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Wednesday October2008 - Daily
ROTC AND THE
PUBLIC SERVICE
THAT DOESN'T
GET A DIAG DAY
BY ANDY KROLL
Daily News Editor
Under the glow of the con-
struction floodlights,
Gunnery Sgt. Kenneth
Bodisch's shadow stretched
to superhuman size along the
50-yard-line of Michigan Stadi-
um. A thick, brick wall of a man,
Bodisch stood at the bottom of
the Big House's eastward facing
seating section, shouting at the
students sprinting up the stairs
of the stadium's concrete bowl.
"Push it!" he barked. "Make
it hurt!"
He turned to a student near-
by who was hunched over, his
elbows resting on his knees.
"You feel like jello yet?"
On the opposite side of the
empty stadium, about 60 men
and women dressed in the same
white shirts and blue shorts ran
the vertiginous rows of stairs
and the connecting concourses.
A group would slow for the occa-
sional straggler, but they never
stopped, and the sound of their
rubber-soled shoes hitting each
step faintly echoed throughout
the bowl.
After 45 minutes of running,
everyone moved down to the
field for the conclusion of this
particular Friday morning's
physical training session. They
laid down on the dewy artificial
turf field for sets of abdominal
exercises and push-ups led by
Bodisch. "You should be try-
ing to cause some violence to
their body," he explained to the
weary-looking group scattered
around him.
High above Bodisch and the
naval battalion of the Reserve
Officers' Training Corps at the
University, a last glimpse of the
previous night's sickle-shaped
moon could be seen before dis-
appearing into the brightening
sky. A few feet away from the
corps, a sweat-drenched mid-
shipman collapsed to his knees
and puked on the field.
By 7 a.m., physical training
was over. The midshipmen in
the battalion slowly made their
way through the abandoned stu-
dent section and out of one of the
stadium's main gates. They had
just enough time to return home,
shower, eat breakfast, change
into their civilian clothes and
blend back in with the rest of
their classmates as if they too
had just rolled out of bed.
For the students in the Naval
ROTC program, and also the
University's Army and Air Force
ROTC cadets and midshipmen balance the demands of student life with a commitment to the military.
programs, this routine - up at
5:30 a.m. for physical training,
then into the daily grind of school
- is normal. Unless it's Thurs-
day, when all the cadets (Army
and Air Force) and the midship-
men (Navy and Marines) wear
their military uniforms for the
day's laboratory class, students
in the ROTC are just anonymous
faces on the Diag.
But participation in the ROTC
is very much a second, parallel
wlife. Depending on the pro-
gram, that commitment can
include anywhere from two to
six early morning physical train-
ing sessions each week, weekly
classes in North Hall and one
or two weekend events each
month. Many students also take
on ROTC-related commitments
each summer, like shadowing
an active duty officer on a base
in Germany or completing the
month-long Warrior Forge lead-
ership training program at Fort
Lewis in northern Washington
State.
And, of course, there's the
four years of active duty in the
military for students who con-
tract with the Air Force, Army
or Navy while at the University,
which almost all do.
Here on campus, the belief in
the importance of public service
is resurgent. Each year, swaths
of graduates join programs like
Teach For America, AmeriCorps
and the Peace Corps. But in spite
of this renewed emphasis on
serving the public, it is clear that
one of the most obvious forms of
public service - military service
- is no longer included under
that umbrella by many young
people.
"There just seems to be a big
disconnect for our generation
with the military," said Ben
Karek, an LSA junior and ROTC
cadet. "Who knows what those
reasons are for."
The life of a student in the
ROTC is hard to comprehend
for the vast bulk of college stu-
dents, who shun Friday classes
altogether and wouldn't ever
consider waking up hours early
for a grueling morning work out.
Even the most goal-oriented
students wouldn't understand
dedicating that kind of time to a
large group like the ROTC - for
a generation that values individ-
ual success, a long-term commit-
ment to military service doesn't
quite click.
So why, then, do these nearly
300 students, unlike so many of
their peers, decide to commit
the better part of a decade to the
order and rules and decorum of
the military?
For the cadets and mid-
shipmen in the Univer-
sity's ROTC programs,
there's no single definitive
answer to this question. Rather,
in talking with the men and
women forwhom NorthHall isa
second home, an array ofreasons
emerges. For one, students often
mention their family's military
background. Many had grandfa-
thers who fought in World War
II, uncles who had served in
Vietnam.
