Madison’s Bailey #1 at Academy

Second Lieutenant Zachary “Zack” Bailey, of Madison, bested over 950 fellow cadets to finish top of his class at the Air Force Academy this past April.

On April 18, just over 950 United States Air Force Academy cadets from the 2020 class threw their hats up in the air while fighter jets screamed over the Colorado campus to celebrate their graduation and the beginning of a five-year career in the USAF. Bailey said he had more to be proud of than finishing at the top of that group of young men and women.

“I am proud of what I accomplished, but more than finishing top of my class, I am proud of the habits I developed along the way,” Bailey said.

The top of the class is determined by a weighted combination of a cadet's academic success, represented by their grade point average, as well as scores in military proficiency and physical fitness. Bailey finished with the highest GPA in his class at 4.0 and has been the top of his class at the end of every semester he spent in Colorado.

“It wasn’t something I set out to do,” Bailey said. “I knew I would be in school with kids from all over and being from Mississippi, I just wanted to do the best I could.”

Zack is the son of Keith and Suzanne Bailey of Madison. He went to Madison Central where he played on their championship soccer team and graduated valedictorian in 2016. Suzanne said that her son has a knack for working with others and attributed part of his academic success to his role as a tutor at the academy.

“We always told him that we were proud of him. I don’t think he ever set being at the top of his class as a goal but he has held that spot his entire time there,” his mother said. “We were a little shocked at first, quite frankly, but Zack worked really hard and loved tutoring other students and I think that helped him learn the material better.” 

Bailey’s hard work has paid off in the form of a Marshall Scholarship from the British government. In September, he will start at King’s College in London to complete a master's in global health with a concentration in conflict security. His scholarship is for two years and will include a second biomedical master's from the University of Cambridge. After that, he plans to go to medical school.

Military life did not have a huge footprint in Bailey’s world for some time. His father flew planes and helicopters in the Army, but Bailey said that was mostly before he was even born. Bailey said the first seed was planted when he was in eighth grade. His family was on a ski trip in Colorado. His older sister, Katie Anne, was in tenth grade and beginning to consider her next step and looking at colleges.

“I remember we were driving and my dad said 'look to the left',” Bailey remembered. “I could see the iconic chapel and the stadium (at the Air Force Academy). I had probably heard the name West Point before but I didn’t really know anything about the service academies.”

Katie Anne would go on to have her own career playing softball at Mississippi State University, but the image stuck in Zack’s head. Towards the end of his high school career Madison Central held Academy Day, where representatives, recruiters and cadets from the military academies visited the school.

“I started talking to some of the cadets and they were talking about how they were being challenged and had the opportunity to go overseas, fly planes and jump out of planes,” Bailey said.

Riding the wave of these cadets stories, Bailey said he started considering service academies as an option. 

“I knew I didn't want to be on a boat,” he said. 

So Annapolis was eliminated, along with the Merchant Marine and Coast Guard Academies. He thought some more about how his dad had taught him to fly personal aircraft.

“My dad had already taught me how to fly a plane and I liked being in the air,” Bailey said.

So he applied to the Air Force Academy. Suzanne said she remembered watching her son go through the difficult application process.

“We were surprised when he came back from Academy Day and wanted to go to one of the service schools. It is a difficult selection process and you have to jump through a lot of hoops but he did it on his own,” she said. “I don’t remember helping him with it at all.”

As Bailey continues his education, he said that he is thankful for the challenges that he endured at the academy and encourages other kids to look into opportunities provided by the military academies.

“I imagine a lot of people from Mississippi don’t have an opinion, positive or negative, of the academies like I did before I looked into them,” Bailey said. “I would encourage more high school kids and parents to research the opportunities they offer. It is a free education that will challenge you and teach you how to be a leader. It's hard but it's worth it.”