to the best of your ability,
you are preparing yourself for whatever
happens. If you take shortcuts, when you have
adversity you are not going to be prepared
for it.”
Those who know Col. Greg Gadson best
can attest to the fact that shortcuts are not his
style. Since his injury, he has earned master’s
degrees in information systems from Webster
University and policy management from
Georgetown University. For two years, he
served as the director of the Army’s Wounded
Warrior Program. Now he is Garrison
Commander at Fort Belvoir, Va., presiding
over the daily operations of some 50,000
military personnel and employees, and yet
still finding time to do motivational speaking,
before soldiers and civilians alike.
Perhaps Gadson’s most memorable talk
came in front of the New York Giants football
team, scarcely four months after his
amputations. Mike Sullivan, then a Giants’
assistant coach, was a West Point teammate of
Gadson’s. Sullivan visited Gadson at Walter
Reed, and on a return visit, came with a
Giants’ No. 98 jersey with Gadson’s name on
the back, signed by several Giants players.
Sullivan asked if he could do anything else,
and Gadson said it would be great if he could
bring his family to a Giants game. Sullivan
arranged for the tickets for Week Three of the
2007 season, the Giants’ visiting the
Washington Redskins.
After consulting with Coach Tom
Coughlin, Sullivan asked Gadson if he would
consider speaking to the team at their hotel
on the Saturday night before the game.
Gadson said, “Sure.” He wrote some
notes on a three-by-five file card, but barely
needed them. He talked to the Giants about
appreciating their blessings, and about poise
and pride, and about the unmatched power
and bond of team - a team comprised of
players who sacrifice for each other and
protect each other and are focused wholly on
the greater good.
“I told them that truly great teams usually
form that bond by going through something
together, and how whatever they were going
through at that point in the season that no
success ever came easy,” Gadson says. “And
finally I reminded them that nothing is
promised to anybody in this life, starting with
tomorrow."
Tom Coughlin canceled the rest of the
team meeting, rightly figuring nothing more
needed to be said. The Giants, 0-2, at that
point, defeated the Redskins the next day,
starting a six-game winning streak that led
them to the playoffs. Their honorary
teammate, Greg Gadson, joined the Giants on
the sideline for their first playoff game, a
victory over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Gadson missed the next game – a victory
over the Dallas Cowboys – because he had to
have surgery on his arm – but made it to
Lambeau Field for the National Football
Conference Championship game. Gadson
and Harry Carson, the Hall of Fame
linebacker, were the honorary co-captains;
Gadson’s son, Jaelen (then 13 and now a
sophomore lacrosse player at West Point)
pushed him out in a wheelchair. On one of the
most frigid days in NFL playoff history, the
Giants won in overtime to advance to Super
Bowl XLII in Phoenix against the undefeated
New England Patriots.
By then it was a given that Greg Gadson
would be on the Giants’ sideline. He spoke to
the team again the night before the big game,
reprising a few of his earlier themes and
telling the Giants that there are no shortcuts
and this moment was there for them to seize.
The New York Giants won Super Bowl
XVII, 17-14, in a stirring upset. Greg Gadson
would never claim credit for that, any more
than he would claim to be inspirational – a
label he is acutely uncomfortable with.
“It’s hard for me to look at myself as
inspiring,” he says. “I never once got up and
said I want to inspire anyone. I want to do my
job and do the best I can. I am not a perfect
person. I probably fail more than I succeed.”
Col. Greg Gadson is entitled to his
opinion, but it might not be shared by another
person on the planet, least of all Tom
Coughlin.
"Greg is a tremendous leader, a fighter,
and he has an indomitable spirit. I will never
forget the example he provided for us in
2007,” Coughlin says. “He epitomizes the
vigilance, the unselfishness and the
toughness it requires to be a true champion.
"He is a living example . . . of the absolute
definition of commitment. Greg represents
the greatness and the absolute best our
nation has to offer. The greatest example of
valor that I could present to my grandchildren
is Greg Gadson." �
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35
uture One-Star General Becky Halstead was a typical teenager growing up in the
small hamlet of Willseyville in upstate New York where she shined on the athletic
field garnering nine varsity letters.
“As a junior in high school, my plan was to attend Ithaca College to be a physical
education teacher and be like my high school coach, Miss Carole LaVena, who was my
mentor,” explains the first female in United States history to have a combat command at the
strategic level.
But life has a way of throwing curves at you, and though Halstead has encountered
many obstacles over the years, she learned to become resilient at an early age and it has
proven an invaluable leadership tool.
Halstead admired her high school coach and went through a devastating experience
when she tragically died in a parachuting accident. Family, friends and teachers helped her
through that crisis.
Thirty years later, that event helped her as a commander in Iraq when a soldier
experienced the death of his buddy.
“I understand what it felt like to lose a best friend,” notes the first female Commanding
General of Army’s Ordnance Center and Schools. “I feel I would never have known how to
deal with my soldiers if I had not experienced what I did.
“Every single day you are being prepared for something in the future – good or bad.
Whatever change is happening today, you might not understand it, but down the road you
know that is why that person was in your life or that’s why that event happened.”
Halstead’s mother, B.J. Halstead, was the guiding force for her to attend West Point. In
the spring of 1976 her mother read in the newspaper that women were being admitted to
the service academies that summer.
“I filled out the application papers to appease my mother, but I didn’t think I would get
in,” smiles Halstead when thinking back to that time. “I could not believe it when I received
the acceptance letter.”
Helping her decision to come to West Point was an interview with Senator Jacob
Javits. When he realized Halstead was from the same town where LaVena died, he sent her
letters of recommendation, including one from the late coach who had written it prior to
her death.
The letter from LaVena showed how much faith and confidence she had in the future
General, and how excited she was about the opportunity Halstead had to attend West Point.
“My coach could not say enough about how I was the right person to attend. For her to
see that potential in me, got me out of the funk I was in. I have carried that letter with me
since. Sometimes you are the one encouraging people and sometimes you are the one
who needs encouragement. “
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Becky HalsteadE
MAKIng A DIFFErEncEBy Mady Salvani
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Halstead arrived with the second class
of women to attend West Point in the
summer of 1977, and her experience was
the complete opposite of her final days at
home where family and friends were proud
and thrilled for the hometown girl.
“Since everyone was excited in my
hometown about me attending West Point, I
kind of thought that maybe they were
excited at West Point,” laughs Halstead. “I
knew I was going to be hazed, but I didn’t
know it was going to be so personal when a
large percentage was trying to run you out
of ‘this man’s Army.’”
Halstead didn’t think of herself as a
trend-setter, she just realized it was hard at
West Point for everyone. She did not see
women her first eight weeks of “Beast
Barracks” as the first class of women at
West Point was spending its summer at
Camp Buckner.
When the Yearling class of women
arrived back at West Point, life was just as
difficult as very few were interested in
accepting the new class as they didn’t want
to appear to show favoritism.
“They went out of their way to make
our lives miserable,” notes Halstead, “which
at the time I thought was wrong. I
understood it later because they were
trying to prove themselves in another way. It
has to be a tough environment and has to
be a disciplined one because West Point is
creating and developing leaders who are
going to lead men and women, sons and
daughters, into combat.”
Halstead’s roommates were two
members of the Army women’s basketball
team, Dena Caradimitropoulo and Mimi
Miles. There were team get-togethers in
their room, but unlike her roommates,
Halstead was not a member of that elite
group and thus could not call the
upperclassmen by their first name like the
players could.
Female sports were just starting at
West Point at the club level in 1976.
Women’s basketball was the only team the
next year to join the varsity ranks.
Halstead, a star athlete in high school
whose favorite sport was basketball, did not
try out for the team because anyone under
5’4” would not be considered and the future
Army General was just 5’1 1/2“ tall.
“That was very humbling for me to go
from being a star athlete in high school to
not even playing at West Point,” notes
Halstead.
Instead, she played club volleyball and
softball (where she batted .550, collecting
11 hits with a triple, eight runs scored and
six runs batted in) her Plebe year, but she
knew it would be difficult to continue to
play sports because of the academic
workload.
So she turned her attention to being a
team manager, first for women’s swimming
her Yearling year and then joining the
women’s basketball staff her final two years
doing in-game statistics (by hand),
calculating game and season statistics
along with filling water bottles, picking up
towels, cleaning up the locker room and
carrying equipment.
“I liked managing,” remarks Halstead
whose words would prove to be prophetic.
As one of the first classes of women at West
Point, she knew then what kind of leader
she wanted to be. Being a team manager
taught her to be humble and helped shape
her career as an officer who would make a
difference in the lives of others.
“Each year it did get better at the
Academy for both men and women. “I often
say that we helped people to accept
women at West Point, and today’s
generation is helping people appreciate it,
and that is a big difference.
“I stayed in the Army for 27 years and
remained close to my classmates who also
continued to serve because we worked
together and went to war together.”
Following graduation, the newly
commissioned Second Lieutenant joined a
“man’s Army, ” which still had its
reservations about women. Halstead was
not planning on making it her career. She
knew she had a five-year commitment. She
had kept in touch with her grade school
and high school friends who were getting
married and settling down to normal lives.
“I could not wait to be a Lieutenant and
live life, but I figured after five years I would
leave; that never happened,” notes Halstead
whose first assignment was in Italy. “It is a
beautiful country and I loved it, but I was at
a weapons site. We did not see the light of
day. It was hard work and very sensitive.”
When her three-year tour was up,
Halstead still had two years left on her five-
year commitment. During her time in Italy,
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Halstead married a fellow officer before
rotating back to the States. Eventually her
husband joined her at Fort Lewis, but
divorce is one of the hazards faced by those
in the military, and Halstead’s marriage
would soon become a statistic.
Life was at a low point for Halstead,
who was not only coping with the divorce,
but facing surgery for a hysterectomy as
well.
She found solace in her career and
her Army friends. Just before reaching her
five-year mark, Halstead found her niche
when she became a Company
Commander and was in the midst of
competing for her second command,
which would put her past the five-year
commitment, when she received her
orders for Washington, D.C.
“I decided to go to my next duty
assignment to see if I could regroup my
life and my health, and when I moved to
D.C. I was picked up early for Major,”
states Halstead. “It was exciting to get that
early promotion and the next thing I knew
I had 10 years in the Army.
“I was promoted early; I liked the
military and best of all I seemed to be
good at it. I loved serving soldiers and
leading solders, so I never looked back
and never thought ever again of getting
out. I knew I was going until retirement.”
Halstead’s rise continued with an
early promotion to Lieutenant Colonel and
even earlier to Colonel. By the time she
was awarded the General’s star, she was
the first one in her class to achieve that
lofty rank.
“Congratulations came in and
everyone was gracious when I was
promoted early to Major, but a few felt I
had played the ‘female card’,” continues
Halstead. “At first, I let that mess with my
mind a bit as women were in traditional
male roles and some men could not get
over it and were not able to build that
bridge.”
Shortly after her selection as a
Brigadier General, Halstead became ill
and it was difficult for her to perform
everyday tasks. She ached, could not run
and had flu-like symptoms so there was
thought of Lyme’s disease, lupus and even
multiple sclerosis.
The prognosis was chronic
fibromyalgia and she was given a
multitude of prescriptions. Again life threw
another curve as the year Halstead was
diagnosed was also the year she was
offered deployment as a Commanding
General in Iraq.
Halstead kept the diagnosis to herself
and deployed with her troops in 2005.
While in Iraq, she commanded 20,000
soldiers, 5,000 civilians and was
responsible for 55 locations providing
logistical support for all coalition forces.
Upon returning to the United States,
Halstead felt she could manage her illness
now that she was out of the combat zone,
but instead it spiraled out of control. She
had taken command of Army’s Ordnance
Center and Schools, but after 21 months
she faced the reality that the pace and
responsibilities were increasing and she
did not have the ability to recover. So
Halstead submitted her retirement papers.
