West Point Names Montville Grad First Captain

A Montville Township High School graduate has been selected to lead the thousands of cadets at West Point in her senior year at the military academy.

Lindsey Danilack was selected first captain of the U.S. Military Academy’s Corps of Cadets for the 2013-2014 academic year, achieving the highest position in the cadet chain of command, the military academy announced Thursday.

She assumes her duties Aug. 12.

As first captain, Danilack is responsible for the overall performance of the approximately 4,400-member Corps of Cadets. Her duties include implementing a class agenda and acting as a liaison between the Corps and administration, the academy said in a news release.

Danilack, who graduated from Montville Township High School in 2010, is the fourth woman to serve as first captain.

Danilack led training this summer for the incoming class of cadets, which included rigorous physical training and basic soldier skills, she said.

Danilack competes on West Point's track and field team and said she is looking forward to a successful year for the team. She also predicts Army will snap Navy's winning streak in their annual football matchup.

"This is the year that we're going to beat Navy," she said.

Danilack is looking to get into the Army's aviation branch to fly Apache helicopters after graduating.

Her father, Mark Danilack, is a fifth-grade teacher at Valley View School in Montville Township and has invited her to speak with his students about leadership since she entered West Point. He said she is "very dedicated to anything she does."

Lindsey Danilack traces her desire to attend West Point to a family picnic at the academy when she was a child and saw cadets training there.

"She just had this look in her eye like this is what she wanted to do," her mom, Susan Danilack, said.

She has two brothers: Andy, a junior at Seton Hall University, who is involved in ROTC, and Paul, a sophomore at Fairleigh Dickinson University.