"The military is very legacy-
based," said Ellen Racklyeft, a
Nursing senior and the Naval
ROTC battalion commander, the
highest-rankingstudentofficerin
the Naval ROTC. "There's alot of,
'Well, my dad did it. My grandpa
did.' That's a huge thing."
In the case of Lee Collins,
an LSA sophomore and Army
cadet, his family tradition of
military service dates back as
far as the birth of this country.
Although no one in his immedi-
ate family served in the military,
Collins said his distant relatives
had fought in both the Ameri-
can Revolution and the Civil
War. It was these family mem-
bers, he said, that inspired him
to join the ROTC. "One distant
ancestor was an aide to General
Washington. Another received a
medal of honor at Gettysburg,"
Collins said proudly. "That
really inspired me going back
to those roots, and kind of carry
the torch."
Not all cadets and midship-
men can boast having relatives
who served under the most
famous general in American
history. But even those with-
out a military legacy view their
participation as a way of begin-
ning such a tradition in their
own families. Karek, who joined
the Army ROTC in hopes that
it would help him land a career
in federal law enforcement, said
joining the military "would be a
good chance for me to represent
my family."
Mentioned nearly as often as
family legacy are financial rea-
sons. As the University's tuition
increases while the availability
of student loans decreases, more
students see ROTC programs
quite simply as a way to pay for
college. A quick glance at the
informational material greet-
ing visitors in the lobby of North
Hall confirms this: "NROTC:
MONEY FOR COLLEGE," reads
one Naval ROTC brochure; "Col-
lege Expenses? 100% Tuition
Coverage - Navy," says anoth-
er; "LET USAA HELP JUMP-
START YOUR FINANCIAL
FUTURE," exclaimsyetanother
brightly colored pamphlet for
the Air Force ROTC.
Captain Rick Vanden Heu-
vel, the commanding officer in
charge of the Naval ROTC pro-
gram, said the economic appeal
of the program couldn't be over-
stated, especially considering
today's economy.
"It's about not only the ser-
vice for the ROTC and the even-
tual service in the Navy, but it's,
'O.K., we're offering a full-ride
scholarship to the University of
Michigan and Eastern Michi-
gan University,' " he said. "So
that alone, there's an economic
appeal to that."
The same applies to the Uni-
versity's Air Force ROTC pro-
gram. Although many cadets
in the program compete for a
limited number of scholarships,
the Air Force ROTC has recent-
ly begun offering automatic
scholarships to students pursu-
ing majors in selected foreign
languages, nursing and several
types of engineering, according
to Capt. Victoria Misek. Cadets
who don't receive a scholar-
ship, she added, can take out
low-interest loans through the
Air Force to help pay off student
loans after graduation.
Still, Misek hesitated to say
students join the program pure-
ly for the money. "You know,
I'm not goingto even lie and say,
'Hey, that's not the reason some
people do it is for financial aid,"'
she said. "But I wouldn't neces-
sarily say thatthey're going to be
here because of financial aid."
The importance of financial
aid or family tradition varies
from student to student. There
is, however, one reason for join-
ing that nearly every ROTC
member mentioned: the desire
to contribute to a larger cause,
a greater good. Some, like Ryan
Hall, call it patriotism.
"I'm a very patriotic per-
son, and it was always a patri-
otic decision," said Hall, an LSA
senior and the commander of the
Naval ROTC's Marine Option
Charlie company.
Others compare the ROTC to
the generic-college-student life-
style - a lifestyle that for these
students would feel empty with-
out a greater purpose.
Devon Stanforth, an Engi-
neering senior and Army cadet,
said he knew the way some of
his peers went through col-
lege wasn't for him. "I'm seeing
people around me just going to
college to get a job. And what
are they doing with their job?
They're just making money -
and that doesn't seem too excit-
ing or productive," he said. "I
knew I wanted to do something
that actually meant something."
On this, almost all of the
cadets and midshipmen agree.
Their service in the ROTC, and
one day likely as an active duty
officer, means something to
them that is greater than them-
selves and their own personal
goals.
Where these young men and
women feel conflicted, though,
is whether their voluntary com-
mitment to defend their country
means anything to their peers on
campus. By no means are they
asking their peers to serve; on
the contrary, each student inter-
viewed for this story adamantly
stated that joining the ROTC is
not for everybody.
"And that's something I think
is awesome about college cam-
puses," Hall said. "We can all
agree that we're into different
See ROTC, Page 8B