At first the brass would not accept her
retirement as the plucky Halstead was
already being looked at for her second
Star, so she had to write a letter
explaining her medical condition.
“Emotionally I was not ready to retire,
but I knew I had to if I wanted to live to be
100 like my grandmother.
“I spent the first six months getting
well; I wrote a book titled, The First Person
You Must Lead Is You, and figured out what
I wanted to do. I became an inspirational
and motivational speaker and developed
leader training programs, leader coaching
and mentoring programs. I am still
helping soldiers, working with veterans,
and sometimes I feel I am helping more
people in this capacity than when I was in
the military.”
One of Halstead’s’ fondest memories
was addressing a group of NCAA
women’s coaches. “I wanted to be a
basketball coach and here all these years
later I get to speak to coaches. I told them
I learned more about being a leader in
the Army by being a manager than I ever
did as a player in any sport.
“Everyone doesn’t get to be the star
player, but everybody has value and it is
just a matter of finding that strength,
which I learned being a manager.”
Among her mentors was Maj. Gen.
Dewitt T. Irby Jr. who assigned Capt.
Halstead command of a problematic
Ammunition Company. Her Battalion
Commander felt she was just a “bitty girl”
who the solders would run over. It was far
from the truth as the diminutive Halstead
stood tall with her troops. She would not
only draw their admiration but Irby’s as
well, combining the lessons she learned
growing up back home, and as a cadet
and team manager at West Point.
Becky Halstead has always wanted to
“make a difference” by placing others
first. There’s a long list of soldiers that can
attest to her success in achieving that. �
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39
riving the Zamboni might not make the U.S. News & World Report list of the 100
best jobs, but to William “Chico” Hurtado of the Army Athletic Association, it is
his “dream” job.
It never gets old for Chico. No matter how many times he climbs onto the Zamboni, he feels a
special rush driving the ice resurfacing machine around the rink and laying down a fresh sheet of
ice that turns the rink into a magical arena when the lights are dimmed.
Chico joined the Office of the Directorate of Intercollegiate Athletics (ODIA) in 1986 as a
maintenance worker for the newly minted Multi-Purpose Sports Facility. Two years later, it was
renamed Holleder Center, home for Tate Rink and Christl Arena.
Hurtado started working for ODIA just a year after the hockey team left venerable Smith Rink,
its home since 1931, and the men’s basketball team departed the Field House for its new home just
across the street from Michie Stadium.
When Chico came on board under Facilities Manager Gene Uchacz, this young man’s
ambition was to drive the Zamboni.
One of the many duties for the staff at Tate Rink is getting the ice ready for practices or
resurfacing it between periods at home hockey games where two Zambonis follow each around
the rink during an eight-minute span.
“I was always interested in driving the Zamboni as I used to travel to my brother Dave’s
games when he was playing hockey,” says Chico. “I thought it was something cool to do and it is
what I always wanted to do ever since.”
Once he became acclimated to his position, Chico approached Uchacz and Assistant
Facilities Director Lou Federico about learning to drive the Zamboni.
“Mr. Uchacz was a kind person and was a really good boss,” notes Hurtado. “He told me that
they would teach me and I said, ‘That’s great.’”
Shortly after, Uchacz was promoted to Associate Athletic Director overseeing scheduling, and
with it came a change of venue. Chico then turned to Federico, who took over as Holleder Center
Manager, and asked him if he could take the Zamboni out for a ride.
The thumps up sign was flashed and now, 28 years later, he is the main driver for the Zamboni
and is in charge of the crew. Present-day supervisor Randy Baglieri has words of praise for Chico
stating that not only does he drive the Zamboni, but he is the most knowledgeable and
experienced person on the staff about maintaining the ice surface.
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william “chico”Hurtado
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“The surface and thickness of the ice
varies in different parts of the rink,” explains
Baglieri. “Though we have multiple operators,
none is as experienced as Chico, and
sometimes that lack of knowledge could be
detrimental causing more problems than can
be solved.
“However, that has never been a
problem as Chico is definitely the ice expert
and widely acknowledged as the most
experienced about creating the correct ice
surface, especially for games.”
Taking care of the ice is not confined to
the Army hockey season; it is year-round,
spanning seven days a week, a lot of nights,
weekends and holidays, too. In addition to the
hockey team’s practices and games, youth
programs use the facility, local teams have
leagues, along with general skating which
results in a need for a fresh coat of ice on a
daily basis.
“Just making ice, which is more than
putting down water, can be tricky and
sometimes comes out too thick,” explains
Baglieri. “That is where Chico’s expertise
comes into play. He knows when and where
to shave the ice and lay the new ice. Some
days he just shaves the ice an ‘X’ number of
millimeters and lays down a fresh coat.”
Ed Gardner taught Chico the ins and
outs of driving the Zamboni, and Chico took it
a step further becoming an expert. He
learned everything from the hydraulics, to the
conveyor performance, to the turning radius,
and to the shaving blade for a machine that
weighs over 6,930 pounds empty and 9,530
pounds with water, and moves around the
rink with a top speed between nine and 11
miles per hour.
“When I first started driving the
Zamboni, I would get nervous with the crowd
screaming,” shares Chico, but then he quickly
responds with a dazzling smile and laughs as
he says, “but then I got used to it and I like it
when they scream.”
The Zamboni is a crowd-pleaser and is
mesmerizing as it enters the rink slowly going
around and around shaving the ice, washing
the surface and laying down hot water all at
the same time. A system of refrigerated pipes
under the floor flash-freezes the hot water that
turns the rink into a glistening mirror.
“Everyone wants to take a ride on the
Zamboni,” states Chico. “The fans keep
asking me what they have to do; I just say, ‘Ask
the Boss.’
“Years ago we had ‘Santa on Ice’ with Mr.
Uchacz skating around the rink in a Santa
Claus suit, then hopping onto the Zamboni
next to me and throwing candy to the crowd.
The fans loved it and so did I.“
Chico’s duties are not just confined to
Tate Rink as he oversees work in the
basketball arena and across the street with
the football program at Michie Stadium. He
has performed a variety of duties over the
years from helping set up and break down
tables and chairs for football, basketball and
hockey players’ meals to driving the tractor-
trailer that transports football equipment to
the Army-Navy game. Presently, on home
football Saturdays, he is part of Army’s crew
setting up tailgates and barbeques.
During the winter months, in addition to
home hockey, and men’s and women’s
basketball games, he helps turn Christl Arena
into a venue for wrestling and gymnastics as
huge mats transform the arena.
Chico’s journey to the Hudson Valley
began when his family moved to the United
States from Guatemala when he was 14 years
old. He spent his first few months in the United
States living with his grandmother in New
York City before moving to the idyllic town of
Highland Falls, located just outside West Point.
Since Spanish is the official language of
Guatemala, English became Chico’s second
language. To better understand how to tackle
and speak it fluently, he attended Highland
Falls Middle School before heading to James
I. O’Neill High School where he shined,
setting records on the soccer field.
“I spoke very little English when I first
arrived,” explains Chico. “There was a guy
named Brian who said, ‘You know, you look
like this guy I have seen on television.’ I
looked at him and said, ‘What are you talking
about?’ He was surprised and said, ‘You have
never seen the program called Chico and the
Man?’
“Then he said, ‘That is your name’
(Chico). Everyone started calling me that and
no one knew me by my real name, which is
William.”
“I didn’t want to come to the United
States, but I had no choice. A lot of people I
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knew would talk about West Point. Then I
started working in ODIA and it has been a
dream job not only for me, but also for my
family. My mother, my wife, my brother, my
niece and my youngest son have at one time
or other worked at the U.S. Military Academy.”
Chico’s first job at West Point began at
the Officers’ Club, washing dishes as a
teenager. A year later, he was transferred to
the Hotel Thayer where he worked in the
kitchen, set up banquets and learned to cook.
Even though he is a great chef for family
barbeques, it was not a job he saw himself
doing for a long time.
A maintenance position at Holleder
Center opened, Chico applied and the rest is
history. Over the years he married and raised
three robust boys who played several sports,
to include hockey.
“J.B. Spisso was my boss when my boys,
Chris, Jonathan and William, were young. He
mentioned to me about them playing hockey
for the Junior Black Knights. I told him they
didn’t know how to skate, but he said they
would learn quickly.
“He was right, and the boys loved it and
also played for the Bear Mountain Hockey
Club and O’Neill High School. Two of my sons
played hockey in college. Jonathan was on the
Monroe Community College hockey team
that won the National Junior College Athletic
Association title in 2012,” beams Chico with
pride.
Chico enjoyed the time he spent
attending his sons’ games that ran the gamut
from fall soccer to winter hockey to summer
baseball, but there also were many occasions
when he could not be there when the boys
were young due to 16-hour work days.
Following his regular eight-hour shift at
Holleder, Chico worked another eight hours
supporting his family.
“My family understood the long hours,
but by the time I arrived home, the boys were
already asleep and when I would get up in
the morning, they were headed off to school.
It was hard and time flies by so quickly. Now
they are grown up and I don’t see them as
much.”
Chico picked up additional “sons”
bringing home players to family barbeques
and the young men of West Point proved
excellent role models for his boys.
The hockey, basketball and football
athletes, along with former players who have
fallen on far-away battlefields are part of
Chico’s extended West Point family. The
hockey community has suffered several
losses, most recently the untimely death of
Major Tom Kennedy (TK), who was killed in
action in Afghanistan in 2012. TK played
hockey and returned later as the team’s
Officer Representative.
“I knew TK and Derek Hines (former
Army hockey standout killed in action in
2005) as cadets,” says Chico. “We are a family
here. It is very personal and hurts when you
lose one of your own.”
For the hockey athletes, past and
present, it is important to Chico that the ice is
perfect and he makes certain of that by
maintaining the Zamboni. He uses different
features: one that enables him to shave just
two-and-a-half to three inches off the ice,
another that enables him to edge the ice by
the boards and the other that lays down the
water that makes it glisten on the ice.
“Sometimes it takes two to three hours if
I am by myself. But to do the job right, you
have to put more time into it,” states Chico.
“Our facility is second to none because
of the preparation provided by Chico and his
staff who work tirelessly to make it what it is
today,” states Army head coach Brian Riley,
whose brother Rob was the first Army hockey
coach with whom Chico worked.
“Chico is and has been our biggest fan
and gets excited at every home game and
with every win. Not only is he there for our
players, but he is a great friend of the
program.”
Over the years Chico has regaled his
family with stories of the players, and some of
his proudest moments are when former
athletes return and come looking for him and
members of his staff.
“That's what makes you feel good –
when they remember you and come up and
talk to you. I think it is great when people say,
‘Wow, you are still here,’” chuckles Chico. "I
have a good life and I can’t complain.”
He still enjoys getting up every morning
and going to work, so retirement is still a few
years off for Chico, who goes back once a
year to Guatemala where he says the “food is
the best.”
Chico etched out a place for his family in
the Hudson Valley, but also carved out a place
for himself at Tate Rink as the “Man” with the
magical job of driving the Zamboni. �
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The Hurtado family: (from left) Christopher, Jonathan, Sylvia, William (Chico) and William Jr.
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Sam LesseyE
A wEST PoInT MAn
THrougH AnD THrougHBy Harrison Antognioni
s he sits among the tributes to past heroes in the Kenna Hall of Army Sports,
the Honorable Samuel Lessey Jr., reflects on a multitude of events in his life,
ranging from being an Air Force pilot to serving various roles in the Reagan
Administration.
A period in his life that keeps coming back to the forefront is the cherished time
he spent at West Point, a place he learned to appreciate and respect even before
becoming a cadet.
