At the U.S. Military Academy Preparatory School in Monmouth, N.J., the starting point for young soldiers on their way to America”s premier military academy at West Point, Drew Lewis routinely spoke with students from “military states” like California, Texas and Florida who bragged about their states” military heritage.
“They look at me like, ”What does Mississippi have to offer?”” Lewis recalled Saturday in Columbus. “But I can compete scholastically, physically and mentally with anyone.”
That”s a point Gabriel Andrew “Drew” Lewis, 20, and Jonathan Lewis, 27, hope to make by example. The brothers, both Columbus High School graduates, have begun a military lineage of their own.
Jonathan began the trend when the Army flew him to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point in New York on a recruiting trip in 2000. The visit impressed him so much he walked away from a football scholarship at the University of Southern Mississippi to play for the Army.
After finishing his training at West Point, Jonathan served five years as a field artillery officer in the Army, service which he completed Friday. He spent 2008 in California working in admissions for West Point, so he knows how underrepresented minorities and small communities like Columbus are at the academy.
Now, just as Jonathan leaves the Army, Drew is beginning his military career.
It”s a path neither man takes for granted. West Point, which was ranked in Forbes Magazine at one point as the top college in the country, is hard to get in to and even harder to get out.
Drew, who spent a year at Mississippi College, had to have his grades in top shape just to make it to prep school.
Jonathan describes the rigorous academics, mandatory athletic and extracurricular participation and military training his brother will encounter at West Point as designed to “pull you in a million different directions.”
The point, says Jonathan, is to create officers capable of leading during the most hectic, stressful and unpredictable situations. It served him well as a field artillery platoon leader in Baghdad, Iraq, in 2007.
Jonathan”s unit was using a 20-year-old radar system which, although outdated, typically required an eight-month training course to master. Jonathan and his platoon of 18-year-olds got the hang of it in a month and a half.
“That”s where the West Point training came in,” he said.
After completing prep school, Drew isn”t intimidated by the hard work ahead of him at West Point.
“I”m not going into it blindfolded. Plus, with my brother having gone through it, I”ve got the answer key,” he said.
“He”s a sharp kid, He”ll do better than me,” said Jonathan. “He”s more mature.”
The Lewis brothers aren”t the first to represent Columbus at West Point, but their names are on a very short list. That serves as proof, said their mother, Grace Lewis, that children from Columbus can compete with the best students in the country.
“I hope that it will cause (local children) to realize they can do or be whatever they want to be. It doesn”t matter where you”re from,” she said.
Drew will report to West Point June 28 for Reception Day. He just got back from prep school May 16, but will have the opportunity to celebrate Memorial Day at home.
“Becoming a cadet, I view Memorial Day from a different perspective. It”s more meaningful and touches very close,” he said. “I had always known it”s purpose, but it was basically just a holiday.”
As a veteran, Jonathan says Memorial Day is very real overseas.
“It means the world. To the guys that are there (overseas) now, these are the days you feel appreciated. You get lots of mail, whether from family or from church. You get cookies or something,” he said. “With the sacrifices you make daily in the military, it just means more.”
Jason Browne was previously a reporter for The Dispatch.
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