5 things you should know about West Point graduation (plus a list of grads)

More than 950 future Army leaders claimed their degrees and commissions as second lieutenants Saturday at West Point, New York, during the U.S. Military Academy's graduation ceremony. Click here for a list of names, and read on for some highlights from the Class of 2016 and 1. Cellphone static. The above video has more than half a million views on West Point's official Facebook page, and they're likely not all from well-wishers or fans of "The Imperial March" from the "Star Wars" franchise.

About 45 seconds into the video, one of the cadets checks her cellphone, a move highlighted by many commenters and featured online by Fox News and The Daily Caller.

The 60-second video has about the same amount of views as the school's official Army-Navy football spirit spot from December, dwarfing the rest of the page's video output. It also racked up nearly 800 comments as of Monday afternoon, most with a common theme:


•"There was more discipline in formation from my High School ROTC unit."
•"Wow way to show discipline at West Point."
•" Academy and class leadership ought to be embarrased [sic] by this."

2. If the Army wanted you to have a wife ... This video has received fewer hits, but a bit more positive feedback: the ceremony itself.
3. Grad news, scholarship edition. A number of Class of 2016 members received scholarships for postgraduate work. Among them, per a West Point news release:


•Churchill Scholarship: Lisa Jones of Chandler, Arizona, will study pure mathematics at England's University of Cambridge.
•Fulbright Scholarship: Michael Auten of Hickory, North Carolina, will study economics at the Kiev School of Economics in Ukraine. Colby Hyde of Eagle, Idaho, will study agricultural economics at Taiwan National University, where he plans to research vertical farming. Amos Lee of Bridgewater, New Jersey, has received a Fulbright National Chengchi University Award and will major in Asia-Pacific studies with a concentration on international political economy and cross strait relations at the school in Taipei.
•Marshall Scholarship: Ian Mauldin of Albuquerque, New Mexico, will study applicable mathematics at the London School of Economics and Political Science.
•George Mitchell Scholarship: Megan McNulty of Centreville, Virginia, will complete a one-year master’s program in international development in Ireland at University College Dublin.
•Schwarzman Scholars: Joseph Broderick (Columbia, Maryland), Regina Parker (Chapel Hill, North Carolina) and Alex Parra (Tucson, Arizona) will be part of the inaugural class of Schwarzman Scholars, pursuing master's degrees in public policy from Tsinghua University in Beijing.
4. Grad news, nonscholarship edition. Alex Fletcher took home honors as the Class of 2016's "Goat," ranked last among the graduates. Fletcher received applause for his achievement; any criticism could be tempered by the cadet's experience as a heavyweight powerlifter.

5. VP's platform. Vice President Joe Biden returned to West Point to give the commencement address, four years after last performing that duty. Get a recap of his speech here and see video of the ceremony here (first of two parts).