Growing up in Chappaqua, N.Y., some 30 miles southeast of West Point, Lessey
made frequent trips with his family to witness cadet parades and football games. It was
during these trips to the Academy that Lessey began to develop a sense of the
importance and value of the traditions West Point had to offer.
“Seeing it as a youngster, it was a very impressive place,” Lessey remembers.
“There was substance. It stood for something, and it represented order and
discipline.”
Lessey entered West Point in July 1942. He relied on the camaraderie he shared
with fellow classmates to survive the difficult adjustments for first-year students
attending a service academy. Lessey credits his peers as a vital resource during his
time as a cadet, as well as throughout life after graduation.
“I thought, if the guy on my left can make it, and the guy on my right can make it, I
sure as heck can make it,” Lessey recalls. “From an institution like this, there’s a great
loyalty and companionship in sharing everything with your classmates, which carries
right on through your life.”
Along with participating in a number of activities as a cadet, Lessey was a
member of the ski team and became the goalkeeper on Army’s varsity soccer squad
for his last two years.
Upon graduation in June 1945, Lessey was commissioned in the United States
Army Air Corps, which would become the United States Air Force on September 18,
1947.
“We received our Pilot’s Wings at Stewart Field three days before graduation,”
Lessey says.
He took B-25 training in Douglas, Ariz., and B-24 training in Smyrna, Tenn., before
heading overseas to serve in the Army of Occupation in Germany.
Soccer continued to be a part of Lessey’s life during his military service. He and
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some classmates played on the U.S. Army
team in Europe.
“Our international record was
horrible as essentially a pick-up team,
but it gave me some visibility,” Lessey
says. “A Belgian team wanted to hire me,
which led to my being assigned to the
U.S. Olympic squad for five months in
1948. Unfortunately, a broken bone in my
left hand, which happened during a
game, precluded my making the team for
the trip to London.”
Lessey later played on the Harvard
graduate school team, and in Alumni
games at West Point. In 1971, he
established the Col. Edward H. White II
Award, which, since that time, has been
awarded annually to the outstanding
graduating member of the men’s soccer
team.
After his European duty, Lessey
graduated from Harvard Law School in
1951, just prior to being assigned to the
U.S. Naval Academy to author and teach a
new course in Military Law because of
the passage of the new Uniform Code of
Military Justice.
“It was an exciting and sensitive
assignment and additionally, I was able to
qualify in the various aircraft at the Naval
Air Station as well as their sailboat fleet,”
Lessey says. “I convinced a lot of top
midshipmen to select the Air Force for
their service careers.”
Following his tour at the U.S. Naval
Academy, Lessey headed to Japan to the
1503rd Air Transport Wing, where he
replaced former Army quarterback
Arnold Tucker as a pilot in the 99th Air
Transport Squadron.
After his time in Japan and Korea,
Lessey accepted a commission in the Air
Force Reserve and returned to Harvard,
this time to earn a MBA degree from
Harvard Business School. After
graduating in 1956 with his business
degree, Lessey pursued a 17-year career
on Wall Street, which made it
geographically easy to attend events or
visit friends and classmates at West Point.
He held a director position with the
National Aviation Corporation trust and
was an officer of the investment banking
firm Shearson, Hammill & Co.
In his Reserve career, after
graduating from the Air War College at
Maxwell Air Force Base in Alabama as a
Distinguished Graduate, the Chief of Air
Force Reserve called him to active duty
to conduct a review of the entire
management structure of the Air Force
Reserve.
“We changed from a geographical to
a functional organization, bringing the
Reserves closer to the Active Force,”
Lessey says. “We implemented the
gaining command concept and improved
readiness and mission responsiveness.
All this left the Air Force Reserve in good
shape for the vastly increased role it
played in the coming Gulf War.
“A most stimulating part of my life
was serving in the Reagan
Administration, being part of the ‘Reagan
Revolution,’” Lessey says.
The President first appointed Lessey
as Inspector General of the U.S. Synthetic
Fuels Corporation from 1982 to 1986, and
later as Director of the Selective Service
System, where he served from 1987 to
1991.
“Each appointment required Senate
confirmation, an experience in its own
right, and each brought its own set of
challenges and goals,” Lessey
remembers.
After leaving Washington, Lessey
was appointed Civilian Aide to the
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Secretary of the Army for New
Hampshire. He later was elected New
Hampshire State President for the
Association of the United States Army.
Among his roles following his time in
public service or government, Lessey
has served on the Board of Directors of
the National Stroke Association since
1990, working as Chairman from 1994 to
2000. He now serves as Chairman
Emeritus.
“My father suffered from right-side
paralysis and speech loss for the last five
years of his life as a result of a stroke,”
Lessey says. “The mission of the National
Stroke Association is to ‘reduce the
incidence and impact of stroke.’”
Lessey had continued to stay active
in the West Point community when, in
2003, he was appointed to the Board of
Visitors by President George W. Bush. He
served on the Board for six years.
“That really brought me back to West
Point and enabled me to observe first-
hand how much the leadership
development process has improved over
the years,” Lessey says. “It confirmed my
belief that West Point is clearly the best
leadership development institution in the
world.”
Along with his other endeavors,
Lessey continues to be active at West
Point, often making the trip down from his
New Hampshire farm. Five times he was
the senior graduate marching in the
alumni portion of the August ‘Plebe
March-Back’ from summer camp. He is a
member of the Athletic Director’s Circle,
was presented the Army “A” Club Award
in 2012, and participates annually in the
Awards Convocation ceremony. Lessey
also serves on the selection committee
for the Army Sports Hall of Fame.
“The pattern of my life has been
beneficial because I’ve been in a variety
of fields and each one was new and
different,” Lessey says. “Therefore, there
was always a mental challenge. That has
made life interesting. Some of it has been
military, some of it has been business and
some has been charity, and I think that
has been healthy for me.”
Even after all he has accomplished,
whether as a general in the Air Force, a
business executive, or as a Presidential
appointee, Lessey will always consider
West Point a welcome place full of some
of his best memories.
“Everyone needs a home plate and
West Point is my home plate,” Lessey
says. “It has great significance in my life.
It plays a huge role for me, both in the
fundamentals of life and in its spirit.
Coming here is a special experience. I
love the place.”
His devotion to West Point is probably
best expressed by the closing remarks
from his speech at the 2013 Association of
Graduates Donor Day Banquet:
“To know West Point is to love it.” �
“I thought, if the guy on my left can make it, and the guy on my right canmake it, I sure as heck can make it. From an institution like this, there’s agreat loyalty and companionship in sharing everything with yourclassmates, which carries right on through your life.”
— Sam Lessey
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47
nyone who has happened by the front steps of the Holleder Center on an Army
Football Saturday has witnessed the legacy of Herb Lichtenberg. It is a legacy of
generosity and philanthropy that lives on today through his sons, Michael and Scott.
“Ever since I can remember, my father would tailgate,” Michael recalls. “At the time, all
the cars parked on Howze Field. We used to throw the football around, and my mother and
father would bring deli sandwiches. Then we started bringing a small hibachi. My father
would bring extra hot dogs and hamburgers, and when cadets came by, he would pass them
out. The one thing you can guarantee is that when a cadet gets a hamburger or hot dog,
they’re going to show up at the next game with some friends.”
The Army men’s basketball team was one of the first groups to take up Herb’s offer of a
free meal. That in turn led the women’s basketball and hockey teams to his spot on what is
now the Black Knights’ practice field. When parking was discontinued in that area, Herb was
able to parlay his relationship with then-Men’s Basketball Coach Les Wothke, into a spot in
the parking area behind the Holleder Center. That is, until one rainy morning.
“One day it was raining ‘cats and dogs,’ and I was cooking with my father,” Michael
remembers. “He told everyone to move it to the front patio underneath the overhang.
Everyone was saying, ‘You can’t do that,’ but my father said, ‘It’s easier to beg for forgiveness
than ask for permission.’ We lifted the grills up and went under the overhang, and nobody
ever asked him to leave.”
What started as a family tailgate on Howze Field has blossomed into an event where
hundreds of cadets now enjoy a hamburger or hot dog on “Lichtenberg Plaza.”
“When Herb was a cadet, the food was very mediocre,” his widow, Trudy, says. “He
always said that he wanted to feed these kids good food. That was his original incentive. It
started out as a hobby, something to do on a Saturday. It just evolved. It became more and
more exciting for him. It was an evolution of interest. With each project, he became more and
more interested. It became a second home to him, and the people up here that at first he
was just working with, became his friends. He just loved everything about it.”
Despite Herb’s passing on October 27, 2009, the tradition still continues through the
generosity of his family.
“It comes down to the cadets,” Michael says. “My father served, and Scott and I never
did. Coming up here is a small gesture to say, ‘Thank You’ for everything everyone up here
does. They are the ones that will ultimately be putting themselves in harm’s way when they
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graduate. I don’t think there is any way to
appropriately thank and appreciate them, so
this is our way. It certainly has to do with my
father’s legacy, but for me personally, it’s a
way to say, ‘Thank You’ for the commitment
and sacrifice they make.”
Echoing his brother’s sentiments, Scott
also added extra incentive for continuing the
tradition.
“The mission really is to provide
something for cadets, but it’s actually a lot of
fun,” he says. “It’s a great way to spend a
football Saturday in the prettiest college
football location, bar none.”
Herb’s connection to West Point went
well beyond tailgating. Herbert S.
Lichtenberg graduated from West Point in
1955, and after serving his country in the
United States Air Force, joined the family
business, S. Lichtenberg and Sons.
Recognized as one of the leaders in the
home fashions industry, he became one of
the most generous benefactors of the United
States Military Academy and earned the
2006 West Point Association of Graduates
Distinguished Graduate Award.
He was actually the second
Lichtenberg brother to join the “Long Gray
Line.” Herb’s older brother, Alan, was a 1951
West Point graduate, who excelled
academically and joined the Engineers
branch of the U.S. Army. It was that success
that led to Herb’s enrollment at West Point.
Already a student at New York
University, he received a call from his
congressman who knew of his older
brother’s accomplishments. Based on that,
he offered Herb an appointment to the
Academy.
“He always said that if they asked him
the next day or the day before, he’s not sure
what he would have answered, but that day
he said, ‘Yes,’” Trudy says.
The family’s generosity has contributed
to a long list of projects, most notably the
construction of the West Point Jewish Cadet
Chapel. In 1965, Herb joined a group whose
mission was to erect a Jewish chapel. That
group’s mission was finally realized when
the building was completed in 1984.
Improvements at many of the
Academy’s faith-based buildings followed,
including floor repairs at the Holy Trinity
Chapel, design of an air conditioning system
for that same building, the purchase and
installation of a pipe organ in the Old Cadet
Chapel and the renovation of windows,
floors and pews of the facility.
It wasn’t just Herb’s financial resources
that enabled him and his family to contribute
so much to the West Point community. His
ability to rally others around a project was
just as vital.
“That’s why he was always successful in
what he did,” Michael says. “He was the life
of the party and always fun to be around.
People enjoyed being with him and doing
things with him. I think that was part of his
leadership and what he was about.”
While Herb’s “magnetic” personality
often made him the center of attention,
Alan’s involvement in the family’s
philanthropy to West Point often gets lost, a
fact Herb’s sons and widow are quick to
point out.
“A lot about my brother-in-law’s legacy
here has been overlooked,” Trudy says,
“They were really a team in so many ways.
He was very active in building the Jewish
Chapel and the Tennis Center. He too was
extremely dedicated to West Point.”
That Tennis Center, completed in 1999,
stands as one of the most visible signs of the
Lichtenberg family’s dedication to West
Point. From his original tailgating days, Herb
began to develop relationships with the
athletic department, and his prior
generosity provided him with access to the
Academy’s leadership. It was during a
dinner with then-Superintendent Lt. Gen.
