By: Terresa Monroe-Hamilton
Remember Spenser Rapone? He’s the commie West Point cadet who did a selfie for Twitter with pictures at his graduation. In one instance, the smirking cadet opens his dress uniform to expose a T-shirt with a blood-red image of socialist icon Che Guevara imprinted on it. In another, he raises his fist and flips over his cap to reveal the hand-scrawled message: “Communism will win.” Wrong, it won’t and that politically revolutionary leaning of his has just gotten him the boot from the Academy. It should have happened a long time ago. This is the jerk who called Defense Secretary James Mattis “the most vile, evil f**k in the current administration.” He’s obviously not a fan of the Trump administration.
It took almost a year for comrade Rapone to get ejected from West Point. It all started with those images which got him death threats and stirred up a social media firestorm. The second lieutenant who became known as the “commie cadet” is officially out of the US Army with an other-than-honorable discharge. He deserved much worse than that in my book. How the hell did he get into West Point in the first place? His commanding officers at Fort Drum’s 10th Mountain Division accepted Rapone’s resignation Monday after an earlier reprimand for “conduct unbecoming of an officer.”
This dirt bag went online and advocated for a socialist revolution, while disparaging high-ranking officers and US officials. The Army’s official take on this mess is that they conducted a full investigation and “appropriate action was taken.” Not even close guys. And he’s laughing at them. An unrepentant Rapone summed up the fallout in yet another tweet Monday that showed him extending a middle finger at a sign at the entrance to Fort Drum, accompanied by the words, “One final salute.” “I consider myself a revolutionary socialist,” the 26 year-old Rapone told the Associated Press in a series of interviews. “I would encourage all soldiers who have a conscience to lay down their arms and join me and so many others who are willing to stop serving the agents of imperialism and join us in a revolutionary movement.”
Rapone either lied when applying to West Point or had some kind of immediate change of heart. I’m betting the former. The guy is an out and out commie and a traitor. He’s proud of it. There is no excuse for it taking a whole year to sack this guy. None at all. Rapone claims his belief in communism grew out of his experiences as an Army Ranger in Afghanistan before he was accepted into the US Military Academy. Which means he lied to get into West Point, because they do a pre-entrance interview with their cadets. And those views only hardened during his studies of history as one of the academy’s “Long Gray Line.”
He only decided to air the offensive pics last September. He actually graduated in May of 2016. I can’t believe the other cadets did not turn him in when they saw what he was doing. Rapone finally tweeted the pics to show his solidarity with NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick, who at the time was taking heat for kneeling for the National Anthem to raise awareness of alleged racism and police brutality. The communism angle should have been grounds for immediate expulsion. Shortly after that, Rapone took to social media to express his deep thoughts on “white supremacy,” “racism” and the Capitalist state and eventually on Sec. Mattis and VP Pence.
West Point released a statement after Rapone posted the photos, saying his actions “in no way reflect the values of the US Military Academy or the US Army.” Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) called on the secretary of the Army to remove Rapone from the officer ranks. Good for him. “While in uniform, Spenser Rapone advocated for communism and political violence, and expressed support and sympathy for enemies of the United States,” Rubio said Monday, adding, “I’m glad to see that they have given him an ‘other-than-honorable’ discharge.”
Rapone comes from a large family of six children. He grew up in New Castle, Pennsylvania. He said he applied to West Point, which is tuition-free, because he couldn’t afford college. He was nominated out of high school by then-US Rep. Jason Altmire in 2010. He’s of course a Democrat. Wonder if he regrets the nomination… probably not. “He was an honors student, an athlete, a model citizen who volunteered in the community,” recalled Altmire. “During the interview, he expressed patriotism and looked just like a top-notch candidate. There were no red flags of any kind.” Perhaps one of the questions should have been, “Are you now or have you ever been a communist?” Just sayin’.
Rapone wasn’t accepted to West Point at that point, so he enlisted in the Army. He was deployed to Afghanistan in 2011 and was assigned as an assistant machine gunner in Khost Province. “We were bullies in one of the poorest countries on Earth,” Rapone said. “We have one of the most technologically advanced militaries of all time and all we were doing is brutalizing and invading and terrorizing a population that had nothing to do with what the United States claimed was a threat.” That’s such a freaking lie. I would never trust this asshat to have my back in a battle. He’s a treacherous coward.
Toward the end of his deployment, Rapone learned West Point fulfills a certain quota of enlisted soldiers every year. Despite his growing disillusionment with the military, he applied and got in. I suspect he now wanted in to cause chaos and havoc, which he did. “I was still idealistic,” he said.” I figured maybe I could change things from inside.” Which is another way of saying he wanted to convert other cadets into comrades just as I said. This guy not only hearts Marx, he finds inspiration in the writings of Stan Goff, a retired Special Forces master sergeant who became a socialist anti-war activist. I consider him an enemy of the state.
Rapone was written up by a West Point history professor after he saw his online postings. The professor said they were “red flags that cannot be ignored.” Ya think? Rapone was disciplined, but was still allowed to graduate.
Greg Rinckey, an attorney specializing in military law, said it’s rare for an officer out of West Point to receive an other-than-honorable discharge. He also said that it’s possible the military academy could seek repayment of the cost of Rapone’s education because he didn’t serve the full five-year service required upon graduation. “I knew there could be repercussions,” said Rapone, who is scheduled to speak at a socialism conference in Chicago next month. “Of course my military career is dead in the water. On the other hand, many people reached out and showed me support. There are a lot of veterans both active duty and not that feel like I do.” That should scare the hell out of Americans. Communists in the American military should just not be allowed – they are the antithesis of American honor and freedom. Good riddance to commie cadet Rapone.
In Memoriam
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