Author Archives: David Anselmi

All Academy Challenge 2021 – 16 May update

So far so good within USMA — the class of 1977 is in the lead.  Keep up the great work.  Overall, USMA is a little behind some of the other academies, but we’re not even through day one yet.

Overall standings: All Academy Challenge

USMA class standings are here: West Point (allacademychallenge.com).  As I type this, we have 77 donors.

 

Click the image for USMA 1977 company standings.  

 

 

All Academy Challenge 2021

Greetings USMA77 Classmates!

Last year, USMA77 finished 4th/83 living classes in the All Academy Challenge.  Our goal this year is 77% participation, 522 class grads(it will be an Academy record).  This year’s Point Man is Mike Johnson, D-1!  We will post daily updates to the class forum on our great progress, and we’ll try to post information here as well.

Thanks to our great classmate, Steve Collier, for crafting the OPORD for this year’s competition(see below)!  

Special note- Pete Selleck asks that in the comment section we donate in memory of one of our deceased classmates(list below).  When we do so, AOG sends a note to the family alerting them a gift was made in their loved one’s name.  Esprit de Corps!!  GOARMY!!!  Beat NAVY and all the others!   

Rich Trotter, F-1/G-1 USMA77

1. Situation

a) General: 

1)The All Academy Challenge (AAC) is a friendly contest between graduates of five service academies to see who can reach the highest alumni giving rate over the course of five days – May 16 –   May 20.

2) Results from 2020 AAC:

·         Merchant Marine Academy 23.5% of 11,794 alumni (2,776 donors)

·         Military Academy 22.2% of 52,128 alumni (11,575 donors)

·         Naval Academy 11.1% of 54,480 alumni (6,058 donors)

·         Coast Guard Academy 11.1% of 11,608 alumni (1,284 donors)

·         Air Force Academy 4.61% of 48,401 alumni (2,232 donors)

West Point Class of ’77 finished 4th (49.16%in participation among all 83 West Point Classes.  Good Job.  This is impressive.  The current class participation goal is 77%.  This would be an AAC record. 

b) Enemy Forces (listed in capability order)

1) United States Merchant Marine Academy

2) United States Naval Academy

3) United States Coast Guard Academy

4) United States Air Force Academy

c) Friendly Forces.

1) All USMA Alumni from 83 classes

2) USMA Class of 1977

2. Mission: 77% class participation!

3. Execution.

a) Concept of Operation.

1) Scheme of maneuver.  Over the period May 16 to May 20 donate at least $5.00 and you will drive our participation rate higher.  Other potential donations could be $77 or $19.77.

2) Formation. Full frontal assault!

3) Route.  The route to donate is this button All Academy Challenge   Click this button to participate and view the real time leaderboard.  You will be given the option of several funds to contribute to.  A primary fund to consider is our 1977 Class Gift Fund. 

4) Tactical Missions to subordinate Units: Maintain situational awareness and encourage our classmate friends to participate.

b) Coordinating Instructions.  When you donate please consider donating in honor of one of our fallen Classmates.   Priorities to consider would be regimental/company classmates.  A complete list of our fallen 1977 classmates is at Annex B.   If you donate and honor a classmate, the AOG will send a letter to our classmates family to tell them that their family member has been remembered and honored.  https://wp.allacademychallenge.com/pages/leaderboard-31

4. Service Support.

a)  Official participation results are tabulated by original cadet companies. 

5. Command and Signal.

a) Signal.

1) Frequencies and Call Signs.

·         1977 class forum.  If you are not a member of our 1977 class forum, email Allen Light and put Subscribe in the subject line.

·         USMA AOG. If you are not a member of the USMA AOG go to this link and join.  West Point Association of Graduates (westpointaog.org)

·         USMA class of 1977 Facebook homepage. If you are not a member of USMA class of 1977 Facebook homepage go to this link and sign up.  https://www.facebook.com/groups/38443162332/?ref=bookmarks  (This is a private group with 440 members, you will have to ask permission to join)

2) Pyrotechnics and Signals.

