ASSOCIATION OF THE UNITED STATES ARMY

A stand-down at West Point to focus on the issue of extremism will take place in late March as part of a series of initiatives intent on building a stronger culture of character, diversity acceptance and communication, the academy’s top leader said.

In virtual testimony March 2 before the House Appropriations Committee’s subcommittee on defense, Lt. Gen. Darryl Williams, superintendent of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York, gave an overview of the academy’s activities along with the leaders of the other service academies.

Fresh off winning the Commander-in-Chief’s Trophy for the third time in four years, the Army Black Knights have accepted a bid to play in the 2020 AutoZone Liberty Bowl.

The team from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York, will play West Virginia of the Big 12 Conference on Dec. 31. The game begins at 3 p.m. Central on ESPN.

A new memorial honoring the legacy of West Point’s Buffalo Soldiers will be revealed next year as planners aim to have it completed in September 2021.

A monument featuring a trooper mounted on horseback will replace the U.S. Military Academy’s “memorial rock,” which was dedicated in 1973 to honor the Black Horse Cavalry Detachments, including the 9th and 10th Cavalry Regiments, that served at West Point from 1907 to 1947. 

The U.S. Military Academy at West Point teaches many things to cadets, but a new focus over the past 15 months has been a campaign about character. 

Brig. Gen. Curtis Buzzard, West Point’s commandant of the Corps of Cadets, said the goal is creating cohesive teams in which leaders make the right decisions and members have confidence in their leaders. This means “choosing the harder right over the greater wrong,” Buzzard said.

Treating everyone in the Army with “dignity and respect” is the way to build cohesive, ready teams, where people feel “part of a squad rather than in a squad,” the U.S. Military Academy superintendent said Sept. 2 during an Association of the U.S. Army-sponsored discussion about race in the Army. 

The Association of the U.S. Army is continuing its discussion on racial issues and diversity in the Army with a panel that includes senior leaders from West Point and Army Cadet Command.

The discussion, part of The AUSA Noon Report webinar series, begins at noon Eastern Sept. 2. The event is free, but registration is required here.

Retired Gen. Ann Dunwoody, the first woman in U.S. history to reach the rank of four-star general, will receive the 2019 Sylvanus Thayer Award, the West Point Association of Graduates’ highest honor for a nongraduate.

Dunwoody, a member of the Association of the U.S. Army’s Council of Trustees, will receive the prestigious award on Oct. 10 during a ceremony hosted by Lt. Gen. Darryl Williams, the superintendent of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York.

President Donald Trump plans to appoint retired Lt. Gen. Guy C. Swan, vice president of education for the Association of the U.S. Army, to serve as a member of the Board of Visitors to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York.

Swan, a 1976 West Point graduate, would serve a three-year term that expires Dec. 30, 2021, according to an announcement from the White House.

The U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York, is going off the Defense Department’s expansive network and building a new, dedicated network to support its academic mission.

The West Point Research and Education Network, or REN, is slated to achieve initial operating capability by August and be fully operational by August 2020, said retired Lt. Col. Michael Lanham, West Point’s chief information security officer and associate professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.