Department of Law
Firstie Cadets Box, Matthews, Allen, and Gicewicz represented USMA at the Institute of International Humanitarian Law's 14th Annual Law of Armed Conflict Competition in San Remo, Italy, from 23-27 March 2015. The competition brought 62 cadets from 17 military academies representing 12 countries and mixed them into 3 person teams acting as fictitious countries working as a coalition going to war and fighting a rogue nation, confronting the myriad of legal issues that arise.
Over four days, the teams worked in Joint Operation Centers (JOC), acting as legal advisors to the JOC commander to demonstrate they could effectively deal with a complex geopolitical situation and the rule of law.
Cadets had to conduct an efficient military operation implementing the coalition's mandate, while simultaneously integrating specific instructions each team received from their own fictitious government as to their own national priorities. Beyond having an extraordinary opportunity to explore the various nuanced dimensions of the laws of war, the USMA Cadets also had a tremendous cultural immersion experience by teaming with cadets from Turkey, Nigeria, India, France, Sweden, and Italy.
The legal dilemmas facing the coalition tested cadets’ knowledge of treaties and customary international law, as they advised their commander on how to wage war lawfully. For example, the issues they faced ranged from determining if people fleeing from the rogue nation qualified for refugee status, to if preemptive self defense was justified when one coalition member's satellite seemed to be targeted, to whether a computer virus could be used as a weapon, to how a detainee who allegedly knew the location of a ticking bomb should be interrogated.
At the end of the competition, the international panel of military lawyers and ambassadors judging the exercise awarded CDT Molly Box and her teammates from Nigeria and Sweden third place for their impressive performance. Every USMA Cadet left the exercise with invaluable insights into working in a JOC, with an appreciation of the complexity of the applying the law of armed conflict, and with new international colleagues.
Department of Civil and Mechanical Engineering
Academics and Spring Break: Cadets Antony Park and Zach Cohen spent their entire spring break soaking up the culture and history in Vicksburg, MS, while conducting research with USACE ERDC GSL personnel (https://www.facebook.com/ArmyERDC/posts/815520431828502). The cadets left via automobile for Vicksburg on 13 March and returned on 22 March. They took several specimens their ME389 team had created with them and conducted several different tests on the samples using various facilities and systems available at ERDC. They returned with test data, knowledge, and raw materials to produce additional samples.
Cadet Connor McLeod took a day out of his spring break to travel to Picatinny Arsenal to work with RDECOM ARDEC and ARL personnel on testing of his ME496 Capstone team’s prototype suppressors for the M249. This was the team’s third time on the indoor range at Picatinny. The team has utilized West Point’s outdoor ranges in their research on two previous occasions and expects to be back out on Range 5 on 14 April.
Scranton Army Ammunition Plant (SCAAP): Cadets in CE491 Advanced Structural Analysis traveled to Scranton, PA, on 12 March 2015 to get a tour of the government-owned-contractor-operated facility and acquire data for estimated residual structural capacity in areas showing significant deterioration. General Dynamics runs this facility for the DoD that produces large caliber projectiles for all branches of the military. The Cadets learned how General Dynamics is changing the facility to accommodate the variable demand placed on it by the DoD, while servicing other customers to keep the plant and its workforce active. Many facets of prior course work, especially MC364 Mechanics of Materials, were clearly integral in the design and manufacturing of the projectiles.
Combating Terrorism Center
The Combating Terror Center took twenty two Cadets on a trip section to Washington D.C. from 25 – 27 March. The trip section was designed to introduce Cadets to the agencies involved in various aspects of counter-terrorism. The Cadets visited the White House, Federal Bureau of Investigation, National Counter-Terrorism Center, the Department of State, and the Department of the Treasury.
The Combating Terrorism Center’s Irregular Warfare Group conducted a trip section to Fort Bragg, North Carolina from 25 – 27 March. Seven Cadets were introduced to the units within U.S. Army Special Operations Command (USASOC) that conduct irregular warfare. The Cadets conducted a key leader engagement with LTG Cleveland, USASOC Commander, watched the International Sniper Competition, and observed part of the Special Forces Qualification Course. The Combating Terrorism Center’s Irregular Warfare Group conducted its second Irregular Warfare Challenge on 28 March. Eighteen Cadets participated in the five phase event, which included a modified APFT, team building exercises, an urban land navigation course, three team events, and rifle and pistol marksmanship. The event not only challenged the Cadets physically, but also presented them with unique problem solving tasks.