·         Daily sitreps and updates will be sent

·         A class of 1977 Spirit video/skit shown below! Despite the high quality of this video, no professional actors were used in the skit.

b) Command.

1) Command Leader Location.  The AOG will lead, coordinate and report results on a daily basis.  In case you are not a member of our class forum or USMA AOG you will only be updated by me.   Daily AAC results are located at this link  All Academy Challenge  

2) Chain of Command: AOG, 1977 Class Lead: Mike Johnson,  4th Regiment Lead: John Shephard, C4 Lead: Steve Collier

Annex A: Class invitation by Pete Selleck. Click on attached video.  Class Spirit Video created by Mike Johnson and David Anselmi:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iPSbmyhjAp0&t=28s

         

Annex B: 1977 fallen members of the Long Grey Line.  Grip hands.

Alan B. Becker
David L. Bolte
James G. Brecher
Gilbert R. Collins
Peter J. Comodeca
Robert S. Cowan
Daniel P. Doede
Robert M. Evans
Jody A. Fink
Kenneth M. Franklin
Trent R. Frederickson
Randal L. Gehler
Richard S. Grammier
Clifford H. Harris
Thomas G. Hesse
Andrew J. Hill
Matthew M. Holm
Steven J. Hoogland
James A. Hubbard
Herman N. Iorio
Alexander F. Janisz
William G. Johnson
Kevin G. Kelly
Christopher F. Kurek
Edward M. Lawnick
Scott T. Lofgren
John J. Luther
Timothy D. Lynch
Reginald B. McFadden
Roger V. McMaster
James E. McShea
Robert L. Mitchell
Jesus L. Olivo
Andrew E. Pehonsky
John J. Powers
Joseph F. Santilli
Michael A. Sheehan
James D. Skopek
Richard E. Stinner
Kevin W. Trehey
Blair M. Turner
James K. Whiteman
Jeffrey P. Whitman
Earl M. Yerrick

Donating Stock to our AOG class fund

Disclaimer: I am not a tax advisor, or an attorney, but I’m pretty sure either of those would agree with the below.

If you have appreciated stock or (some) mutual funds, you can donate those to the AOG without first cashing them in.  This offers a great advantage to both you and the AOG, and here’s how:

  • You will get to deduct the market value of the stock/mutual fund at the time it is donated
  • You will not be taxed on the gain, as you have not realized any gain
  • As a non-profit, the AOG will not be taxed on the gain when they sell the stock/mutual fund

For example, let’s say you bought stock several years ago for $1,000 and it is now worth $2,000.  If you donate the stock to the AOG, you will be able to take a $2,000 deduction (assuming you aren’t otherwise hitting an IRS limit).  If you sold the stock and then donated $2,000 cash to the AOG, you would still get the $2,000 deduction, but you would have $1,000 in capital gains which you may owe taxes on.  So if you’re considering a generous gift to the AOG and you have some appreciated stock/mutual funds laying around, you will want to research this.

How to give stock

Please consider designating your gift for the “Class of 1977 Fund”.

Mac Warner for WV Secretary of State

[UPDATE – He won!]
The below letter was written by USMA ’56 grad BG John C. “Doc” Bahnsen and sent via West-Point.org email to the class of 1956.  It has since been shared with USMA ’77 and hopefully others.  There have been a few modifications since the original was sent, but this is what “Doc” wants everyone to know.
Classmates,
 
The conservative revolution in West Virginia is nearly complete.  When I moved to this state in the 1990s, West Virginia was a backwater of depression-era and New Deal thinking.  The entire Congressional delegation of two senators and three congressmen were democrats who voted nothing but the liberal party line.   Worn-out socialist and labor union politicos were running amok and the state was being run into the ground.  In the year 2000 — with Al Gore pushing his global-warming, anti-fossil fuel, big government-must-solve-everything agenda — we got the state to vote for George Bush.  This was the first time a first-term Republican candidate for President had won the State since Herbert Hoover did it in 1928; it was the start of the conservative revolution in WV.  West Virginia has now voted for the Republican nominee for President in every election since 2000, and now, conservative republicans hold four of those five seats in Congress.  
 