Dan Christman that the idea for the facility
was first brought up.
“We were out to dinner with General
Christman and his wife,” Trudy explains. “He
and Herb talked about West Point, and he
mentioned the need for a tennis center. My
husband said, ‘I’ll build it for you.’”
A quick call from Christman the next
morning confirmed the plans.
Herb Lichtenberg (wearing hat) wasresponsible for feeding tens of thousands ofcadets at his famous Army Football tailgatesover the years. His legacy lives on today.
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“His line was, ‘I said it. I’m going to do
it,’” Scott says.
It was not just the Lichtenberg family
who helped bring that original vision to
fruition. Herb was able to rally tremendous
support for the project from the Class of
1955. The entire group’s willingness to
provide for the project led to what remains
one of the nation’s premier facilities. The
building stands as the Class of 1955’s 50th
reunion gift to the Academy.
The building had immediate impact.
Both the men’s and women’s teams have
established themselves as the premier
programs in the Patriot League. The men’s
team captured the 2014 conference
championship, its fourth in the last 12 years,
while the women’s squad won nine straight
league titles from 2005 to 2013.
“It’s a good feeling knowing all that my
father accomplished and all that he was able
to do here,” Michael says. “You hear the
stories from (Army Men’s and Women’s
Tennis Coaches) Jim Poling and Paul Peck
about the days before the tennis center.
They would have to travel 45 minutes each
way to practice each day, and they didn’t
have as many courts. Now, you see the great
run of the men’s and women’s teams, and a
lot of that has to do with the tennis center.
Athletics is such a part of the education of
the cadets that to have this facility here, it
really shows what he accomplished and the
lasting effect.”
Following the completion of that project,
Lichtenberg began work on the Gross
Sports Center, the 23,000-square-foot home
of Army gymnastics which also contains a
practice court utilized by the Black Knights’
basketball programs. From there, he turned
his attention to the construction of on-post
housing for West Point’s intercollegiate
athletic coaches. In addition to the first wave
built under Herb’s supervision, Scott and
Michael have been heavily involved in the
opening of several more. The project
concluded with construction on the last of 17
head coaches’ homes completed this spring
and turned over to the athletic department,
courtesy of the Lichtenbergs’ generosity.
“All these projects required bringing a
lot of people together,” Scott says. “You
needed to bring all sorts of constituencies
together, and he had that knack and ability
to get everyone in the same room and get
everything lined up. That’s how he made
these things happen. That was what he really
got up in the morning for, to come up here
and say, ‘I’m going to make something
happen.’ In each case, there was a need for
something, and somebody had to step up
and do it. That’s really his legacy.”
That ability to make things happen has
been passed down to his sons. In addition to
their involvement in the tailgate and
coaches’ housing project, Scott and Michael
have been generous benefactors of planned
upgrades for Army’s lacrosse facilities and
additional practice fields.
“There is more that needs to be done,
and fortunately, we’re in a position to help,”
Scott says. “I think it’s similar motivation. We
look forward to continuing the relationship.”
So do hundreds of hungry cadets on
Saturday afternoons in the fall. �
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“It comes down to the cadets. My father served, and Scott and I never did.Coming up here is a small gesture to say, ‘Thank You’ for everythingeveryone up here does. They are the ones that will ultimately be puttingthemselves in harm’s way when they graduate. I don’t think there is anyway to appropriately thank and appreciate them, so this is our way.”
— Michael Lichtenberg
(From left) Michael and Scott Lichtenberg take time for a photo outside the Lichtenberg TennisCenter. The brothers have continued the family legacy of generous philanthropy toward the United States Military Academy scripted by their parents, Herb and Trudy Lichtenberg.
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51
ave Magarity had lived in the Hudson Valley long enough to know he was going to
have a splendid day anyway on that eighth of October, 2005. His assignment for the
day: make the half-hour drive from his home in Wappingers Falls, N.Y., cross the river, and
attend a football game at Michie Stadium between Army and Central Michigan as a
representative of the Mid-American Conference (MAC), Central Michigan’s league, for which
he served as Assistant Commissioner in charge of Men’s Basketball Operations.
“It was a pretty easy work day, watching a football game in this magnificent setting,”
Magarity says, “that only wound up changing my life forever.”
Magarity had spent 18 years coaching the men’s basketball team at Marist, and every
other season he’d brought his Red Foxes to Christl Arena to play Army in what was generally
a spirited contest between natural geographic rivals. In those years, he’d gotten to know
many of Army’s coaches, administrators and support staff, and he’d developed friendships
with several of them, so there were many familiar faces to greet when he walked into the
press box that morning. One of them was Bob Beretta, who’d grown fond of Magarity when
he ran the Academy’s sports information office for many of those old Marist-Army bouts, who
by October 2005 had been promoted to Senior Associate Athletic Director.
“If you get a moment,” the old SID told the old coach, “there’s someone I’d like you
to meet.”
Her name was Maggie Dixon.
And Magarity was right: his career – and his life – was about to change. Forever.
“Here’s the thing,” Dave Magarity says, “I had already come to terms with the fact that
the coaching part of my career was over. And I was at peace with that. My kids were almost
grown. I was getting older. It seemed natural that it was time to try something else, go into
administration, get a ‘real’ job.”
Magarity sips from an iced tea and he smiles. A few weeks earlier, he had led Army’s
women’s basketball team to its second-ever berth in the NCAA Tournament at the Division I
level, taking the Black Knights on a terrific run that included the 2014 Patriot League
championship and a first-round date with Maryland, a powerful team that would go on to qualify
for the 2014 Final Four but would also call its first time-out of the tournament with nine minutes
and nine seconds remaining in the first half, look up at the scoreboard at Comcast Center in
College Park, Md., and note a most surprising set of numbers: Army 18, Maryland 15.
“I think everybody who was with us made sure to take a picture of that,” Magarity says,
laughing.
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It didn’t much matter that the Terrapins
would soon seize control of the game and
advance with a 90-52 win, sparking their
march to Nashville. For Army, what mattered
was the journey through the regular season,
through a heartbreaking near-miss at Ohio
State in December that illustrated how good
they could be to the finals of the Patriot
League championship game, a 68-58 victory
that proved it, their 25th win of the season
and seventh in a row down the stretch.
Through all of it there was Magarity –
coaching, coaxing, cajoling, his face a study
in the myriad emotions of a 40-minute game,
reflecting every made three-pointer, every
missed defensive assignment, every blown
referee’s call, every fateful twist and every
fretful turn.
“And to think,” he says, “I thought I was
over all of this.”
You can understand why. By the time
Magarity took his first meeting with Maggie
Dixon, he’d spent almost every second of his
adult life – except a brief hitch in the (gasp)
Navy reserves – around basketball. He’d
been hired by his alma mater, St. Francis
(Pa.), at the tender age of 26 and in 1981 led
the Red Flash to 17 wins; in the 33 years
since, only one St. Francis season has ever
yielded more victories. Yet Magarity was
fired only two years later, and for the first
time learned the harsh realities of the sport’s
bottom line – and also, for the first time,
faced the prospect of leaving coaching.
Pat Kennedy made sure he wouldn’t
have to, hiring Magarity to be an assistant for
some very good Iona teams in the mid-‘80s,
setting him up to get the Marist job in the
spring of 1986. It was a wonderful sense of
serendipity for Magarity, who would inherit a
junior-to-be named Rik Smits and would
guide the Red Foxes to a 20-10 record and a
bid in the NCAA Tournament. It was
Magarity’s first taste of the NCAAs, and it left
a permanent impression.
“But it was such a blur,” he says. “We
had this incredible player (Smits would play
12 successful seasons in the National
Basketball Association, all with the Indiana
Pacers) and were on this incredible ride and
I remember thinking even as it was
happening, ‘I wish I could enjoy this a little
more.’”
Those feelings would only intensify as
his tenure at Marist lengthened. Almost
immediately the good feelings of that rookie
ride were sabotaged by an NCAA probation
meted out due to transgressions by the prior
coaching staff and a ban from the 1988
Tournament, Smits’ senior year. Over the
next 15 years Magarity produced some
terrific teams, experienced the dry spells
that every mid-major endures in the years in
between, and always had to work against the
enormous standards that had been set early
in his time there. But NBA lottery picks don’t
arrive at a school like Marist more than once
in a lifetime. By 2004, Magarity was coaching
for his job. And by season’s end, had lost it.
“I had a good run,” he says. “It was
disappointing, but you learn from things like
that. I had 23 years as a coach. The
overwhelming majority of coaches never get
that long. I was lucky. And now it was time for
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something else.”
He dabbled in broadcasting. He took an
administrative job locally with the Metro
Atlantic Athletic Conference, then got hired
by the MAC, and even though he’d only
been on the job a few weeks when he took
his trip to West Point, he had to admit to
himself: he missed coaching. What can you
say? It gets in your blood, it stays in your
blood.
And then Maggie Dixon said, “I’d really
like you to be my assistant coach.”
Magarity knew Dixon’s brother, Jamie,
who by then was the head coach at
Pittsburgh but in 2001 had been an assistant
there when Magarity brought Marist to Pitt
and took the Panthers to overtime.
Immediately, he felt comfortable with
Maggie. But to start coaching women’s
basketball? After all those years with the
men? And as an assistant? And what of his
family; his wife, Rita, had experienced the
coaching roller coaster, all of it. What would
she say?
“Does this mean we don’t have to move
to Cleveland?” Rita asked. So she was in.
And Maggie kept making a compelling
argument: she was only 28 years old. She’d
never been a head coach before. What she
needed was something baseball managers
have sought for years: a bench coach, a wise
and wizened old hand. And there was
something else, too.
“You spoke to Maggie for five minutes,”
Magarity says, “and you knew there was
something special about her, something
special about what she was doing, and you
wanted to be a part of it.”
And it was a glorious ride. Army went
20-11 that year, capped by a thrilling 69-68
win over Holy Cross in the Patriot League
title game. A raucous crowd came to Christl
that night, and Maggie was carried off the
floor by giddy members of the sprint
football team. It was the first time any
basketball team representing Army would
play in the NCAAs at the Division I level, and
it was a moment that filled Magarity’s heart
with something beyond joy. And also
convinced him that he still had plenty left to
give to the game.
Which is why he was in Portsmouth, Va.,
on April 6, watching NBA prospects and
sitting next to his old assistant coach at
Marist, Jeff Bower. Bower was the newly
named general manager of the New Orleans
Hornets, and he’d offered Magarity a job,
and Magarity had agreed though he hadn’t
signed anything yet. At some point, his
phone rang with impossible news: Maggie
had died. An enlarged heart. Magarity was
on a plane back to West Point, shaken with
grief, when an Academy official approached
him.
“We want you to take over for Maggie,”
he said.
It was the players who convinced him. It
had been a rocky courtship at first, the gruff
and opinionated assistant coach and the
green players, but they’d quickly clicked,
and as a group devastated by their coach’s
passing, they told Magarity how much they
wanted him to coach them. They understood
he had an opportunity to work in the NBA.
Told him they understood if he took that job.
But wanted him to stay anyway.
He stayed.
“It’s really amazing, if you think about it,”
he says. “I don’t think you can ever predict
the path you’re going to take. And when
Maggie died … there’s almost a guilt that
takes over. But what we’ve done here is try to
make this a program she would’ve been
proud of. She built the foundation. And
inspires everything else.”
It has been a splendid run for Magarity.
Not only has he won 146 games in his eight
years at the helm – to go with the 313 he
compiled as a men’s coach – but he helped
launch the career of his daughter, Maureen,
who assisted him his first few years and is
now a successful head coach in her own
right, at New Hampshire.
And this year, he finally made it back to
the NCAA Tournament as a head coach, 27
years after his first trip. And this time, he
knew what to do.
