She’s loved the Army-Navy game for years. At this year’s, she made history.
‘It’s a little surreal’
Adapted from a story by The Washington Post’s Ava Wallace.
This week, West Point Cadet Simone Askew put in extra-long days.
The 21-year-old was asleep at 2 a.m. and up again at 6:55 a.m. She had to fit in all of her schoolwork and prep for the Army-Navy game.
Today, her hard work paid off.
This afternoon, Askew made history at the Army-Navy game in Philadelphia. She is first African American woman to serve as first captain of the Corps of Cadets. Under a light snowfall today, she led the traditional “March On” ceremony before the game began.
“It’s a little surreal,” Askew said earlier this week, “to acknowledge the significance of everything that’s happened to me this semester.”
An early start
Askew grew up watching military academy football. Every year, she attended the Army-Navy game with her mother. Askew would watch, enthralled by the precision and splendor of cadets and midshipmen marching onto the field in formation before kickoff.
“I had never seen something like that,” Askew said. “I asked my mom, ‘What can I do to one day be in charge of that?’ It was a fairly artificial attraction, but it sparked my interest for sure.”
At Fairfax High in Virginia, Askew was student body president and homecoming queen, but it was athletics that captured her heart, she said. She grew up a sports fan and rowed crew, played volleyball and basketball and ran track. She liked that the military academies placed value in the lessons learned from sports more so than a civilian university.
To Askew, the Army-Navy game was the ultimate display of military splendor, camaraderie and athletics. She chose to attend the Military Academy and went on to make history.
At West Point, she broke barriers as the first African American woman to be named first captain, 37 years after current four-star general Vincent K. Brooks became the first African American to hold the position. That same year, Pat Locke became the first African American woman to graduate from the academy, which admitted its first class of women in 1976.
Being first captain
At the Naval Academy and the Military Academy, midshipmen and cadets are required to participate in some sort of athletic club or extracurricular. Askew rowed crew for her first three years at the academy before she became first captain. Earning the position didn’t come easy.
She was chosen from a group of 15 fourth-year cadets who had gone through a rigorous application process and were narrowed down from a group of 180 who displayed interest in a key leadership position.
As first captain, Askew is the public face of the academy’s student body. She oversees the entire Corps of Cadets, and she is the liaison between the cadets and the administration. Askew is also in charge of setting a class agenda.
To have an African American woman leading that charge is significant. Women constituted 22 percent of the 1,200-person Class of 2018 when Askew started at West Point, meaning she was one of 263 female cadets. Minority enrollment was roughly 33 percent, including 166 African Americans.
“I think it means a lot to us as a whole at school to know that we’re making history together,” Army quarterback Ahmad Bradshaw said. “Not only in the African American community but obviously a lot of other people had an input and a say in making the decision to put her there. So it’s also all of the people that had that input.”
Askew is still processing what it means to her to be the first African American woman to serve as first captain. Askew’s mother is white and is divorced from her father, who is African American. Askew’s goal during her time as first captain has been to further a culture of inclusivity at the academy.
“I appreciate and am very excited that it means a lot to a good amount of people, and that it impacts them, maybe in a small capacity and maybe in a really big capacity,” Askew said of her first captainship. “That is awesome, and I’m more than happy to be that for whoever sees a little piece of themselves in me — and there were people before me who provided the same inspiration and motivation.
“My primary focus is having the ability and, really, the impact on a very diverse corps. Not just the women, not just the African American population, not just the African American women, but everyone . . . for the sake of leadership, we’re future officers. That’s what we cling to the most.”
What’s next
After she serves her term as first captain and graduates this spring, Askew will head to Oxford, where she is hoping to complete two one-year master’s programs as one of 32 Rhodes scholars selected nationwide.
She’s looking into pursuing a degree in diplomatic studies or women’s studies. After those two years, she will head to a basic officer leadership course for Army engineers, the branch for which she was selected. Then her life as a military professional begins in earnest.