Department of History
Apple featured the West Point History of the Civil War open digital course on iTunes U in their “Education Spotlight,” which Apple sends to tens of thousands of educators and students around the world. The course is currently the #5 most popular course in iTunes U. 85,000 people have visited the course since December and 13,000 have signed up for it. Apple also named the West Point History of the Civil War a “Standout Course.”
From 14-21 March 2015, MAJs Jason Halub and Logan Collins led ten cadets on the History Department’s “Korea in Transition” Staff Ride. The staff ride was a seven-day historical tour of South Korea intended to introduce cadets to the major political and cultural changes that Korea has undergone since the late 19th century. In particular, the group focused on the development of Korean nationalism and its effect on how Koreans interpret their history. Cadets found the experience to be both enjoyable and enriching, and have reported that the highlights of the staff ride included visiting the Korean Independence Museum, conducting a combined history class and tour of the Korean Military Academy with KMA cadets and faculty, and touring the Joint Security Area and Demilitarized Zone.
Also during Spring Break, MAJ Erik Davis and LTC (Ret) Raymond Hrinko led seven history majors and one plebe who aspires to be a history major through Germany, Czech Republic, and Hungary to study the effects of the Cold War on the people of Central and Eastern Europe. The cadets visited the major sites related to the Cold War in Berlin, Prague and Budapest. Their understanding of life under the totalitarian system of communism in Europe was increased through their study of the early Cold War and secret police in Berlin, resistance and the end of communism in Prague and, finally, the Hungarian attempt to overthrow their Soviet masters in their failed 1956 revolution. Cadets roamed far and wide to complete the itinerary: they flew 8,532 miles, drove 554 miles and walked 75 miles in eight days.
While in Berlin, cadets discussed German history preceding WWII and the Cold War during visits to Victory Tower which celebrates German unification in 1871 and the Topography of Terror Museum, located in the former Gestapo headquarters, which chronicles the rise of the Nazi Party in Germany. Cadets were intrigued by how German identity contributed to the course of the Cold War. Memory and Memorialization were significant themes of the trip. Cadets were amazed by the power of the memorial to the Soviet liberators of Germany located in Treptower Park. Particularly, cadets were fascinated that the graves of the 10,000 Soviet soldiers buried there are hard to discern but Stalin’s quotes are on every stone surrounding a gigantic statue of a Soviet soldier vanquishing a swastika while holding an infant Germany in his arms. Debate lasted for hours over the message Stalin intended to send the German people with the memorial. Additionally, in Berlin, cadets were guided through the Ministry of State Security (Stasi) Museum by an 81-year old lifelong resident of eastern Berlin. They were enthralled in her stories of life under communism in the German Democratic Republic.
In Prague, the cadets spent the day touring sites related to the communist regime in former Czechoslovakia. Their guide, Radek, was their age when he joined other students and workers in Wenceslas Square to protest the communist government during the Velvet Revolution of 1989 which ended communist control in then-Czechoslovakia. He related his personal experiences growing up under communism with stories about his first bicycle which his parents received only after giving bribes to move to the head of the waiting list. He made light of the fact that his bicycle fell apart within weeks due to low quality craftsmanship. Radek also described how he clandestinely listened to Radio Free Europe with his parents in the 1980s as communism was beginning to unravel and how students could tell who else listened by the looks on each other’s faces after broadcasts about protests and calls for general strikes.
In Budapest, the cadets were treated to a traditional Hungarian dinner by the Samland family at their home. The Samland’s son, CDT Mark Samland is a Mechanical Engineering major and a member of USMA’s class of 2016. The family has lived in Budapest for fifteen years due to the Samlands’ work as missionaries in the Balkans and the former Soviet republics. The Samlands shared insight into the current politics of Hungary and the lingering effects of the Cold War and its end in Hungary. The cadets toured the House of Terror Museum which details the rise of communist control in Hungary and the methods of control used by the Communist Party over the Hungarian people at the hands of their secret police. The remaining days in Budapest were spent walking the sites of some of the fiercest Hungarian resistance during the 1956 Revolution against Soviet control.
