Cadet Battalion Commander
Professor of Military Science
Cadet Samuel Spero
Lieutenant Colonel Benedict received his commission into the infantry upon his graduation from West Point in 2003. After completing his graduate studies at Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar, he served as a tactical leader in the 82nd Airborne Division, deploying to Iraq during the “Surge” in 2007 and to Haiti following the earthquake in 2010. He then served as a Strategic Advisor and Strategic Analyst on the personal staffs of General David Petraeus in Afghanistan in 2010 and General James Mattis at United States Central Command. Keith then returned to West Point to serve as an Instructor and Assistant Professor of International Relations and Comparative Politics in the Department of Social Sciences. Upon completion of the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College, he then served as a Battalion Executive Officer and Brigade Operations Officer at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Washington, culminating in his orchestration of Exercise Yudh Abhyas with the Indian Army near the India-Nepal border.
Lieutenant Colonel Keith W. Benedict
Cadet Samuel Spero was born in Washington D.C. in 1995 and was raised in Acton, Massachusetts, a suburb 30 minutes north west of Boston. He majors in Global Studies with a concentration in global security along with a minor in Arabic. Through Temple's ROTC program, he has been able to attend air assault school and travel to Morocco to work with their military as well as experience the local culture as well. He has participated on the Ranger Challenge for four years, making the team three of those years including this year's winning team. This past summer, Cadet Spero interned at the Center for Complex Operations at National Defense University researched under Dr. Joseph Collins and BG (Ret) Peter Zwack focusing on military conflict in Russia and Afghanistan. In his personal time, Cadet Spero enjoys running marathons for no good reason what so ever and taking yoga classes to work on his lack of flexibility. Cadet Spero will be commissioning as an infantry officer this upcoming May!