“I savored every second of it,” he says. �
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Dave enjoys a special moment with hisgranddaughters, Charlotte (left) and Taylor(right), inside Christl Arena.
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ob Novogratz knows all about being part of something bigger than himself. He grew
up in a family of six children. He and his wife, Barbara, have seven of their own. As a
member of the “Long Gray Line,” he played on one of the finest teams in the history of Army
Football. And after he graduated from West Point in 1959, he served his country for 30 years.
Easy-going and unassuming, Novogratz speaks in a hushed tone that is just above a whisper.
While his personality might be modest, his principles are not. In three decades, he had a
number of chances to leave the United States Army, sometimes for more lucrative pursuits,
but he always declined.“He was too idealistic to get out,” says Barbara. “[Whatever jobs he
was offered] didn’t seem to him to be as important as what he was doing in the Army.”
An Infantry officer, Novogratz specialized in logistics, contracting and international
programs. He rose to the rank of Colonel, and his final active-duty tours were as the Head of
Army Contracting in Europe and as an Assistant to the Secretary of the Army. Along the way,
he and Barbara raised a family that has become not only prominent, but also influential. The
seven Novogratz children are an eclectic, highly successful bunch.
Jacqueline, the oldest, is the founder and Chief Executive Officer of the Acumen Fund, a
non-profit venture capital enterprise with the goal of creating “a world beyond poverty;” she
is also the best-selling author of The Blue Sweater: Bridging the Gap Between Rich and Poor in
an Interconnected World. Bob and his wife, Cortney, have their own successful design
business in New York City and, along with their seven kids, star in the HGTV series “Home by
Novogratz.” Michael is a principal at the hedge fund Fortress Investment Group. Elizabeth is a
freelance writer. John is the Global Head of Marketing and Investor Relations at the
Millennium Partners hedge fund. Amy, who was formerly the director of the TED prize –
awarded annually at the Technology, Entertainment, and Design Conference – is now a
Managing Partner of Aqua-Spark, an investment fund focused on sustainable aquaculture
and ocean technologies. Matthew, the youngest, is the director of Foreign Exchange Sales at
RBC Capital Markets in New York.
When asked how he and Barbara, whom he married in February 1960, managed to
raise a brood of such super-achievers Novogratz pauses to think, and then says, “We don’t
have a good answer.” But Barbara, for her part, is adamant that the size of the family had
something to do with it. Bob completed two tours in Vietnam and one in Korea from 1964 to
1971, leaving Barbara on her own for extended periods with the couple’s four oldest
children.
“They helped each other,” she says of her kids. “I told them about their Dad. They knew
where they came from. They were part of a tribe.”
The son of Austrian immigrants, Bob Novogratz grew up in eastern Pennsylvania’s
Lehigh Valley in the mill town of Northampton, home of the Universal Atlas Cement Company.
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His father, Frank, was a gruff, taciturn laborer
for Universal who spent his days filling bags
of cement in the mill’s pack house. When
Bob was a boy, Frank would arrive home
after work covered in the gray dust that hung
in the air at the place. Frank Novogratz, with
his thick Austrian accent, was a passionate
believer in the American ideal, and along
with his wife, Stella, he raised his six children
to trust in the virtues of hard work and
representative democracy. He had been a
loyal member of the local chapter of the
Democratic Party since the early years of the
Depression, when, to earn extra money, he
had driven voters to the polls in his Essex
Super Six sedan. Bob worked throughout his
childhood and held down three jobs when
he was in high school, delivering
newspapers in the morning, shining shoes in
the afternoon, and setting up pins in the
evening at the bowling alley attached to the
Liederkranz, Northampton’s bustling
German social club. During the summer, he
earned extra money delivering ice.
Novogratz desperately wanted to go to
college, but he needed a scholarship in
order to afford school. As a skinny,
undersized defensive end at Northampton
High, he had not been recruited to play
college football. Determined to earn his way
into a top-flight university, he set his sights on
Blair Academy, a prep school in
northwestern New Jersey. Two of Bob’s older
brothers had been good high school players,
and two of his cousins who had spent a year
at Blair had ultimately earned football
scholarships to Virginia. Novogratz worked
as a day laborer on the Northampton and
Bath Railroad the summer after his high
school graduation and scraped together
about $3,500, enough to cover most of his
tuition. The school also provided him with a
small financial aid package when he was
admitted in the fall of 1954.
That year at Blair turned out to be
everything Novogratz had hoped for. Playing
offensive tackle for Coach Steve Koch, he put
40 pounds on his skinny frame. By the
spring, he had scholarship offers from the
University of Pennsylvania and the University
of Virginia. But Frank, through his political
contacts, had secured him an appointment to
West Point. Bob had not been recruited to
play football at the Academy, and the
appointment was a surprise to him.
“My father had a real cement worker’s
mentality,” says Novogratz. “He was not a
very communicative guy, but I knew this was
a very big thing to him. Not until later in life
did it really occur to me why that was: He
was an immigrant, he worked in the mill, and
this was an important opportunity for me
from his perspective. Him getting my
appointment to West Point was probably his
proudest achievement.”
Novogratz had wrestled for the first time
at Blair, where his long arms and powerful
upper body made him a natural grappler.
But two surgeries on his right knee in his first
18 months as a cadet had interrupted his
mat career. Novogratz was wrestling as a
heavyweight in the winter of his Third Class
year when Earl “Red” Blaik, Army’s
legendary football coach, spotted him
during a practice and ordered defensive line
coach Frank Lauterbur to “get that kid out for
football.” Novogratz jumped at Lauterbur’s
offer, and thus began his meteoric rise to the
top of the depth chart: He made the “A
Squad” during spring practice, and
supplanted classmate Bill Rowe as the
starting left guard after Army’s opening 42–0
victory over Nebraska in 1957. Novogratz
earned All-East honors, but a right ankle
sprain hampered him during the bitter loss
to Navy at the end of the season.
Novogratz was hardly an unknown
entering the 1958 season – when Blaik
unleashed his “Lonely End” offense on an
unsuspecting nation – though he was usually
singled out as the lone returning starter on
Army’s offensive line. The substitution rules
of the time, however, dictated a form of
ironman football, and it was on the other side
of the line of scrimmage where Novogratz, a
linebacker, truly stood out. Blaik described
him as the “sword and flame” of the Army
defense.
(PICTURED LEFT) Bob receives his Army SportsHall of Fame induction plaque from ArmyDirector of Athletics Boo Corrigan (left) andthen-United States Military AcademySuperintendent Lt. Gen. David Huntoon Jr.(right) in September 2011.
(PICTURED OPPOSITE TOP) Bob and the extendedNovogratz family gather for a portrait.
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At 6’2” and 210 pounds, Novogratz was
quick, aggressive, and prodigiously strong.
Indeed, he might have been one of the most
powerful players, pound for pound, in
college football. He had skinny legs but long,
muscular arms that were, in the words of
fullback Harry Walters, “like two axes.” In
addition to being one of the strongest
players on the team, Novogratz was an
anaerobic marvel who rarely failed to give
Blaik more than 50 minutes a game. In
Army’s 14-2 defeat of fourth-ranked Notre
Dame on Oct. 11,1958 Novogratz played 56
minutes in an 18-tackle performance.
The win over the Fighting Irish was one
of the highlights of the last truly great season
of Army Football. The Black Knights, led by
halfbacks Bob Anderson and Pete Dawkins,
and end Bill Carpenter – who became a
national sensation by splitting at least 10
yards wide of the offensive line on every play
and never returning to the huddle – went 8-
0-1, led the country in passing offense and
finished the season ranked third nationally.
Their defense, led by Novogratz, gave up
only 5.4 points per game. Dawkins won the
Heisman and Maxwell trophies as the best
player in college football, and he, Anderson
and Novogratz were each named All-
America.
“As far as his position,” says Rowe, the
team’s center and nose guard, “Bob was
better than Anderson or Dawkins.”
Lauterbur – who, before he came to
West Point coached All-Pro defensive
linemen Eugene “Big Daddy” Lipscomb and
Art Donovan with the Baltimore Colts – says
that Novogratz was “probably the best all-
around defensive player I ever coached.”
Novogratz won the Knute Rockne
Award, given by the Touchdown Club of
Washington, D.C., as college football’s
outstanding lineman. In late-January, he went
to the nation’s capital for the awards
ceremony, where other honorees included
Baltimore Colts quarterback Johnny Unitas
and Cleveland Browns running back Jim
Brown. During the dinner, Brown took a
moment to admire Novogratz’s trophy, a
wooden square base topped by a lineman in
a three-point stance, and said, “I dig your
trophy, man.”
Novogratz had brought his parents to
the banquet, and after the meal was over, he
was surprised to see his father, whose
command of English was not strong,
engaged in a friendly conversation with Vice
President Richard Nixon. (Frank Novogratz, a
lifelong Democrat, cast his vote for Nixon for
President in 1960. When his appalled family
asked him why he did not vote for John
Kennedy, he said, “I never met Kennedy!”)
Novogratz is adamant that lessons he
learned as a cadet, on the “fields of friendly
strife,” have been integral to his success at
the head of large groups – both in the Army
and in his family.
“I learned a lot,” he says, “from my gym
teachers and coaches about teamwork,
cooperation and getting people to do
things.”
After he retired from the Army,
Novogratz continued to work as a consultant
on international defense issues. He retired
for good in 2008, but he and Barbara are as
busy as ever, splitting their time between
their homes in Arlington, Va., and
Amagansett, N.Y., and shuttling back and
forth in support of their children’s efforts.
“We never stop,” says Barbara. “We’re
continually doing something.”
Both Barbara and Bob have been active
in their support of the Acumen Fund, which
is run by their oldest daughter, Jacqueline,
who cites her father as a source of
inspiration. “I think that he always felt as if
he’d won the lottery,” she says, noting that he
was the son of immigrants.
Bob Novogratz may have indeed been
lucky, but his idealism has turned that luck
into something special – something more
than a story of a West Point graduate made
good.
“My father came here as an immigrant
on a ship when he was 15,” says Novogratz.
“He spent his life working in a mill. I went to
West Point and became a Colonel in the
Army. Our seven kids are doing amazing
things. Barbara and I think this is a great
American story.” �
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59
he People Who Make A Difference Scholarship Breakfast is a perfect place to learn
about the distinguished career of Mady Salvani.
With more than 50 years of service to the United States Military Academy, Salvani
knows a bit about developing leaders of character, helping others and selfless service.
She was honored recently, on a beautiful spring day at the West Point Club,
applauded for her work in “the Hudson Valley communities who make a significant
different in the lives of others.”
How Salvani manages to juggle her work in the Athletic Communications Department
in the Office of the Directorate of Intercollegiate Athletics (ODIA), tend to her pets, both at
her house in Highland Falls, N.Y., and around West Point, continue her strong relationship
with her brothers and give back to the community is a testament to her tremendous work
ethic.
Whether it is doing statistical work for Army women’s soccer, basketball or softball
programs, producing media guides, collaborating with the media to publicize one of West
Point’s athletes or helping an office co-worker, Salvani always finds a way to complete the
job not only on time but also to the best of her ability.
It started when Salvani was hired in West Point’s Civilian Personnel Office to assist
with processing finger prints of new employees. Just 18 years old at the time, Salvani
quickly expanded her job responsibilities before moving to the Gifts Program Office in
Headquarters Building. She was tasked with typing letters to people who made donations,
no small task because typographical errors are unacceptable for anything the
Superintendent signs.
Salvani then moved to athletics, joining what was then referred to as the Sports
Information Department. While the name of the office has been changed to Athletic
Communications, many of the goals of the department remain the same. The office is
responsible for generating publicity for West Point’s intercollegiate athletes, working with
league officials weekly, monthly and yearly, keeping live statistics, generating media
guides and game programs, providing research for the Kenna Hall of Army Sports and
many more tasks.