On the Cold War in Europe Staff Ride, cadets were able to see the value of traveling to the sites which they study. Books cannot provide the perspective gained by walking the ground and talking to the people who experienced the events and their aftermath of world events. Interaction with their Stasi tour guide in Berlin, Radek in Prague and the Samlands in Budapest deepened the cadets’ scholarly perspective and changed their world-views.
In the department’s third spring break staff ride, Majors Nathan McCormack and David Musick led ten cadets on the “History of Irish Nationalism Staff Ride” from 13-22 March. The trip was the culmination of a semester-long seminar studying the development of various ideas of nationalism in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. The group visited numerous historical and cultural sites around the island including sites associated with the Easter Rising of 1916, the “Troubles” in Northern Ireland during the 1960s-1980s—including Londonderry/Derry and the Shankhill and Falls Roads in Belfast, and sites of Irish/Celtic cultural heritage such as the Hill of Tara, the Giant’s Causeway, and the Cliffs of Moher. While walking the ground where these events transpired, cadets discussed the development of different understandings of Irish identity, the ways that these narratives led to conflict when tied to other factors such as socioeconomic status, religious affiliation, and political/civil rights, and also how opposing factions reconciled and commemorated their experiences once conflict ceased.
On 25 March, the History Department hosted a very large crowd to view an interpretation of the epic battle between Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia in the film Stalingrad. Well over 50 cadets came for pizza and themed desserts and stayed for the big budget Russian blockbuster and the panel discussion afterwards. MAJ Brett Lea's wife, Danielle, baked Black Forest cupcakes to represent the Germans and White Russian cupcakes to represent the Soviets. They did not last long. We'd also like to thank the West Point Association of Graduates for providing gifts which were raffled away to three lucky cadets. The crowd came away impressed with the depictions of the battle which were filmed for 3D IMAX. Unfortunately, those facilities are still not available here at West Point, but the scenes were impressive nonetheless.
On Saturday 28 March, the West Point Museum and the History Department hosted a viewing of Stanley Kubrick’s iconic film, Dr. Strangelove, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb in the large weapons gallery of the museum, right next to the Atomic Bomb display. As part of their study of the beginnings of and atmosphere during the Cold War, thirteen Cadets from HI302X, the plebe History of the Military Art class, and four faculty members watched the movie and then reviewed the excellent historical exhibits presented by the museum.
Department of Physics and Nuclear Engineering
Cadet research on graphene during Spring Break at ARL, Adelphi, MD: CDT Connor Cabrey and Dr. Paula Fekete of the Department of Physics and Nuclear Engineering, working together on a PH489 individual research project, visited the Army Research Laboratories at Adelphi, MD during Spring Break. On the left, there is a picture taken of the two of them wearing protective gear in the laboratories’ clean room. In this particular part of the clean room, even the light used is a different color to protect sensitive samples. Behind them, there is a multimillion-dollar electron microscope that they saw in operation analyzing nano-size circuits built by one the laboratory’s research teams. Dr. Fekete and CDT Cabrey were hosted by Dr. Madan Dubey, a research scientist at the Sensors and Electron Devices Directorate. Guided by Dr. Robert Burt, one of the researchers on Dr. Dubey’s team, CDT Cabrey was able to observe how graphene is grown on a copper substrate in a 1000-degrees Centigrade furnace. The process takes many steps and it is almost 8-hours long. After deposition, samples were taken for processing into ARL’s state-of-the art clean room. The prepared samples will be analyzed by Raman spectroscopy. In recent years, graphene has emerged as an appealing substrate for molecular self-assembly in two dimensions. The formation of ordered arrays of molecules via self-assembly is a rapid, scalable route towards the realization of nanoscale architectures with tailored properties. This process can be accomplished by undergraduate students here at West Point using samples provided by ARL scientists. Dr. Fekete and Dr. Dubey are planning to continue their collaboration, started in 2009, by working on such samples that may have applications in nanoelectronic devices developed by ARL.
