Erin Anthony is one year older than her brother, Mac, but it was the younger sibling who always knew he wanted to go to a military academy.

“He knew a while before me that he wanted to go to the Naval Academy, probably at 11 years old,” Erin Said. “He initially wanted to become a pilot but eventually moved to special operations. That was something that he decided that he wanted for himself at a very young age.”

For Erin Anthony, the prospect of attending a military academy was less certain. She enjoyed a standout women’s basketball career at Parkland High School in Allentown, Pennsylvania, and kept her options open at first in her college search.

“I looked at a lot of regional schools, including Lehigh and Lafayette. There were a handful of Patriot League schools and their general competitors in my pool as a candidate.”

But while the options were open, the visit to West Point sealed Anthony’s decision quickly.

“My dad and I took a road trip after I finished my junior year of high school and visited everywhere we could on the east coast. What I really liked when I got up to West Point was that the players there really had a good idea of what they wanted to do in life and they were doing a lot of stuff that you usually don’t see as a 19 or 20-year old. The more I talked to them I realized the idea of a five-year commitment was not a bad thing and people had a real good idea of where they were going and how they would get there.”

She added, “My mom was not thrilled initially, but my dad really emphasized what a great education it was. He wasn’t a service academy grad but he was a Marine and knew the value of it.”

Anthony became the epitome of a model cadet both on and off the court, and her upbringing helped her transition better than most in her plebe year.

“It took a lot of discipline, especially that first year. I think because my father was in the military he had already raised us with a lot of discipline so it was easier for me to transition to better time management and all the things that come with being a college freshman and on top of that to have the military discipline that you needed every day. Waking up at 6 a.m. whether you had basketball practice or not, going to meals with everyone and wearing your uniform all the time, that type of stuff can really wear on you if you’re not prepared for what to expect.”

She added, “It’s empowering, when you get through that first year and go home and get to talk to your friends and hear about their experience you realize and appreciate how much you’ve managed to accomplish.”

And Anthony would accomplish plenty in her four years as a standout at Army West Point. Anthony made the All-Patriot League Team in her final three seasons, with first-team recognition in both her junior and senior year. She led the Patriot League in rebounding in three straight seasons from 2009-11, and as a senior also led in scoring and blocked shots. She scored 1,429 points and is third in League history with 1,036 rebounds. Anthony also excelled in the classroom, earning three Patriot League Scholar-Athlete of the Year honors and first-team Academic All-America status as both a junior and senior. A civil engineering major, she also became the first recipient of the David M. Fraser Award for Engineering Excellence and Leadership at West Point.

“I just wanted to keep my nose down and work as hard as I can and I had no idea how I would adjust to college that first year. Fortunately I came out with a very good GPA and was on track as an engineering major like I had planned on. It’s basically a five-year degree but at West Point you can finish in four years so I had to perform well that freshman year. Leagues like the Patriot League have it right to make sure people are successful in the classroom, knowing that it’s the difference in your life in terms of being able to work and contribute to society. You don’t realize it when you’re 18, but when you’re a little bit older you appreciate that you got pushed and really put in the work to do it. I had amazing instructors, most of whom had served in the military, and were influential in my education and continue to be in my career so far.”

In addition to her instructors, Army West Point Head Coach Dave Magarity became an important influence for Anthony and her teammates.

“I had an outstanding coach. He really cared about us as players. The reason he came back to coach at West Point was because he loved it, not because it was a steppingstone or a good career move. He had the opportunity to work in the NBA, but he decided to be at West Point and that meant a lot to us. He was very hard on us on the court, but off the court he was like a grandpa and cared about what we were doing and our families. He knew we were people and that was really important too.”

Anthony’s post-graduate career began as an intern on Magarity’s staff, but there were plenty of twists and turns as well. Shortly after graduation she went to Sapper School, a course which trains engineer leaders in small unit tactics, leadership skills and war-fighter tactics required to perform as a member of a combined-arms team.

“There are two stages – the first is general studies, and the second is patrolling and each is about two weeks long. You are up at about 4 a.m. in general studies doing PT, and goal is to learn as much as you can and you have to get 700 out of the possible 1,000 points to continue in the schools. They teach you all of the sapper skills like repelling and doing work with airborne operations, and it’s a really tough two weeks mentally as well as physically. In patrol stage you take turns going through the patrols for two weeks. You are out in the woods every day all day for 10 straight days and have to go through the entire process, and the days are extremely long and draining. You are up 18-20 hours a day, and when you sleep there is always someone up keeping guard. They don’t actually tell you if you have passed your patrols until the end, and if you pass both then you are able to get your sapper pass.”

She added, “I don’t know how I pulled it off. It was something that I really wanted and a challenge that I was really looking forward to. Sapper school really prepared me for my deployment. There were long days and it was very uncomfortable but you just have to deal with it.”

Anthony left her coaching position with the women’s basketball team in February 2012 when she went to basic officer course at Fort Leonard Wood in Missouri. Four months later she left for Fort Bragg in North Carolina, where Anthony was in charge of about 35 soldiers in her platoon that worked in heavy equipment operations. Her platoon deployed to Afghanistan the following February with the task of looking for improvised explosive devices (IEDs) while also helping train Afghan forces. Anthony became a company executive officer half-way through her deployment where she had command of about 130 people in what was more of an “administrative” role. She continued to work in that area when she came back from Afghanistan in October 2013, and then Anthony had an opportunity for another challenging experience within the Army.

“When I got back from Fort Bragg, I had the chance to go to school at Jump Masters (United States Army Jumpmaster School) in airborne operations. I was basically the person giving commands to people going out of the operations, and it was probably the most intense month of life in learning how to do it. Jump Masters was the toughest mentally, while sapper was toughest physically.”

After she passed Jump Masters, Anthony became head of a battalion of 500 to 600 people in a “very exacting type of administrative job” that she held for about eight months. In September 2014 she moved back to Fort Leonard Wood with her then-fiance Casey Williams, who Anthony (now Williams) married on May 9. Both are finishing Masters degrees, with Anthony completing hers in Engineering Management. At the end of summer Anthony and her husband went to Fort Campbell in Kentucky with the 101st airborne division which works on repelling out of helicopters.

“It’s great to get the chance to command a company. It’s similar to being a platoon leader, but now I’m in charge of 120-150 people and in a higher position with platoon leaders under me. People tell me it is the most rewarding experience, and following that, we will continue to pursue a career in the Army and a lot of it depends on what we can do together.”

Anthony has turned from a model cadet into a model soldier, and it’s been quite a path for someone who was not initially sure about attending a military academy.