Palmer graduate thriving in military life at West Point

WASILLA — When the next generation of American soldier takes the battlefield, some of them may be under the capable command of Caleb Reilly.

Reilly, a sophomore at the Unites States Military Academy at West Point, shows the maturity and discipline of few college students. His passion for the Army and for his country are contagious.

Despite his lack of vacation time, Reilly volunteered to be an ambassador for West Point during his time home for Spring Break. He sat down in the Frontiersman office to answer a few questions.

Frontiersman: Where did you go to school?

Reilly: I’ve grown up all over Alaska. For three years of high school, I was out in Akiachak, which is a little village by Bethel. My high school had about 40 kids. Then, I graduated from Palmer High after moving there for my senior year. So, I guess I’m a Moose at the end of the day.

F: What made you decide to join the military?

R: I had a teacher in Akiachak, who was enlisted as a sergeant. I told him I was thinking about the Army, and he said I should really think about West Point. I had fairly good grades and was showing potential and leadership qualities. I really looked up to him, and I had a strong conviction that the reason he was such a good man was due in part because of his military experience. Both of my grandparents were in the Army, and that helped too. They didn’t push me to join, but I really look up to both of them.

F: Why the Army?

R: The Army is the one branch where you’re leading people the whole time. I’ll be in charge of people, not machines.

F: How difficult was it to get the appointment?

R: The application process is actually pretty difficult because it’s almost a way for them to weed out people who don’t really want to be there. You have to qualify in three different areas. You have to get the appointment from a Congressmen. You have to fill out the generic form or application with your grades, fitness scores and extracurriculars. The third one is you have to get cleared by a doctor. What West Point is looking for is the all-around person. The don’t want just nerds, and they don’t want just jocks. They want the hybrid.

F: So what were your activities?

R: For the first three years of high school, I was a four-sport athlete. I did cross-country, followed immediately by wrestling, followed immediately by basketball, followed immediately by Native Youth Olympics. I was the editor of the school newspaper and the student body president. When I moved to Palmer, I always wanted to play football, so I did that instead of running cross-country.

F: What benefits do you get for going to West Point?

R: Other than a $400,000 education for free? All my meals are paid for, uniforms are paid for, haircuts are paid for. And on top of everything, I get $250 a month. Not to mention that it’s the United States Military Academy. It’s pretty cool to just be a part of that. You look back in America’s history, and there’s so many amazing people who graduated from West Point.

F: Is it pretty rigorous?

R: Yeah. This semester, I’m taking 20 credits, which is eight more than a full-time college student. This is on top of all the other requirements West Point has. There’s physical and military requirements that you have to do. You’re room has to be clean, you have to have a good uniform and haircut, this is during the academic day. As far as physical goes, there’s PT tests you have to take, and there’s also mandatory PE classes that you have to do. Every male takes boxing, every female takes combative. It’s not necessarily to show you that you can hit someone, it’s to show you that you can get hit.

F: Would you describe what your typical day is like?

R: Because I’m on the Sandhurst team, my day starts a little earlier. We’ll get up at 5:20 a.m. and have practice. Then it’s breakfast at 7 a.m., and then at 7:30 a.m. I have my first class. I only have classes in the morning, I was able to schedule it that way. Then we have lunch around noon. Unless I have a physics lab in the afternoon, I have the whole afternoon off until 4 p.m. when we have another Sandhurst practice. I’ll get done with that somewhere between 6:30 and 7 p.m., and then I go to dinner, do my homework and talk to my girlfriend on the phone.

F: What’s the Sandhurst team?

R: Sandhurst is actually a military academy in Great Britain. Ever since 1971, there’s been this competition. It’s a military competition where you have nine people on a squad that run between different sites and perform different military tasks on a seven-mile, hilly course. We train pretty hard for it.

F: Is there a particular field of the Army your interested in going into?

R: There are 16 different branches. I’m interested in either aviation or infantry. I’d love to fly helicopters, but I’d also love to be the guy kicking in doors.

F: And you have a major in addition to that.

R: Yes. Right now, I’m studying United States history. But it’s kind of deceiving. Were at regular colleges you’ll probably take 75 percent of classes for your major, I have to take 40 courses to graduate and only eight will be strictly for my major. You can look at it as you’re not getting an in depth education in your major, or you can look at it as you’re getting a very balanced education.

F: Do you know what your thesis will be on yet?

R: I’m thinking it’s going to be on the war in the Aleutians. I’ve got an internship this summer at the Anchorage Museum. There hasn’t been much research done on World War II in the Aleutians, but Medals of Honor were awarded out there. It was kind of a big deal.

F: So you get a summer off?

R: Not really. Right before you’re first year, you have Beast Barracks that’s seven weeks long. The word West Point likes to use is “inculcate.” You get yelled a a lot. It’s the transformation from civilian to cadet. So that’s pretty rough. The summer before your sophomore year, you have field cadet training. The point is to introduce you to all the different branches. They also can send you to different military schools. The last two summers, you have a detail at West Point. You train the people at Beast or field training. You also do additional training with a regular infantry platoon. So it’s pretty busy.

F: So what’s next after graduation?

R: If I go aviation, it’s a year and a half of flight school and six months with your unit. If I go infantry, it will be about a year and a half. I’m counting on getting deployed. A nurse doesn’t become a nurse to sit at a desk. They become a nurse to help people. I’m training to become a soldier because I want to be a soldier. Where ever the Army asks me to go, that’s where I want to go. Hopefully they’re not calling me to a desk.