Physics teacher and ex-sergeant Anthony Cariello made the transition from the army to a high school teacher 18 years ago when he started teaching at West Point University. Cariello left the army after 13 years of service for a calmer life with his three children.
Cariello started his physics career in highschool, where he “hated” the subject. In college he also had to take a physics class, and he still hated it. In college he started to change his mind.
“I had to take a class in mechanics and I thought it was the coolest thing ever,” Cariello said. “It was all physics, and I asked myself, ‘how did I miss the fact that physics is cool.”
The mechanics class Cariello took led him to become a combat engineer in the army where he was a 22-year-old platoon sergeant in charge of 30 men who were all older than him.
“Everything that I did tactically made me look like the smartest in the platoon, but experience wise, I [was] the least experienced person,” Cariello said.
Even though he hadn’t officially become an educator yet, he spent a large amount of time teaching the men in his platoon different skills.
“There [were] some very smart soldiers in the army, but then there [were] some people in the army who did not succeed in high school academically,” Cariello said. “I learned to present things different ways and not freak out when somebody didn’t understand it the first time, because the point was not that somebody understand this on the 15 of October, the point was: can I get someone to understand this ever?”
While Cariello was a platoon leader, he was exceptional at fixing “broken” or poorly run platoons. He would go in and give them more structure, and make sure they were doing exactly what they were supposed to be doing. He would often hop around from one platoon to another to fix them then move on.
“I figured out all of the problems, like the construction guys were unhappy because we were driving around Germany pretending to fight, but they had cranes and stuff so they were just hanging out,” Carriello said. “So when I found out that was the problem, I went out and found construction jobs for them to do.”
After Cariello finished up his time in Germany, he was stationed at Fort Benning in Georgia where he was offered the chance to get a physics degree from his branch manager.
“I applied to a bunch of schools, 40 of them, and got turned down by 38,” Cariello said. “I went to Columbia, which was [ranked] seventh in the world for physics at the time.”
Graduate school was when Cariello really fell in love with physics.
“I just fell in love with it,” Cariello said. “Everything in life is physics, chemistry and biology are all physics too. Everything’s physics.”
After Cariello graduated, he became a professor of physics at West Point University while actively in the service.
“I did both for a month,” Cariello said. “I finished teaching then I would go to my unit and work there until midnight and come back to school the next morning.”
Cariello spent some time after this training reserves in New Jersey. Later, he got reassigned to a branch in Londonderry.
Cariello had the option to relocate to Londonderry, but he never heard of the town at the time. After a couple of days and some encouragement from a colleague, Cariello decided Londonderry was the place for him and his family.
“He told me that the 3668th engineers at Londonderry were the best engineers in the army, so I said okay,” Cariello said. “I just picked Londonderry and we ended up loving it.”
Once Cariello was done with his service in Londonderry, he was sent to attend the United States Army War College, until he realized by doing so, his daughters would have to bounce around highschools. Instead of attending another year of school, Cariello attended a Londonderry High School hiring fair.
“The day I walked in, the physics teacher was retiring,” Cariello said. “It was like, you know, God had set it all up and I just walked in. They took me right up and hired me on the spot.”
Cariello ended up loving teaching, and he is still teaching at the same school 18 years later.
“I can be having the worst day at home and I come to school and I’m happy,” Cariello said. “I love teaching, I love interacting with students, and I love physics now.”
Junior Matthew Mussen also feels the same about Cariello.
“Mr. Cariello found a way to make a usually boring class fun,”Mussen said.
Carriellos students also enjoy hearing about his time in the military.
“Whenever he starts to tell a story you know it’s going to be good,” Mussen said. “He is a very interesting person with a lot of cool things to talk about. His stories about the army are always so fascinating; he’s just got so much to talk about. ”
