Local family celebrates daughters’ commitment to the US Naval Academy

WASILLA — While local families gather for grills and parades to celebrate the national holiday Monday, one family’s commitment to national service will keep them on opposite ends of the country.

Wasilla High School graduates Kara and Alexandra Butler — daughters of local residents Kim and Sheryl Butler — were far from Alaska this week. Kara was aboard the amphibious assault ship USS Makin Island in San Diego and Alexandra was in Annapolis, Maryland, for the first week of “plebe summer,” both stages of training for the U.S. Naval Academy. They will continue a tradition of naval service handed down from their parents, both retired sailors who met while serving the country.

Kara is a first class midshipman, or the equivalent of a senior in college, and will likely graduate at the end of this academic year. Life at one of the nation’s four service academies can be hectic, Kara said.

“You have a million things to do and only 24 hours to complete them all,” she said.

The typical day begins about 6:30 a.m. By 7 a.m., all midshipmen are required to be in formation and in uniform for breakfast. Morning classes last until a second formation at noon for lunch, followed by an afternoon period for intramural sports, additional classes, a meal formation for the afternoon, and a study period that lasts until bed, usually about 10 or 11 p.m. Students study as one of 30 companies, and live with their company for the entire course of their academic career.

Alexandra wasn’t available for an interview — plebes are allowed only three 45-minute phone calls over the course of the summer — but Kara said plebe life comes with additional duties on top of that.

“On Friday, they have to deliver everyone’s laundry,” she said. “They have to know the three (meal) menus in advance. She (Alexandra) is also going to have professional knowledge quizzes about different types of ships in the navy.”

Interwoven among the daily grind of classes, meals, and physical fitness are special academic events, Kara said. For example, the CEO of Boeing and former President Bill Clinton both addressed students at the academy while she was there. A political science major, one of her teachers is former ambassador John Limbert, who was held captive for more than a year during the 1979 Iran Hostage Crisis.

“I love my major,” she said. “We study awesome, awesome topics.”

Political science is a bit removed from a high school ambition to become a doctor. She wasn’t initially thinking about a career in the military when she went to the Armed Forces Service Academy Night at her high school. She applied more out of impulse than anything.

“I went to that (night) and I was a little hesitant because I didn’t know all that much about it,” she said. “I applied to the summer program, and I fell in love when I went.”

After a few medical classes, she ultimately settled on political science, though she’s also taking courses in electrical engineering, military history, and other topics.

Nor did patriotism factor heavily into her initial decision, at least not until a visit to the Naval Academy Cemetery and Columbarium, Kara said. The visit connected her to the academy’s heroic tradition, she said.

“It’s a pretty sobering feeling, it really shows how much has happened here and the people that have come to the academy before you,” she said. “Patriotism, I would never use that for what I was thinking of feeling. It’s that camaraderie, that sense of being part of the class of our nation that ties us all together.”

Kim Butler’s voice rings with audible pride when he talks about his daughters. The notion that they could one day be placed in harm’s way by their service doesn’t bother him.

“We have done what all parents have done,” he said. “We have raised them right, we have given them a solid foundation, I want to say based on faith, based on strong morals and, and chores and duty to country.”

Both parents said they’d accomplished the American dream of having their children do better than them.

“Oh my gosh, I’m incredibly proud,” Sheryl Butler said. “It’s one of those things when I think back to when I did college first and then went in, then them taking on the challenge of doing it during their college years, they’re very disciplined.”

Entrance to the academy is hard-won, said Dan Kennedy, of Wasilla, who serves as a volunteer Blue-and-Gold officer for the academy. Three of Kennedy’s children have attended branch academies.

Each year, between 15,000 and 20,000 students apply for admission to the academy, but only about 1,200 are accepted for service, Kennedy said. Graduates are commissioned officers in the Navy for five years, though additional training, like flight school in Pensacola, Florida, can result in longer terms of service, Kennedy said.

“The (Butler) girls will choose to serve the nation in a variety of careers, everything from being a nuclear submarine officer to being a Marine Corps Aviator or a Naval Aviator or surface warfare,” he said.

A third daughter, Amelia, attended the U.S. Air Force Academy Summer Seminar, and is thinking about attending one of the academies. Another daughter, Elena, will start this year at Mat-Su Career and Technical High School after a stint at a STEM seminar at the Naval Academy, and will study medical science. Their youngest child, Robel, 10, is still evaluating his options.

Despite the global presence, elite education, and ambassador instructors, Kim Butler, who works with the Junior ROTC program at Chugiak High School, says his kids aren’t really extraordinary.

“I don’t want anyone to think our kids are unusual,’ he said. “The same opportunity applies to all the other kids out there. I want them to realize these opportunities are out there, if they seek them.”

Contact reporter Brian O’Connor at 352-2270, brian.oconnor@frontiersman.com, or on Twitter @reporterbriano.

Correction: This story has been updated to reflect the correct spelling of Kim Butler's first name.