She found her passion working in athletics, loving the competition and camaraderie
and had the opportunity to call watching a basketball game “Work.”
While the technology has changed – she now updates Twitter and Facebook social
media sites, writes blog posts and handles desktop publishing with ease – the quality of
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her work has remained a constant.
Salvani was honored by the Eastern
College Athletic Conference Sports
Information Directors Association twice,
winning The Bob Kenworthy Award and the
Irving T. Marsh Award. The Kenworthy Award
is only given out at the discretion of the
Executive Board and in 2008, it honored
Salvani for her contributions to the mission of
the organization. The Marsh Award is given
to those, in the opinion of the membership
and Executive Board, has exhibited
excellence in the field of sports information.
Salvani collected that honor in 2001.
Don’t let the long hours she spends in
her office at ODIA fool you though, Salvani is
about much more than basketballs and
softballs.
Any time there is an event, the first call is
usually to Salvani, to lend her expertise with
a camera. Any time someone in the athletic
department is honored, you can hear Salvani
asking for “Just one more shot,” ensuring she
captures the perfect image to document a
signature moment.
Or, you may see Mady out and about at
West Point, ensuring a hungry cat is fed or
has some sort of shelter during a brutal New
York winter.
When she returns to her long-time home
just outside Thayer Gate, Salvani is taking
care of her own pets, one dog and one cat,
but always subject to additional expansion.
Once the animals are taken care of,
Salvani might check in on a neighbor or offer
assistance at Sacred Heart Church.
While her years of experience have
increased, Salvani has barely slowed down.
She did give up coaching the Sacred Heart
youth basketball team, preferring instead to
concentrate on work instead of teaching
young boys and girls the proper free throw
technique or how to play defense, two
signatures of the teams she coached for 45
years.
Salvani has experienced a lot during
her career and she is at the point now where
cadets are returning to West Point in
leadership positions. She remembers Bob
Caslen, now a Lieutenant General and
Superintendent at West Point, when he
played on the football team and is quick to
share a laugh with he and his wife, Shelly, any
time she runs into the couple.
Salvani was a trend-setter as well. She
started in athletics around the same time
women began competing in athletics at West
Point in 1976. While she worked with both
male and female athletic programs, she was
working closely with national media on the
emerging story of women competing at West
Point.
She was also among the first females in
West Point’s football press box. Media
credentials used to specify that no women or
children were allowed in a working press
box, and in fact, that statement was posted on
the pass Salvani wore to work football games.
She served as a “runner” when she started
working in the athletic department, hustling
between levels of the press box. Then, she
moved onto typing the play-by-play, a
challenging task before the days of word
processors.
She was a part of the athletic
department when all of its coaches were
housed in the same building, before offices
were built at specific facilities. She remembers
walking past Bobby Knight, Jack Riley,
Eric Tipton, Bill and Don Parcells.
“You got to know all of the coaches, in all
sports,” recalls Salvani. “To be around people
like Bobby Knight and Bill Parcels was
special. They are all great to work with and
it’s amazing to see how successful our
coaches became.”
Salvani and then-recent West Point
graduate Mike Krzyzewski used to spend
hours talking basketball.
“I would always go to Mike to talk
basketball,” Salvani remembers. “Especially
with how to deal with parents. He always told
me to keep it simple. To have a few plays and
run them over and over and not to make it
too complicated. His office was close by and
he was a young coach. It’s always nice when
he comes back because he always says,
‘Hello.’ ”
The list of tremendous athletes who
have competed for Army during Salvani’s
time is long, so long she hates to mention
names for fear of leaving someone out.
Football players Joe Albano and Charlie
Jarvis and men’s basketball standouts Gary
Winton, Kevin Houston and Mike Silliman
certainly come to mind, though.
She can spend weeks telling stories
about the growth of women’s athletics, a
favorite running back from back in the day
or cadet-athletes that did amazing things
after graduation. She is quick to point out
the first female General, Rebecca Halstead,
was a manager for the women’s basketball
team, one of the sports Salvani was
responsible for covering and with whom
Salvani worked closely.
She can tell you about the incredible
energy in 2006 when Maggie Dixon led
Army to its first Patriot League women’s
basketball championship. She should know
because she was in the middle capturing
images as Dixon was carried off the court
by members of the U.S. Military Academy
Corps of Cadets.
Those years of experience have been
valuable in one of Salvani’s secondary
duties, as the historian of the athletic
department. Need to know who is Army’s
all-time leading rusher? (Mike Mayweather
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with 4,299 yards), where to find the box
score from a women’s basketball game in
1996, or how to find a head shot of famed
football coach Earl “Red” Blaik? Call Salvani.
She will either know exactly where it is, or
make three phone calls to find out for you.
Last summer, Salvani was presented
with a 50-year citation by then-
Superintendent Lt. Gen. David Huntoon. A
huge contingent of friends, co-workers and
staff were on hand for the special event.
Interestingly enough, Salvani knew Huntoon
from his days as an All-American fencer, a
sport for which she handled Army’s
publicity.
The family atmosphere is one of the
things that keeps her going.
“I love sports,” Salvani says. “There is
nothing more exciting. It is such a great
thrill. I come back from a big win and I am
walking on air and my fingers are flying
across the keyboard I am so excited. The
downside is when there is a tough loss and
it takes me twice as long as write a story. I
have been lucky. I get to watch sports and
work with incredible people. Our office has
always been like a family.
You get to know people, husbands,
wives and children, and watch them grow
up, and that’s special. Our office has always
been like another family. To me, it’s more
than just a job.”
Despite providing statistics and writing
game stories on thousands of events, she
always looks forward to the start of the
competition.
“When I go to any athletic event, I love
when they play the National Anthem,” says
Salvani. “I go to a lot of athletic events and
when everyone stands at attention, it never
gets old. I usually think of Francis Scott Key
and how he wrote the “Star Spangled
Banner.” I always think of that when I see the
cadets standing at attention. That’s the most
thrilling part, and it never gets old.”
A mimeograph is no longer part of the
tool kit and the way statistics are complied
has changed throughout Salvani’s tenure.
“When I first started, we used to do
stats by hand,” Salvani recalls. “They were
just coming out with small calculators. You
couldn’t take an adding machine to a game
so we used this book to help you figure out
percentages.
We didn’t provide halftime basketball
statistics, we needed that time to figure them
out. We would take hand-written notes and
create a box score and if you were good,
you had them compiled at halftime. Now,
there is a computer program that does all
that.
“The other change is Social Media.
Years ago, people on the West Coast
couldn’t get the scores of Army football
games until Sunday. We used to do the
Army “A” Line (a telephone number you
can call for scores) and would leave a long,
detailed report. The long distance charges
were cheaper so people called on Sunday.
That’s how you found out the score of the
game. Now, with Twitter, Facebook and the
Internet, it’s immediate.”
What hasn’t changed though is
Salvani’s commitment to building future
leaders of character. �
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“You got to know all of the coaches, in all sports. To be around people likeBobby Knight and Bill Parcels was special. They are all great to work withand it’s amazing to see how successful our coaches became.”
— Mady Salvani
Mady receives a certificate commemoratingher 50th year of government service from thethen-United States Military AcademySuperintendent Lt. Gen. David Huntoon Jr. inJuly 2012.
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63
s the final seconds ticked away, the throng of jubilant gray-clad cadets swarmed
the field. It was November 28, 1964, West Point had just beaten Navy, 11-8, ending
the ignominy of a five-game losing streak at the hands of the arch-rival Midshipmen. The
cadets hoisted the star of the “brave old Army team” upon their shoulders and, as the milky
dusk settled upon the cavernous John F. Kennedy Stadium, paraded Rollie Stichweh around
the field. With yet another spectacular performance in the final game of his Army career,
having been named the “Outstanding Player” in this greatest of traditional rivalries for the
second year in a row, Rollie Stichweh was now firmly established as one of the most
accomplished Army players in the Academy’s long and rich history. And yet, in the midst of
the elation, his thoughts – of joy and satisfaction, and even relief – were focused, not on his
individual heroics, but on his team. For Rollie Stichweh, it was always about the team.
The value of teamwork was reinforced the moment he entered the Academy. As
Stichweh recalls: “On the very first day of that intense first summer of cadet training, our
‘Beast Barracks’ squad leader emphasized one thing. He said, ‘Men, you need to understand
this. None of you will make it through these first two months as a Plebe if you try to do it by
yourself. You need each other in this first summer and, in fact, for the entire four years as a
cadet. If you work together, you will succeed.’ And he was right. Learning to reach out to help,
and to be helped by others, was the secret to success as a cadet and as a football player.”
Heralded as one of the most talented all-around athletes to emerge from the high school
playing fields of Long Island, N.Y., Stichweh was a highly recruited prospect. But he had been
attracted to West Point when he was young and, when it came time to choose a college, that
attraction trumped the overtures of a number of major football programs. “As a young kid
growing up on Long Island,” Stichweh remembers, “My Dad took me to an Army home
football game. He was an Army Captain in World War II and a huge admirer of General
Eisenhower. Nothing could have been more exciting than being at Michie Stadium on a
beautiful October day to watch the Army team compete. My new heroes suddenly became
Pete Dawkins, Bob Anderson, Bill Carpenter, Bill Rowe, Joe Caldwell, and others on that great
1958 team. Thanks to support from my folks and high school coaches, I was lucky to be given
an opportunity to attend West Point and to play for the Army football team. It meant the world
to me.”
When Stichweh entered the Academy in the summer of 1961, the only question
surrounding his football talent seemed to center upon what position would be best suited to
his prodigious skills. In his first year of varsity eligibility, he excelled as a starter in the
defensive backfield. Entering his junior year in the fall of 1963, Coach Paul Dietzel decided to
install him as the starting quarterback. Dietzel, who would later proclaim that Stichweh was
the “greatest quarterback in Army history,” wanted the ball in his best player’s hands as often
as possible. And, for the next two seasons, Dietzel’s confidence was rewarded as Stichweh
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exceeded even the lofty expectations of his
legendary coach.
The 1963 Army team was one of the
inspirational national stories of that football
season. Preseason predictions had not been
particularly kind to the Black Knights but,
from the beginning of fall practice, the
players sensed that the team had the
capability and chemistry to be something
special. And they quickly began to prove it
on the field. The season began with shutout
victories against Boston University and
Cincinnati as both the offense and defense
established themselves as dominant forces.
And Rollie Stichweh quickly established
himself as the next great Army player,
knifing through defenses on the ground,
effective in the air, a threat returning punts
and kickoffs, even continuing to play a stellar
role in the defensive backfield as he rarely
left the field.
As the annual clash with Navy
approached, the Army team sported a 7-2
record and a national ranking, with losses
only to Minnesota and Pittsburgh and an
upset victory over ninth-ranked Penn State.
But this was no ordinary Navy team. Ranked
No. 2 in the nation, the Midshipmen, led by
recently anointed Heisman Trophy winner
Roger Staubach, were expected to play the
No. 1-ranked Texas Longhorns in the
Cotton Bowl for the mythical national
championship – if they got past Army.
The game, which would become one of
the classics in this storied rivalry, was nearly
never played. Following the assassination of
President John F. Kennedy just days before
the game was scheduled to take place, the
military establishment had considered
cancelling the contest in deference to the
loss of the Commander-in-Chief. But the
Kennedy family, aware of the great love the
fallen President had for the traditions of the
Army-Navy game, insisted that it should be
played. And so the nation, searching for
some solace, watched, along with more than
100,000 fans in Philadelphia’s Memorial
Stadium, as “a game fit for a President”
unfolded.
