On visit home, cadet promotes West Point

The last thing on the minds of most college spring breakers is getting up early and going back to high school.

But after a semester and a half at the U.S. Military Academy in West Point, N.Y., high school is a piece of cake for Austin Clopeck.

Clopeck, a first-year cadet at West Point, returned last week to his alma mater, Durant High School in Plant City, to talk about life at the venerable academy in front of his former ROTC classmates.

"I enjoyed my time there," said Clopeck, who lives in Valrico. "I figured I'd go back and talk to people. I could answer any questions they had."

After graduating last May, Clopeck, now 19, became Durant's first ROTC student to attend West Point.

When he came home for spring break, he and his former instructor, Lt. Col. Dick Sheffield, a senior aerospace science instructor at Durant, thought it would be a good idea to return and talk to students about West Point.

"It's one thing to read about it in a brochure, see all the lovely pictures and everything, but what's it really like?" Sheffield said. "I think he was very honest with them."

Sheffield said the questions ranged from "Do you like it?" and "Was it what you expected?" to "Do you get a chance to party?" and "Do you notice any drugs or people sneaking in beer?"

"Those are things that teenagers are interested in," Sheffield said. "And certainly, those types of things go on inside an academy, just like they go on at any college or university."

Clopeck brought photos of the academy's Halloween party, where cadets dressed up in costumes, to let them know that fun and games do exist at West Point.

"You've got to keep morale up," he said.

He wore his uniform one day as he helped conduct the ROTC's weekly inspections, and spent time chatting one-on-one with several freshmen who were interested in West Point or the Air Force Academy in Colorado.

"I just told them what to expect," Clopeck said. "Your first year in is going to be hard. It's designed that way -- it's supposed to be hard."

Sheffield said Clopeck learned a lot from his high school ROTC experience, and used his first spring break as an opportunity to help others learn, too.

"I think what it boils down to is, Austin wanted to give back a little bit," Sheffield says. "It's an ego thing here, too: 'I've made it, I want to show people I've made it.' "

-- Jay Cridlin can be reached at 661-2442 or cridlin@sptimes.com .