By 2014, both houses of the West Virginia Legislature switched from liberal democrat control to conservative republican majorities.  We’re on the cusp of the objective, and we now have a chance to consolidate the win, finish the job, and save West Virginia.  What we need to do is get rid of the one key person in the one key position who can stop the will of the people…we need to elect a conservative Secretary of State.  You see, the Secretary of State runs all elections in West Virginia.  For decades, elections and voter rolls have been purposely mismanaged and grossly unsupervised so that union-backed officials could prevail in rigged local elections.  Entire counties and swaths of the State have been run as corrupt enterprises by a few local, labor-backed henchmen and thugs.  With fair elections whereby our conservative-leaning people can have a government that genuinely represents them, this State will prosper.  We are almost there, and this year is the time to push through the objective.
 
We need a Secretary of State who will clean elections up statewide, and this year we’ve got the candidate to do it.  Mac Warner is West Point Class of 1977.  I’ve known Mac and his family for three decades now, and he’s as solid as West Point granite.  His father served in Patton’s Third Army, and he has three brothers who are Grads from ’73, ’78 and ’89.  
 
Mac was on the Honor Committee that cleaned up the mess at our school in the big cheating scandal of 1976-1977.  Mac started his career as an artilleryman and became one of our great JAG lawyers — an expert in international law.  In the 1980s and 1990s, Mac helped clean up dysfunctional governments and militaries in South America, Central America, Eastern Europe, and Southwest Asia.  He often helped countries to re-write their constitutions, live up to the Geneva convention, hold fair elections, respect human rights, and embrace the Rule of Law. 
 
From the Army War College Staff, Mac retired in 2000 and that is when he really went to work.  He and his lovely Army wife, Debbie, sent three of their four children to graduate from West Point:  Steven ’08, Lisa ’12, and Scott ’15.  His other daughter, Krista, is an Army Reserve Captain in Alaska, and is married to a West Point ’08 graduate.  Steven and Lisa both completed combat tours in Afghanistan where Steven received a Bronze Star and a Purple Heart.  Lisa is married to a ’12 West Point Grad, an Infantry Officer now going thru SF School at FT Bragg.  Scott is headed off to the 173d in Vicenza this year.  I got to know Mac and all his rock-solid children extremely well over the last 10 years as he helped me oversee the conservative youth camp I ran every summer in the hills of West Virginia.   If life were a Texas Hold ’em game, Mac is “ALL IN” every day — he and his family should be the on the poster for selfless service to the US Army; there should be a special monument to him somewhere at West Point.
 
But that is not all.  Mac just spent the last five years in Afghanistan on a State Department contract to build a legal system in that rugged war-torn country.  He ran the largest Organizational Capacity Building Rule of Law program in the world.  If there is one person with the wherewithal, experience, and background to stare down the corruption that has riddled this region of Appalachia for decades, lock up the thugs, and ensure we have fair elections, it is our brother from the Long Gray Line, Mac Warner.  
 
I want you to open your checkbooks and help elect Mac as WV Secretary of State.  Let’s grip hands and help this great servant go to work in West Virginia and fix things before we all fade off to Fiddler’s Green.  Please join me and send all the help you can up to the $1000 limit to: 
 
Mac Warner for Secretary of State
PO Box 18154
Morgantown, WV  26507
 
If you prefer to give on-line, find the “DONATE” button at
[Link expired]
Thank you for helping us out.
 
John C. “Doc” Bahnsen,  USMA ’56
Brigadier General, US Army (Ret)
USMA Distinguished Graduate 2016

 

Fight fiercely, 
 
Doc