Wargaming at West Point will be a panel discussion that delves into how professors and cadets at the United State Military Academy integrate gaming into the classroom and officer development. It will explore the creation of unique scenarios replicating battlefields which cadets later visit as part of staff rides, the creation and employment of unique games to advance historical education, and the wargaming club which allows cadets to develop the habits and mindsets of a gamer and discuss how it these models can benefit them as future Army officers.
MAJ Ben Griffin is the Chief of the Military History Division at the United States Military Academy. He is the author of the recently published Reagan’s War Stories: A Cold War Presidency from the Naval Institute Press and earned his PhD from the University of Texas at Austin. Ben’s research looks at the development of grand strategy and the intersections of fiction and policy. An avid gamer, his dice rolls are proof that luck is a character trait.
Dr. Steve Waddell is Professor of History at the United States Military Academy. His research focuses on World War II, The U.S. Army, and logistics. He has been the officer-in-charge of the West Point Cadet Wargames Club for 28 years. A lifelong wargamer beginning in the glory days of Avalon Hill and SPI boardgames, he has more recently, the last ten years, been active in the Historical Miniatures Gaming Society running World War II skirmish games at HMGS events. He is an editor and chapter author of The West Point History of World War II, Volume I and II (Simon and Schuster), the author of United States Army Logistics: The Normandy Campaign, 1944 (Greenwood Press) and United States Army Logistics: From the American Revolution to 9/11 (Praeger Security International).
MAJ Philip Murray is an Assistant Professor of History at the Department of History at the United States Military Academy at West Point. Philip is also an active duty Army officer who has served in The United States Indo-Pacific Command, Intelligence and Security Command, and served two combat tours in Afghanistan with the 4th Infantry Division. He earned his graduate degree in History from Georgetown University and undergraduate degree in anthropology from Montana State University. He specializes in energy history, grand strategy, and East Asia. Philip uses games in the classroom to teach about the Cold War, Soviet politics, and East Asian history.
Dr. John Stapleton is an Associate Professor of History at the Department of History at the United States Military Academy at West Point. His research focuses on early modern Europe, in particular the Anglo-Dutch dimension of Louis XIV’s wars. He has been a co-officer-in-charge of the West Point Cadet Wargames Club since 2006. An avid Napoleonic miniatures wargamer, more recently John had been active in the Historical Miniatures Gaming Society running, with Steve Waddell, World War II skirmish games at their conventions. John is also an editor and chapter author of The West Point History of Warfare, Volume I, a digital history textbook. Additionally, John has written articles and chapters on various aspects of Louis XIV’s wars and is currently preparing a monograph exploring the Dutch Republic and the allied coalition during the Nine Years’ War (1688-1697).
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