Future Events
American Nuclear Society Student Conference: During 8-12 April, LTC Ken Allen will travel to College Station, TX with 9 cadets to participate in the ANS Student Conference. They will be presenting their capstone projects and independent research projects at the conference in order to promote their development as scholars in the field of nuclear engineering and to further their research by interacting with other scholars and learning about the latest developments in the field. The April Conference is the only annual student meeting of its kind, held by the largest professional organization of nuclear engineering in the United States, maximizing the opportunity for interaction with a broad group of scholars. Periodic participation in such academic conferences is critical for faculty members to remain current and productive as scholars, which is in turn critical to USMA’s mission to educate cadets at the collegiate level. The student conference provides an excellent venue for out cadets to showcase their research, interact with peers from other Tier 1 institutions and provides real assessment to the NE Program on how our students compare to other NE majors across the country.
Rochester Symposium for Physics Students: During 10-11 April, LTC Chad Schools will travel to Oswego, NY with six cadets to present their research at the Rochester Symposium for Physics Students. This provides them the opportunity to engage with students and faculty from the local region and to practice their communication skills. They will be able to interact with their civilian peers and also civilian faculty. This is also an opportunity to show local institutions some of the research being conducted at USMA.
Director of Los Alamos National Lab visit to USMA: Dr. Charles McMillan, (SES), Director of Los Alamos National Lab will visit USMA 12-13 April. Dr. McMillan is visiting the military academies in order to promote the need to balance the humanities and technical education of our future leaders and to foster the collaboration between the military academies and LANL. During the visit Dr. McMillan will speak to a group of 150 cadets and faculty about technology and how it relates to and affects decision making.
P&NE Academic Awards Banquet: On 14 April, the Department of Physics and Nuclear Engineering will host their Annual Awards Banquet at the West Point Club to induct cadets into the Society of Physics Students and American Nuclear Society as well as present certificates for excellence in physics and nuclear engineering course work throughout AY15. The guest speaker for the event is Dr. Larry Foulke (previous American Nuclear Society President).
Habitat for Humanity – Walk for Housing: On 26 April, the House of PaNE will support the Walk for Housing Event in Newburgh, NY. This event will raise funds for building projects in the Newburgh area to benefit needy families. The following link allows you to join Team PANE (the password is "teampane") or support walkers on Team PANE: https://habitat.myetap.org/fundraiser/2015WalkforHousing/team.do?participationRef=1190.0.65454124. Every small donation will help reach our team fundraising goal which is set at $1000.
Department of English and Philosophy
USMA Writing Fellows Present at UCONN’s 10th Annual Conference on the Teaching of Writing. On 27 March, the USMA Writing Fellows visited the University of Connecticut’s Writing Center and presented papers at the 10th Annual Conference on the Teaching of Writing. Their panel, “Translating the Boundaries of Experience: Utility, Failure, and Collaboration,” examined writing not only as a process, but as a means for rendering personal and professional experience into narrative in academic and operating environments. Cadet Joseph Carrannante’s paper proposed a writing apprenticeship program that pairs Cadets at the Academy with active duty officers to contribute to the Army through coauthored narratives that translate personal and professional experience into lessons learned. Cadet Joseph DiGennaro argued that, too often, beginning and intermediate writers look at failure during the writing process as an obstacle either to avoid completely or to overcome as quickly as possible. Instead, he argued that that interim failure is crucial to achieving lasting success. Finally, in his presentation, Cadet William Grodesky maintained that successful writing depends as much upon a writer’s collaborative environment as the writer himself or herself. His argument considered contemporary constraints and contexts of writing in an effort to strike a balance between individual effort and collaboration.
Cadets enrolled in EN102 (Literature) visit the New York Public Library. On 25 March, the USMA Library’s Special Collections and Archives Staff hosted 42 Cadets enrolled in MAJ Paul de León’s EN102 (Literature) class. The exhibit contained first editions of Shakespeare’s work as well as original maps from the American Revolutionary and Civil Wars. This display provided an invaluable experience that allowed Cadets to contextualize the works studied in the course. More broadly, it gave students a better understanding of the materiality and rich history of these texts. While in New York City, the Cadets also visited Grand Central Terminal and received a “behind the scenes” tour of the building from the station manager.
