Staff Report
When Bailey Bowlin was a star student a Walton-Verona High School, she was — by her own description — a “girly girl.”
She hardly saw herself as a cadet at United States Military Academy at West Point, enduring training that meant she’d sleep on the ground in heavy gear, wearing a helmet, going without a bath for a week and silently tolerating a millipede crawling on her face. And then there was the raccoon in her food.
“I felt I had hit ‘rock bottom,'” she said.
But, she told the Florence Rotary club, when your passions take you on a path you didn’t expect, these experiences are worth it. She knows many more experiences await her over the next few years in the Academy.
Bowlin counts it her lucky day when a friend she made at the Governor’s Scholars program in her senior year of high school encouraged her to apply for the West Point appointment.
As a star student, Valedictorian of her 2014 class, head of the cheerleading squad, Student Council president and a Cross Fit champion, Bowlin was surely an easy choice for West Point. She was recruited by NKy’s Joe Geraci, whose son was a West Point graduate, and was nominated by Congressman Thomas Massie.
Today, she is a Yearling (Sophomore) in the class of 2018.
She has a double major – in International Relations and Spanish and currently ranks 36 in her class of 1200 Cadets. In the fall of 2016, Bailey will be studying for a full semester in Spain. Only 200 cadets a year are chosen for international studies.
Besides her studies, she is a member of the West Point cheerleading squad, a certified tutor helping fellow Cadets and a member of the Investment Club.
She is the daughter of Kerry and Frany Bowlin of Walton. Bailey has two sisters and a brother.
Home on a holiday break, she is making speaking appearances on behalf of West Point. She also visited Walton-Verona High School.
“I love the military and West Point,” she said. “It was a good choice for me, though I had not planned it. . .I never knew I’d be this passionate about it.”
Upon graduation, Bailey will be commissioned a Second Lieutenant and serve seven years minimum in the United States Army. She hopes to be a helicopter pilot.