Army stopped the vaunted Navy
offense on its first possession, and then drove
the length of the field, with Stichweh diving
into the end zone for the first score of the
game. Staubach led his team to a late
second quarter score and the game was
tied at halftime, 7-7. The second half,
however, belonged to the Midshipmen as
they scored twice to take a 21-7 lead with
less than 10 minutes remaining in the fourth
quarter. It appeared that Navy was on its way
to a date in the Cotton Bowl.
But Rollie Stichweh and the Black
Knights were not finished. The Army offense
put together an impressive drive, ending
with Stichweh again plunging in for the
score. Following Dietzel’s decision to try a
two-point conversion, Stichweh dropped
back, looked for a receiver, and then
scrambled across the goal line to make the
score 21-15 with barely six minutes left in the
game. And then, in one of the more
astounding moments in Army’s fabled
history, its ensuing onsides kickoff was
recovered – by Rollie Stichweh. Taking over
near the 50-yard line, Stichweh and the Army
offense drove the ball down the field and
found itself on the Navy 7-yard line, first-and-
goal to go, with time running out. The
frenzied crowd, flooding down toward the
playing field, was so loud that players
remember the stadium actually shaking. The
noise was so deafening that twice the
officials stopped the clock (which was
(PICTURED LEFT) Rollie Stichweh scores atouchdown in the 1963 Army-Navy contest.The play was the first ever to be shown via“instant replay” by a major television network.
(PICTURED ABOVE) Former rivals and current friendsRoger Staubach (left) and Rollie Stichweh (right)celebrate Rollie’s induction into the Army SportsHall of Fame in September 2012.
(PICTURED OPPOSITE) Rollie and Carole Stichwehpose inside the Kenna Hall of Army Sports.
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allowed at the time) so that the Army players
could hear the signals. Three rushing plays
brought Army to a fourth down at the Navy
2-yard line with just seconds remaining.
Army broke the huddle and dashed to
the line of scrimmage. As he reached under
center, Stichweh, realizing that his players
could not hear his signals, stepped away
and, once again, implored the officials to
stop the clock so that Army could run what
would be the last play of an extraordinary
game. But, inexplicably (at least to the Army
players and fans), this time the officials
ignored the request and time expired before
Army could snap the ball. One of the great
games in college football history ended in
confusion, with the officials sprinting off the
field as the Navy players rejoiced and the
Army team staggered about in bewilderment
and painful disappointment.
As an article in Sports Illustrated
magazine days later noted: “The 1963 Army-
Navy game will surely be remembered for
the play that never was. Whatever had
resulted – an Army score or a brave Navy
stand – would have made a perfect ending
to a brilliant day of college football.”
And no player had been more brilliant
that day than Rollie Stichweh, who was
praised by Texas Coach Darrell Royal (who
was at the game to scout the Navy team) as
“the best back in the country.”
But if you ask Stichweh today to talk
about that 1963 game and his national
headline-garnering heroics, he will smile
and politely shift the conversation to the 1964
game and Army’s upset win over another
Staubach-led Navy team. Because that
game – and that win – were all about the
team. He will tell you that it was all about
redemption, and believing in the power of
dedication and comradeship, and the spirit
of West Point. And if you ask him about the
officials’ puzzling refusal to stop the clock on
that last play of the 1963 game, his answer is
what you would expect from a leader who
never shirked his responsibility, never
sought to place blame, and who always put
his team first: “It was my responsibility as the
quarterback to manage the clock…no excuses.”
That win against Navy in 1964, in which
he threw a touchdown pass and made the
game-ending tackle, was the perfect
punctuation to a spectacular career.
Stichweh, who had been voted captain by
his teammates that season, led the team in
rushing, passing, and scoring and was
selected the team Most Valuable Player. He
gathered an impressive array of accolades,
earning All-America (Honorable Mention),
All-East (First Team), and Sports Illustrated’s
“National Back of the Week” recognition, and
was selected to play in both the North-South
Shrine Game and the East-West All-
American Game.
As a soldier, not surprisingly, it was
again all about his team. A combat veteran of
the war in Vietnam as a member of the
173rd Airborne Brigade, he received
numerous awards, including two for heroism
under fire: the Bronze Star with “V” for valor
and the Air Medal with “V” for valor. In that
perhaps most difficult of conflicts, he
provided his soldiers with the same brand of
inspirational leadership that he exhibited
when he graced the “fields of friendly strife”
at West Point. And in the years since his
graduation, West Point has never left his
heart as he has continued to serve his alma
mater in a variety of leadership roles.
“Being a West Point cadet,” says
Stichweh, “was a transformational
experience for me, and helped me form
values and principles which have guided
me throughout my life. One has been the
critical importance of teamwork. While it’s
possible for an individual to accomplish
certain things on his own, rarely does that
ever occur without the benefit of terrific
teammates. No one has been luckier than I
in that regard. Terrific teammates in the
Corps and on the football squad at Army;
terrific teammates in my infantry company in
the 173rd Airborne Brigade in Vietnam;
terrific classmates in the USMA Class of
1965; and, of course, terrific teammates in
my family and close circle of friends. West
Point taught me that the ability to form and
sustain special relationships with special
people flows from mutual feelings of trust
and honesty. When those elements are in
place, great things can happen – together.”
As one of the radiant stars in the galaxy
of Army athletic luminaries, for Rollie
Stichweh the message – as an athlete, a
soldier, a successful businessman, a
community leader, a husband of 48 years to
his wife Carole, a father, and a grandfather –
has always been the same.
It has always been about the team. �
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t is a charming story. The way Donna Brazil and Tim Trainor first met has a
fairytale feel. They were sophomore cadets, Yearlings in West Point speak, in
combatives class which at the time was co-educational. Tim was supposed to bend down
on all fours so Donna could jump off of his back for a forward dive roll. It didn’t go exactly
as planned and she ended up tripping over Tim.
It didn’t matter. They started talking and eventually had their first date on Christmas Eve.
It went well, very well. That meeting in combatives class has turned into a marriage that
includes three children and a tremendous impact on the United States Military Academy.
Tim is now General Trainor, Brigadier General to be exact, and West Point’s Dean of
the Academic Board. Donna is now Colonel (Ret.) Donna Brazil after concluding a
tremendous military career that included two teaching assignments at the Academy.
Their military careers have taken them around the world and the number of cadets
they have impacted totals in the thousands.
Not only are they graduates of West Point, all three of their children have also
accepted the 47-month challenge of attending school at the U.S. Military Academy.
Zach is the youngest and entered West Point this summer as a freshman after
completing a year at the U.S. Military Academy Preparatory School. He is a recruited
football player who hopes to make his impact in the classroom and on the “fields of
friendly strife” as a running back under first-year head coach Jeff Monken.
Daniel is a member of the Class of 2015. While you might see his younger brother
on the football field, you will hear Daniel at a bevy of Army sporting events when he
sings the National Anthem and is the President of the Glee Club.
Cory is the oldest of the three children and walked across the stage during
commencement exercises in 2013 when her Dad presented her with her West Point
diploma. Now stationed in Hawai’i, she currently holds the rank of second lieutenant.
A long and distinguished military career wasn’t the original plan for Brazil. She
thought for sure a civilian college was what was best for her and then changed her mind.
“If you would have asked me back then, I was going to school, I was going to
college,” Brazil says. “I wasn’t sure if the Army and West Point were for me. Then I
graduated from an all-girls catholic high school on a Sunday and enlisted in the Army on
a Wednesday so I could go to prep school. My life has never been the same since in
many good and a few crazy ways. My family was always interested in serving in the
community but I didn’t understand the military. I came here to go to college and came to
love West Point, for what West Point stood for, the values, the structure. It really resonated
with me.”
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Trainor FamilyE
ArMy ADvEnTurES
ABounDBy ryan J. yanoshak
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After graduating from West Point in
1983, she served in a host of commands,
including Kaiserslautern, Germany, Fort
Bragg, N.C. and Fort Riley, Kan. She
earned her master’s degree from the
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
and then returned to West Point to teach
from 1992 to 1995.
Brazil returned to Chapel Hill for her
doctoral studies and came back to West
Point to teach again in 2001 in the
Department of Behavioral Sciences and
Leadership, a position she held until her
retirement in May of 2013.
“I didn’t understand at the time how
much I would enjoy teaching,” she says. “I
thought I would like it; I didn’t think I
would love it. The Army is about people
and teams. You get to be a part of an
incredible team the whole time you are
serving. What I love about the Army is the
people I get to work with and the teams I
got to be a part of. When the opportunity
came to return to the faculty, we jumped at
it. West Point continues to have criss-
crossed lines in our lives.”
“My life is like team sports,” says
Brazil. “Team sports are made up of
people and people matter. I have always
been interested in people and
understanding them. You can’t be a good
leader if you don’t understand people and
that’s the core of what we do. I felt very
strongly that the core course in leadership
was as much a class in psychology than
anything else. The idea of learning to
understand yourself and people and the
situation is what the course was all about.
“I loved it. The idea of preparing
cadets for what they didn’t know was
pretty cool. When the opportunity came to
return for my Ph.D and to come back to
West Point and not only teach cadets but
to teach and mentor Captains and Majors
was really a good fit to what I found my
strengths to be and what I found
enjoyment in. “
Nor was her husband thinking about
a military career that began centered on
academics.
“I can’t say I had an epiphany where I
wanted to get involved in academics,”
says Trainor. “The Army is very good
about offering you opportunities in your
career that maybe take you in a direction
you didn’t think about. I was stationed at
Fort Bragg when the Army offered me the
great opportunity to get my MBA and
come back to teach at West Point. I came
back to West Point and loved it, although I
wanted to get back out into the
operational Army. Then, I was able to
come back and get to work with such
outstanding young men and women.”
Trainor entered the Engineer branch
of the U.S. Army and served posts in
Germany, Honduras, Fort Bragg, N.C., Fort
Riley, Kan., and Sarajevo, Bosnia.
He collected his MBA from the Fuqua
School of Business at Duke University and
a Doctorate in industrial engineering from
North Carolina State University. After
graduating from Duke, Trainor returned to
West Point to teach before returning to the
field.
Trainor came back to West Point a
second time, as professor and head of the
Department of Systems Engineering.
“Certainly, the best parts of my day
are the interaction with cadets and faculty
members,” says Trainor. “I say cadets first
because they have such energy. The
majority of them have a positive energy
that fires you up. When I think about
cadets they all come here intellectually
sharp and physically fit and that’s great.
We do a good job of recruiting those
characteristics. What strikes me so much
about them is a genuine desire to serve
others. It is genuine. That’s what gets me
fired up and you get that youthful zeal that
is directed to serving others as an Army
officer.”
From there, he was chosen as the
13th Dean of the Academic Board,
assuming that position in 2010.
“Being the Dean of the Academic
Board is really an honor for me,” says
Trainor. “I don’t say that lightly. It truly is an
honor to be entrusted to serve in this
position where I have a large impact on
the development of cadets and the
“Certainly, the best parts of my day are the interaction with cadets andfaculty members. I say cadets first because they have such energy. Themajority of them have a positive energy that fires you up.”
— Brig. Gen. Tim Trainor
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programs we use to serve the Army and
the nation as leaders of character.
“Primarily, what I do is ensure that the
programs that we have are developed,
assessed and refined as needed to make
sure that we are educating and
developing cadets to be the best leaders
they can. That’s the biggest thing I do,
ensuring that our programs are
developed and implemented so they
deliver the best possible education. My
primary focus is on the academic
program and education. I also have a
significant role in the other programs,
working with the Superintendent and
Commandant.”
Like his wife, Trainor can be found at
most sporting events, supporting the
cadets no matter the sport.
While the couple’s three children
have all attended the same school, it has
been a much different experience for
each.