Creative Writing Forum Explores New York’s Downtown Literary Scene: Dr. Mary Anne Myers and seven Cadets from the Creative Writing Forum explored New York City’s downtown literary scene on Saturday, March 28. MAJ Jack Morrow, a former CWF member who now teaches American Politics in the SOSH Department, helped us launch the adventure by meeting us at Trinity Church and leading us along Walt Whitman’s steps from the Brooklyn Ferry to his newspaper job in Manhattan. After a walk across the Brooklyn Bridge and a communal pizza lunch, the group returned to Manhattan where small groups split up to explore literary landmarks in the East and West (a.k.a. Greenwich) Village neighborhoods. Some Cadets spent time browsing in the classic Strand Book Store on 13th Street and Broadway. Another set checked out the former location of the historic CBGBs music club and squeezed in a quick trip uptown to the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Central Park. The group reconvened on the Lower East Side for some early-evening literary readings at the Cake Shop and the FusionArts Museum. In addition to MAJ Morrow, English professors Drs. Brianne Bilsky and Joseph Jordan joined the group.
Department of Foreign Languages
Russian: During the Spring Break, a group of 7 cadets who are studying Russian attended the first part of an exchange with the All-Arms Defense Institute in Almaty, Kazakhstan. During the exchange the cadets were given the opportunity to use their Russian language and cultural skills in an immersion environment, living and training among their Kazakh counterparts. The cadets were given instruction on Kazakh army weapons, tank and armored vehicle training and maintenance, physical fitness and daily life. They also got to experience the city of Almaty and Kazakh food and culture. The exchange was a part of a CENTCOM initiative to transform officer development in Central Asia, and includes a visit to USMA CFT by Kazakh cadets.
Chinese: During the Spring Break, a group of 6 cadets (George Grindley, Pearl Brooks, Taylor Wing, Tasi Lloyd, Ethan Hernandez, and Madison Turner) who are studying Chinese traveled to Beijing, China for Language and Cultural Immersion. The cadets visited many of the historically significant sites in the capitol city, including Tiananmen Square, The Forbidden City (with its many museums), The Summer Palace, and the Heavenly Palace, to name a few. This visit represented the first opportunity for each of the six cadets to use their language in a real-world setting, outside of the classroom.
Arabic Language Club: Mrs. Carolyn Clark, SOSH Visiting Professor and U.S. Foreign Service Officer, extended an invitation to the Arabic Language Club and Farsi students to participate in her Friday Night Belly Dance Jam at the MWR Gym. The cost was waived for the five cadets who participated, and offered them the opportunity to step out of their comfort zones and experience the art of Belly Dancing along with several members of the West Point community.
The Arabic Language Club visited the Islamic Art Collection at the Metropolitan Museum in New York followed by dinner in Brooklyn’s Arab quarter to increase the Cadets’ exposure to Islamic art and culture. The club got the chance to view “the last known piece of Spanish Muslim armor to have survived the Nasrid period (1238-1492)” in the Arms and Armor exhibit as well.
Department of Geography and Environmental Engineering
EV388B Geomorphology field trip to Schunemunk Mountain. On 31 March, 15 Cadets and two instructors hiked to the top of Schunemunk Mountain, near Cornwall, to determine how the area’s geologic history, climate, and surficial processes interact to produce this unique landform. The mountain’s ridge-line consists of a pink, massively jointed conglomerate rock found nowhere else in the state. Formed over 300 million years ago during mountain formation, the rock layers are extremely strong and bear numerous marks left by multiple glacial events during the last 2 million years. Given the region’s relatively consistent rainfall, water is currently the most effective geomorphic agent, eroding the mountain through an extensive drainage network. Cadets experienced how the geologic, climatic, glacial, hillslope, and fluvial components of the course interact to produce a landform, in this case Schunemunk Mountain.
EV401 Stony Lonesome Water Treatment Plant Tour. Cadets enrolled in EV401, Physical and Chemical Treatment Processes, visited the Stony Lonesome Water Treatment Plant on March 27th. The plant, which can treat up to two million gallons of drinking water per day, serves Stony Lonesome housing area, the Post Exchange – Commissary complex, and the US Military Academy Preparatory School, among others. Cadets left the tour with a richer understanding of conventional water treatment processes.
