West Point women featured in book by St. Mary parishioner

Intermountain Catholic

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PARK CITY - Thirty years ago, the first female cadets graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point. Since then, they and the women who followed in their footsteps have forged successful careers as military officers, world-class athletes and cancer survivors, among other achievements.

"These are ordinary women doing extraordinary things," said Donna McAleer, a Saint Mary of the Assumption parishioner whose biography of 14 women West Point graduates, "Porcelain on Steel," was published in June.

The date was auspicious: It was shortly after two women made history by earning the top two spots in the West Point 2010 graduating class, as well as marking the 30th anniversary of the first class to admit women.

The book opens with the story of Kathy Wheless Gerstein, a member of that first co-ed West Point class. Of the 119 who entered in 1976, only 62 graduated in 1980. As one of that handful, Gerstein faced criticism when, after five years, she chose to resign her Army commission and start a family with her husband.

Fittingly, "Porcelain on Steel" ends with the story of Kathy's daughter Sarah Gerstein, who graduated from West Point in 2007, a member of the first class to matriculate after the United States invasion of Iraq.

Each woman in the book is accomplished in a different way: Betsy Barron left a violent marriage and became a single mother. Cynthia Lindenmeyer was a foster child with a juvenile criminal record before she was appointed to West Point; she went on to become a chaplain at her alma mater. Dawn Halfaker lost an arm while serving on active duty in Iraq.

Writing and researching the book took more than four years, McAleer said. "It was a lot of intense and long interviews."

As a West Point graduate herself (Class of 1987), McAleer has a unique insight into her subjects. The idea for the book came to her when she was coaching volleyball at Park City High School in 2000, and noticed that the girls wanted to emulate people like Britney Spears and Lindsay Lohan, "with the mentality that sex sells and that to be successful you had to sell your body and not use your brain," she said.

If instead the young women had role models like those at West Point, McAleer thought, they might consider different career paths. She also wanted to stress the importance of education, leadership, personal responsibility and public service.

McAleer is no stranger to non-traditional career paths. After resigning her commission, she became a business executive, then decided to try her hand at bobsledding. She trained hard and qualified for the 2002 Olympic trials, where she came in fourth place, barely missing a spot on the Olympic team. She then became executive director of the People's Health Clinic in Park City, and now is a ski instructor at Deer Valley.

Msgr. Robert Bussen, pastor of St. Mary Parish, is good friends with McAleer and her husband, Ted. "Donna is a very self-disciplined person, able to set goals and accomplish those goals," he said. "So when she told me she was writing a book, I had no doubt that she would write the book. That was no question. What I also know about Donna is she gives things a lot of thought, so I knew it would be a good book."

"Porcelain on Steel" is available through Amazon.com, www.bn.com, IndieBound andPowell's Boosk, as well as McAleer's website, porcelainonsteel.com.

Dolly's Book Store, 510 Main St. in Park City, will host a reading and book-signing of "Porcelain on Steel" July 26, 6 to 7:30 p.m.