Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
James Burroughes is a Clovis High School graduate who has now graduated from the U.S. Military Academy with the rank of second lieutenant in the U.S. Army.
James Burroughes spent four years at Clovis High School and is a May graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y.
He is now a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army and merely a few weeks away from becoming a civil engineer with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
While he is spending time at home between West Point graduation and his first duty assignment, he is busy organizing and preparing for his next assignment and practicing for a national pistol-shooting competition.
Still, he found time to talk with The News about West Point and where he's going next.
Her are our questions and his responses.
Q. Was West Point a dream of yours?
A. Ever since I was three or four years old, I have wanted a career in the military. My dad was with the Air Force and that influenced me.
Q. How did you get into West Point?
A. I applied at the end of my junior year in high school. It required a recommendation from a U.S. Congressional representative. Rep. Ben Ray Lujan gave me a recommendation before he became a U.S. senator.
Q. Did West Point live up to your expectations?
A. It lived up to being challenging. Most of our time was spent on the academic side. In the summer, it was mostly military outdoor activities like drill, the obstacle courses and shooting.
Q. What was a typical day like at West Point?
A. You wake up at 6 or 6:30 a.m., and have breakfast. You attend two or three classes in the morning and take maybe a half-hour for lunch, then more classes. You study from about 7:30 p.m. to 11:30 p.m. or 12:30 a.m.
Q. Sounds like a lot of sleep deprivation.
A. All the time. They always gave you more to do than you had time for. The challenge is to set priorities and make the best use of your time.
Q. How were you graded?
A. You're graded on three pillars, military, physical condition and academics.
Q. What kinds of things did you study at West Point?
A. For engineering, I studied calculus, statistics, and materials, including concrete and metals. There were also classes in foreign relations and military subjects. I also took three semesters of Russian language and was sent to Latvia in my senior year to learn more Russian.
Q. Latvia?
A. Yes, from January to May 2022. I was there when Russia invaded Ukraine. Latvia is north of Belarus and Lithuania, which is north of Ukraine. All of them share borders with Russia. It was a pretty tense time there. The people I talked to there were very concerned.
Q. Were you allowed to stay after the invasion?
A. No I was transferred to the garrison at Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany, to finish my Russian studies.
Q. What was your favorite part of being at West Point?
A. They made me a Cadet First Sergeant, and I led 120 cadets and had the opportunity to make an impact on their lives.
Q. Overall, what did you like best?
A. It was the people. It was knowing you were studying under the best of the best all the time.
Q. How did you feel when you graduated?
A. It was bittersweet. It felt good to be done, but I knew I was leaving some good friends and good times acquired over 47 months.
Q. What are your goals now?
A. Right now, it's to be a good officer and to learn as much about engineering as I can. The army has several categories of engineering, and I'd like learn about them all and get a broad breadth of experience.
Q. Where is your first duty station?
A. It will be at Fort Leonard Wood, Mo., for training, and then to Camp Humphreys in South Korea in mid- to late January.
Q. So what do you do while you're between graduation and your first assignment?
A. I'm organizing and getting things ready. I work out and swim, and and I'm practicing for the Presidents One Hundred shooting competition in pistol shooting. It's a national competition for both military and civilian shooting.
Q. Did you compete in shooting at West Point?
A. I've competed in several pistol shooting competitions, including bullseye shooting, defensive shooting and steel challenge shooting. I scored the third-highest in the country in steel challenge, which is timed, based on a course of hitting steel targets of different sizes.
Q. Who is in your family in Clovis?
A. My mother is Claire Burroughes the assistant city manager, and my father is Chris Chance, who is retired from the Air Force and does contract work at Cannon Air Force Base. My sister is Martha Wyrick, a bankruptcy attorney in Dallas, and she has a son and daughter.