“West Point has had a tremendous
impact on my life,” says Trainor. “My wife
is a graduate. My brother, James,
graduated from West Point in 1981. His
wife, the former Eileen Mulholland, was
my classmate. I wasn’t surprised that my
daughter decided to come here. She
always had what I thought it took to be a
successful cadet in terms of her
personality. She decided to come last-
minute. Cory wanted to study engineering
and play lacrosse and also wanted to join
the Army. She applied at several schools
and was going to go to Rensselaer
Polytechnic Institute on an ROTC
scholarship. She changed her mind at the
last minute and decided to come to West
Point. What convinced her was she spent
time going to classes like any cadet-
candidate and met with the team and they
convinced her it was the place for her.
“My oldest boy, Danny, was all set to
go to Wake Forest on an ROTC
scholarship and changed his mind and
decided to come to West Point, and I am
glad he did. My youngest, Zack, just
finished a year at the U.S. Military
Academy Prep School and is excited. All
three are following in our footsteps but on
very different paths which is amazing
given we are a military organization. Our
oldest played lacrosse and was high in the
cadet leadership chain and did very well
academically. Danny is also doing well
academically and he chose to major in the
humanities. He is involved in the Glee
Club and his path is very different.”
“Zack is a recruited football player so
his path will be very different as well.”
What’s next for the Trainor family is
mostly undetermined but you can be sure
that Trainor and Brazil will attend as many
sporting events as schedules allow,
continue to work closely with cadets and
enjoy the role education plays in their
career.
The kids? Well, they are just
beginning an Army adventure that is sure
to open many doors, plenty of which they
aren’t even aware. �
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Editorial Contributors
Bob Beretta is the Executive Athletic Director at the United StatesMilitary Academy. A local product with deep-rooted ties to theHudson Valley, Beretta is in 14th year on the senior leadershipteam and 28th overall in West Point’s athletic department.Formerly an award-winning sports information director, Berettanow oversees Army’s football, hockey, baseball and women’sbasketball programs, among other duties. He also managesArmy’s athletic communications, multi-media, broadcasting andsponsorship endeavors. A graduate of St. Bonaventure University,Beretta is a member of the Football Writers Association ofAmerica, U.S. Basketball Writers Association, National CollegiateBaseball Writers Association and the National Association ofCollegiate Directors of Athletics.
Harrison Antognioni is in his second year with the ArmyAthletic Communications staff. He serves as the primary contactfor the Black Knights’ men’s soccer, women’s basketball andwomen’s lacrosse programs. Antognioni arrived at West Pointafter working as an intern at St. Michael’s College in Colchester,Vt., where he assisted with the publicity and media relations of thecollege’s 21 sports. A graduate of St. Michael’s College,Antognioni also worked with the Burlington Free Press and GreenMountain Rock Crushers, a professional ice hockey team.
Mark Beech is a second generation West Point graduate and asenior editor at Sports Illustrated magazine. He is the author ofWhen Saturday Mattered Most: The Last Golden Season of ArmyFootball. A member of West Point’s Class of 1991, Beech spentfive years in the United States Army before pursuing hisjournalism career. Beech spent a decade covering collegefootball for Sports Illustrated and has also written about a widerange of other sports including college basketball, horse racingand NASCAR. He currently is the magazine’s National HockeyLeague and horse racing editor.
Wayne Coffey is an award-winning sports writer for the NewYork Daily News and the author of more than 30 books. A residentof the Hudson Valley, Coffey authored The Boys of Winter, a bookabout the 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team, among others. Athree-time Pulitzer nominee, Coffey has been named one of thenation’s top feature writers by the Associated Press three times inthe last six years.
John Feinstein is an award-winning sportswriter, author andsports commentator. The author of 32 books, including “A CivilWar: Army vs. Navy” about the Army-Navy rivalry and “The LastAmateurs,” a book about Patriot League basketball, Feinstein is awriter for the Washington Post and hosts The John Feinstein Showon CBS Sports Radio in addition to his commentary work with theGolf Channel. A graduate of Duke University, Feinstein served asan essayist for CBS Sports Network during the 2013 footballseason and was featured in Army’s broadcasts.
Jack Ford has spent more than two dozen years in front of thetelevision camera as presenter of numerous news andentertainment programs. An Emmy and Peabody Awardwinning journalist, Ford is a former trial attorney. Ford is avisiting professor at Yale University, New York University andthe University of Virginia and the author of The Walls of Jericho.He was the Executive Producer of the documentary “MarchingOn: the 1963 Army-Navy Game and the Assassination of JFK”that aired on CBS Sports Network and is currently working ona story about the Army-Navy rivalry for “60 Minutes Sports.”
Kevin Gleason is an award-winning columnist at the TimesHerald-Record in Middletown, N.Y. A staff member of the papersince 1989, Gleason has covered nearly every sport at West Point,first as a writer and feature author, and later as the paper’ssignature columnist. He is a graduate of SUNY Plattsburgh.
Brian Gunning, now Specialist, Marketing and Public Relations atSt. Luke’s Hospital, spent seven years as a member of the ArmyAthletic Communications staff. He served as the primary mediacontact for Army’s football, men’s basketball and golf programsamong other duties. A graduate of Ithaca College, Gunning workedat Ithaca, Syracuse University, Marshall University and Ohio Universitybefore arriving at West Point. A College Sports Information Directorof America award winner, Gunning was also responsible for layoutand design for the Army football game program and many of theArmy Athletic Association’s collateral materials.
Tracy Nelson is now Public Relations Representative at Paychex,Inc., following seven years as a member of the Army AthleticCommunications staff. Nelson served as the primary contact forArmy’s lacrosse and hockey programs and prior to that women’sbasketball, women’s tennis and volleyball teams. A graduate of St.Bonaventure University, Nelson worked at Lafayette Collegebefore West Point. A College Sports Information Director ofAmerica award winner, Nelson was also responsible for oversightof the Army Athletic Association’s official website throughout herWest Point tenure.
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Acknowledgements
Mady Salvani is in her 46th year with the Army AthleticAssociation and is a member of the Black Knights’ AthleticCommunications staff. Salvani serves as the primary contactfor Army’s women’s soccer, rifle and softball programs and isalso the Director of Research and Special Projects. A talentedphotographer, Salvani started her career with West Point’sPublic Affairs Office and recently completed her 51st yearworking at the Academy.
Mike Vaccaro is the lead sports columnist at the New York Post,a position he has held since 2002. Previously a columnist at TheStar-Ledger, Kansas City Star and Times Herald-Record, Vaccarois also the author of several books, mostly recently “MarianoRivera: Saving Grace,” which was published last year.
Ryan J. Yanoshak is in his eighth year as a member of theArmy Athletic Communications staff. He serves as the primarycontact for Army’s football program and oversees the AthleticCommunications office. A graduate of Bloomsburg Universitywith a master’s degree from East Stroudsburg University,Yanoshak also serves as Deputy Licensing Director, and as theSpecial Assistant to the Executive Athletic Director.
Image Contributors
Anthony Battista is in his 21st year as a photographer andgraphic designer at West Point. A graduate of Rhode IslandSchool of Photography, he opened his own printing businessworking with Hudson Valley professionals for 13 years beforetaking a two-year sabbatical spent in Maine photographing thescenic beauty of its coastal islands and towns. He shot the anchorphoto for the Trainor Family piece.
Tommy Gilligan has been a professional photographer for over11 years. He spent four years working as a staff photojournalist forthe United States Military Academy and now works as a freelancephotographer. Prior to arriving at West Point, Gilligan served as aPhotographers Mate in the United States Navy for six years.Gilligan also shoots for the New York Giants as well as otherprofessional and NCAA teams. Gilligan provided photos for theHerman Bulls, Dan Christman, Col. Greg Gadson and BobNovogratz pieces.
Jon Malinowski is Professor of Geography in the Departmentof Geography and Environmental Engineering at West Point.Currently in his 20th year on the faculty, Jon has volunteered as aphotographer for the Army Athletic Association and other WestPoint offices for a decade. His work has been published in SportsIllustratedmagazine, ESPN The Magazine, and several majornewspapers. He provided photos for the Andrew Avelino story.
Staff Sgt. Terrance Payton is a Public Affairs NonCommissioned Officerer for 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 82ndAirborne Division. A graduate of the United States DefenseInformation School, he spent 12 years on active duty in theUnited States Navy and the United States Army with assignmentsin Germany, Naval Air Station Norfolk, Naval Engineering StationLakehurst, N.J., Fort Lee, Va. and Fort Bragg, N.C. Payton providedthe anchor photo for the 1st Lt. Erin Anthony story.
John Pellino is in his 14th year as a photographer and graphicdesigner at West Point. A graduate of the University of CentralFlorida, he spent six years on active duty in the United StatesArmy with assignments in Panama and the Pentagon. He alsoserved as head coach of West Point’s women’s club lacrosseteam from 2009 to 2014. Pellino shot photos for the Maj. AshlieChristian, 2nd Lt. Lindsey Danilack, Becky Halstead, WilliamHurtado, Sam Lessey, Lichtenberg family, Dave Magarity andMady Salvani stories.
Danny Wild is in his eighth year as a reporter and photographerfor MLB.com, the official website of Major League Baseball. Hebegan volunteering at West Point as a photographer in 2009 aftergraduating with a bachelor’s degree in journalism from SUNYNew Paltz. His work with Army has been published by ESPN.com,Sports Illustrated magazine, The New York Times, Daily News andmore. Wild shot the anchor photo for the Rollie Stichweh piece.
Mission First was printed by the Elm Press.
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Mission First is dedicated to the American Soldier
“Yours is the profession of
arms, the will to win, the sure
knowledge that in war there is no
substitute for victory, that if you lose,
the Nation will be destroyed, that the
very obsession of your public
service must be duty, honor,
country.
Others will debate the
controversial issues, national and
international, which divide men’s
minds. But serene, calm, aloof, you
stand as the Nation’s war guardian,
as its lifeguard from the raging tides
of international conflict, as its
gladiator in the arena of battle.
For a century and a half you have
defended, guarded, and protected
its hallowed traditions of liberty and
freedom, of right and justice …
… You are the leaven which
binds together the entire fabric of
our national system of defense. From your ranks come the great
captains who hold the Nation’s destiny in their hands the moment
the war tocsin sounds.
The long, gray line has never failed us. Were you to do so,
a million ghosts in olive drab, in brown khaki, in blue and gray,
would rise from their white crosses, thundering those magic words:
Duty, honor, country.”
— Gen. Douglas MacArthur during his speech to the United States Corps of Cadetsin accepting the Sylvanus Thayer Award, May 12, 1962
The Statue To The American Soldier waspresented to the United States Corps ofCadets in 1980 on behalf of the WestPoint Class of 1935 and the West PointClass of 1936.
It is inscribed with the following:
PRESENTED TO THE CORPS OF CADETS
“THE LIVES AND DESTINIES OFVALIANT AMERICANS ARE ENTRUSTEDTO YOUR CARE AND LEADERSHIP”
OFFICE OF DIRECTORATE OF INTERCOLLEGIATE ATHLETICS
M I S S I O N S T A T E M E N T
To provide an extraordinary
Division I athletic experience
that develops leaders of character
committed to the values of
Duty, Honor, Country.
United States Military AcademyOffice of Directorate of Intercollegiate Athletics
639 Howard Road
West Point, NY 10996
www.goARMYsports.com
Facebook:www.facebook.com/armyblackknights
Twitter:www.twitter.com/armyathletics
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Tumblr:www.tumblr.com/armyathletics
Please visit the Army Athletics You Tube
page at youtube.com/armyathletics for
bonus video interview content from
each of the subjects featured in this
year’s edition of Mission First. This will
allow you to hear the voices, see the
facial expressions and feel the passion
of our subjects as they discuss a
myriad of topics related to this way
of life we call, Mission First.