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LTC Robert K. Beale ’02, the 2022 recipient of the Alexander R. Nininger Award for Valor at Arms, joked early in his acceptance remarks at the Nininger Award Ceremony in the Mess Hall on October 20, 2022 that he sat through similar events 20 years ago when he was a cadet in C-2. “Being on this side of the podium, I hope I don’t join that elite club of speakers who put the Corps of Cadets to sleep,” he jested, to which the cadets gave a thunderous applause. Beale devoted his speech to the Army Warrior Ethos, especially emphasizing the “I will never quit” and the “I will never leave a fallen comrade” values. Given the circumstances for which Beale received the 17th annual Nininger Award, there was never any danger of cadets catching some rack, as they knew that Beale was someone who lived these values and thus took some of his other early words—“try to internalize the message and apply it to your future service to the nation”—to heart. [SEE PHOTOS]

On September 14, 2011, then CPT Beale was serving as a pilot and air mission commander (AMC) for the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (Airborne) (“Night Stalkers”) in support of Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan. As his unit of five MH-47G Chinooks were flying back to Kandahar after executing an emergency resupply, their second mission that night, they heard a 9-line MEDEVAC request over an open channel. As the AMC, Beale did a quick calculation and, despite it being close to dawn and daylight being a risk factor to the safety of his helicopter assault force, he requested approval from his task force commander to assist. In doing so, Beale demonstrated one of the 160th’s mottos, “Night Stalkers Don’t Quit!” as well as one of the values of the Army Warrior Ethos.

The casualty was a Navy EOD tech who had been wounded by an IED. Beale and his crew first attempted a hoist operation. With RPGs whizzing past the front of his Chinook (“They looked like flaming Nerf footballs,” he remarked in an earlier interview), Beale’s team hoisted their medic down to “package the casualty.” The medic determined that there was no way to hoist the wounded service member up safely, so Beale and his co-pilot needed to find a place to land (“I will never leave a fallen comrade”). Once on the ground, Beale’s helicopter started receiving heavy fire. A second Chinook provided overhead support, and Beale himself had to pull security, aiming his M-4 out his pilot seat window. Once the tech was “secured enough,” Beale’s Chinook went ramp up, laid down suppressive fire, and pulled max power in taking off. “We exited so fast, the second Chinook couldn’t keep up,” he said. It was an eight-minute flight back to Kandahar, getting the tech to the hospital in time to save his life.

After relating the events of September 14 to the Corps, Beale put the two values of the Army Warrior Ethos into more concrete terms for cadets. For “I will never quit,” he said, “After the hard work is over and the task is accomplished, reflect upon the value of tough times and recall how those experiences made you better people, better leaders, and better prepared to handle the uncertainty of life.” For “I will never leave a fallen comrade,” Beale brought up the current epidemic of veteran suicide. As the current representative of all West Point-commissioned officers who have heroically led soldiers in combat, the 2022 Nininger recipient spoke with authority when he said, “We owe it to our soldiers, our friends and classmates, and our families to look out for each other and make the world a better, a more resilient place.”

The Alexander R. Nininger Award is funded by a generous endowment from E. Doug Kenna ’45 and his wife, Jean. It is named in honor of Lieutenant Alexander R. “Sandy” Nininger Jr. ’41, the first recipient of the Medal of Honor in World War II. On January 12, 1942, Nininger voluntarily attached himself to another company in his Philippine Scouts regiment that was under heavy attack by Japanese forces near Abucay, Bataan. Wounded several times, he continued to advance in a counterattack and destroy enemy positions until he was killed.