BG Toy Guest lecture, EV400 & SAME Student Chapter. On March 27th, BG Mark Toy (Commander, US Army Corps of Engineers South Pacific Division) spoke to cadets enrolled in EV400 (Environmental Engineering Seminar) about working in the US Army Corps of Engineers’ Districts. After lunch, he gave an additional lecture on leadership to interested cadets and faculty, sponsored by the newly formed USMA Student Chapter of the Society of American Military Engineers.
Power Plant Tour, EV397. On March 26th, environmental engineering majors enrolled in Air Pollution Engineering (EV397) toured the PSEG Hudson Generating Station in Jersey City, NJ, which produces up to 620 megawatts of electricity from both coal and natural gas. Cadets focused particularly on the air pollution control devices on the plant, which were installed recently to make it one of the cleaner coal-fired power plants in the nation.
Department of Electrical Engineering & Computer Science
EECS Faculty and Cadets Attend SANS Institute Hacker Course. The Cyber Research Center sent one faculty member and 14 cadets to Charleston, SC on 15-22 March 2015 to attend SEC504: “Hacker Tools, Techniques, Exploits, and Incident Handling,” which is a course taught by the SANS Institute. The SANS Institute provided ten scholarships for this course in order to expose cadets to the world class information security and management training offered by them. SEC504 is designed to help security professionals gain an understanding of attackers' tactics and strategies. It provided a combination of classroom instructions and hands on experience in finding vulnerabilities, discovering intrusions and building a comprehensive incident handling plan. Some of the most exciting training took place during the two nights of NETWARS and the last day Capture the Flag Exercise. These two events provided Cadets with hands on experience with real world scenarios and challenged them to apply the course material with a focus on mastering the skills used by information security professionals. The cadets that attended are members of the Special Interest Group for Security, Audit, and Control (SIGSAC) Club or the Cadet Competitive Cyber Team (C3T). Many of these cadets will fill key roles in the Cyber Defense Exercise (CDX) and some of them will become members of the newly established Cyber Branch. This is a significant step for cadets enrolled in the Cyber Leadership Development Program (CLDP) and each one will have an opportunity to take a test and become a Certified Incident Handler (GCIH). Overall, it was a very challenging experience for the cadets as they gained a much deeper understanding of the nature of the cyber domain and a greater appreciation for attacking and defending in the cyberspace. The Cyber Research Center and the Cadets are very grateful for this opportunity provided by Mr. Vinny Viola, Mr. Marshal Carter, and the SANS Institute.
EECS Hosts One of Two “Fathers of the Internet” as Speaker for Castle Lecture. For 25 years, the James C. and Dorothy P. Castle Lecture Series has brought to West Point industrial, military, and academic leaders in computer science, computer engineering, and information technology. The 2015 lecturer, Dr. Vinton Cerf, is Vice President and Chief Internet Evangelist for Google and is one of the two “fathers of the Internet.” His lecture, entitled “The Power of Ideas: Internet,” provided insights and stories about the early days of his and his colleagues’ research and development of the protocols of the Internet. He also talked about the future of Internet. (IP) addresses and their transition from the current 32-bit length to 128 bits and explained his current research and development of protocols to be used for interplanetary travel. The entire Class of 2018 was mesmerized by Dr. Cerf and both faculty and cadets gave him outstanding reviews. After the talk, over 100 cadets came up to ask him questions. They were ultimately invited to attend the after-lecture reception during which Dr. Cerf stayed and answered all of their questions, going far beyond the planned time. During his time on campus, Dr. Cerf also had lunch with EECS faulty, was given a tour of West Point, visited with the Dean of the Academic Board, and had dinner at the home of COL Barry Shoop, Department Head of EECS, with department faculty.
EECS Experimenter’s Club Supports Hudson Valley First Lego League Competition. The USMA Electrical Engineers Experimenters Club under the oversight of CPT William North, supported the Hudson Valley First Lego League Competition on 28 February at Dutchess Community College. CDT Sam Skillman, CDT Jacob Bostick, CDT Kurt Klinkmueller, and CDT Tsu Kreidler went to the First Lego League competition at Dutchess Community College to demonstrate military robots. While there, the Cadets answered questions from middle school aged kids about robots, West Point, and the Army.