West Point Graduate To Iraq

Thomas M. Ryder, a 2006 graduate of The United States Military Academy-West Point and a 2002 alumnus of Garden City High School has been deployed to Iraq from his post at Fort Campbell, Kentucky. Thomas is a 2nd Lieutenant combat engineer platoon leader with the 1st Brigade Combat Team of the 101st Airborne (Air Assault) Division and will be stationed outside of Tikrit located 100 miles north of Baghdad. Thomas graduated from West Point on May 27, 2006 and was commissioned as an Army officer. President George W. Bush was the keynote speaker at the ceremony and retired General H. Norman Schwarzkoph was invited as a member of the fifty-year Class of 1956 and presented Thomas with his Lieutenant bars. Thomas received a B.S. degree and majored in Engineering Management.