From the category archives:

Issues

Honorable Service Terminated by Dishonorable Policy

August 18, 2010

Most news about West Point, my alma mater, makes me exceedingly proud. While the news about West Point being ranked #4 this year in Forbes list of top colleges, (down from #1 last year) is reinforcing and encouraging, last Tuesday’s news is not. It makes me sick and angry. Cadet Sergeant Katherine Miller from Findlay, [...]

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Why We Remember–Memorial Day

May 29, 2010

There is a cartoon that circulates annually this time of year. With a picture of a young boy at the table and hands in prayer position and a set of dog tags in the opposite corner, the cloud reads, “Thanksgiving is a day we take pause to give thanks for the things that we have. [...]

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Writing Women Back into History

March 31, 2010

March is Women’s History Month and this year’s theme is “Writing Women Back into History.” Honored to be the guest speaker at West Point’s Women’s History month celebration, I had an unique opportunity to share my story and the genius of Porcelain on Steel: Women of West Point’s Long Gray Line with a diverse audience [...]

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“Full Participation for our sisters-in-arms”

December 14, 2009

The Washington Post Saturday, December 12, 2009 By Donna McAleer and Erin Solaro By this time next year, U.S. troops will have been in Afghanistan longer than the Soviets were. The United States has been engaged in combat in Afghanistan and Iraq longer than in any previous war. Not factoring in the increase in soldiers [...]

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Watching the World Wake up from History — The Fall of the Berlin Wall

November 9, 2009

Twenty years ago on November 9, 1989, the Berlin Wall fell and the Cold War ended. The echoes of the fall of the wall were heard around the world that night and changed lives forever. As an Army lieutenant stationed in Germany, this is one historic event I was fortunate to witness. Along with several [...]

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We Can Handle the Truth

October 1, 2009

Lt. Dan Choi and I co-authored an article published in The Daily Beast and Global Grind that gender and orientation are not relevant to the military mission. A soldier is a soldier. Despite a persistent “macho” mythos, it is becoming clear that neither gender nor sexual orientation is directly pertinent to a soldier’s ability to [...]

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Isn’t Porcelain Fragile?

September 29, 2009

It’s an epic battle of biblical proportions in writing. A title is the first impression a writer makes. The few words of a title are as important as the work itself. If the title does not capture the reader in the first few seconds, no connection is made and the reader may never pick up [...]

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They told, They’re out!

May 11, 2009

1st Lt. Dan Choi, 2002 West Point graduate, Arabic linguist and Iraq War veteran, is being fired from the United States Army for publicly announcing that he is gay. In the Army equivalent of a pink slip received by postal mail on 23 April 2009, Choi was informed of his firing because of what he [...]

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It’s a Bad Girls World — Some Would Have Us Think

October 6, 2008

It’s a bad girl’s world and good role models for young girls are difficult to find, or so the media would have us believe.   Americans are bombarded with images of women to sell everything from beer to cars.  Meanwhile, young women searching for role models may have difficulty seeing past the “sex sells” mentality that [...]

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