PCS senior seeks new heights after graduation

Editor’s note: This is one in a series of profiles featuring graduates from high schools in the Moscow-Pullman Daily News readership area.

Ever since he could remember, Casey Gleason has been sketching World War II battle planes.

A childhood later, he’s ready to work his way into the cockpit.

Gleason, 18, is graduating from Pullman Christian School tonight and plans to pursue his dream job — a career with the U.S. Air Force piloting the type of aircraft he’s grown to love.

“It’s something the Lord has always put on my heart,” Gleason said. “I’m interested in the history aspect of it and the people that served for our future.”

He said he wants to be on the list of those to serve “the greatest country in the world.”

And he wouldn’t mind the chance to retire in his 40s or 50s either.

It’s no small feat. To make the dream a reality, Gleason will be in Phoenix, Ariz., on Aug. 15 for Reserve Officers’ Training Corps check-in at Grand Canyon University. After the minimal four-year commitment to become a second lieutenant in the USAF, all the while pursuing a degree in business management, he’s on to a 10-year piloting program.

If Gleason is as good a pilot as he is a student, his career will take off just fine.

The PCS valedictorian with a 3.9 GPA received one A- during his high school career, that coming in pre-calculus.

He’s also a PCS standout athlete, dribbling the ball in soccer, managing the game as a point guard in basketball, and dashing 100 meters, 200 meters and the relay in track and field.

He will miss the school he’s attended for his entire schooling. PCS provides schooling for kindergartners to high school seniors.

“PCS is such a friendly atmosphere, since we are so small,” Gleason said. “The relationships you have with the younger kids, you don’t get that at a public school.”

Gleason said he will miss PCS but he’s “counting down the seconds” to graduate and get on to adulthood.

He’s pretty psyched about his summer job, too — a whitewater rafting guide for Orange Torpedo Trips on the Salmon River. He will start that job Thursday.

“It’s my favorite thing to do,” Gleason said “I’d rather sleep on an air mattress in the sand than my own bed.”

Gleason will give the valedictorian speech at PCS graduation tonight.

Josh Babcock can be reached at (208) 883-4637, or by email to jbabcock@dnews.com .