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4B The Statement
Wednesday, September 11, 2013 // The Statement5B
membership flourishes with above 800 total
members enrolled each year since 2010.
Established in 1917, following the imple-
mentation of the National Defense Act of 1916,
the ROTC program has commissioned almost
500,000 officers since enrollment records
were documented starting1920.
The United States Army Cadet Command
determines the curriculum for the Army
ROTC programs at universities nationwide.
While many of the programs, training exer-
cises and classes have remained similar to or
the same as before 9/11, current members par-
ticipate in the program with more of a focus on
effectively using first aid and identifying the
enemy.
Operations Officer Wayne Doyle, who has
worked at the University since the late 1990s,
said he noticed the shift in the program's cur-
riculum to better prepare for finding non-
state actors - like the Taliban - that aren't
uniformed and easily identifiable in a crowd,
compared to the large unit formations the U.S.
military has traditionally faced.
"How can you fight them without causing
civil damage at the same time?" Doyle said. "It
takes a different mindset to do that than when
I grew up in the Army."
The goal is to create tactics that cause as
little harm to civilian populations as possible,
according to Doyle.
To pursue this objective, the Raiders team
- an extracurricular club that 40 cadets,
including some from Michigan State Univer-
sity - completed a mock night raid similar to
the one performed by the United States Navy
SEALs that killed Osama bin Laden. The club
completes different exercises each year, but
the objective is to allow cadets the opportu-
nity to execute a realistic Army operation on
their own. In this exercise, planned and led
by University cadets, they simulated calling in
for air fire, surveillance and wore night vision
goggles, among other tactics, to complete the
exercise.
According to Lieutenant Colonel Allana
Bryant, professor of military science and the
lead member of the cadre (or staff) advising
the program, the reenactment represents one
of multiple large training events. Within her
past two years involved in the program, Bry-
ant said it has expanded to new heights, and
will grow this year with their participation
in the Army Ten-Miler - a race that aims to
build Army spirit and maintain fitness goals -
in Washington, D.C. with two cadet teams and
one cadre team.
As for former ROTC graduates who now
serve in Iraq, Doyle said the program prepared
them well for the combat and day-to-day life
while deployed.
"From time to time I'll have lieutenants
write back to me from Iraq telling me this was
some of the best preparation they ever got for
combat in Iraq," Doyle said. "That was good
to hear, because we are teaching useful things
that do apply later on."
Bryant attended the U.S. Military Academy
herself and was deployed to Germany, Kuwait,
Haiti and around the country prior to coming
to Ann Arbor. As a student at West Point Mili-
tary Academy, Bryant and her classmates had
access to tangible necessities for the military,
like helicopters and shooting ranges.
The University program differs, however,
from the United States Military Academies
with members also experiencing a more tradi-
tional university lifestyle.
With this campus life, a University cadet's
ability to cope with more freedom could be a
cadet's downfall, or his or hers ascent to a dis-
ciplined attitude, Bryant said.
Learning to serve
When Engineering senior Matthew
Blanchard heard about the 9/11 attacks he was
in fourth grade. His teachers kept the news
a secret to maintain a calm environment and
continued with the usual activities for the day,
but the atmosphere was still tense.
Later, when Blanchard returned home
from school that day, he watched the news as
it played clips of the Twin Towers collapsing.
After visiting the World Trade Center a month
prior, he was unable to fully grasp the gravity
of the situation, just like many other Ameri-
cans.
Though he made the decision to join
ROTC only a few weeks before college began,
freshman and sophomore year - canoeing
along the Huron River - and last year rid-
ing a Black Hawk above campus, this year
was different. Living in close quarters at
Fort Custard, the battalion thrived - allow-
ing seniors to show incoming freshmen the
ropes, as well as teaching them one of the
most important emotional aspects of ROTC:
finding your purpose.
"If you give people purpose, they'll take to
it a lot better and bond a lot better," Blanchard
said. "This five-day orientation was absolute
gold for our program."
Blanchard wasn't the only one pleased
with the event. Doyle, Bryant and Park, all
among the ROTC cadre, lauded the orienta-
tion as a success. But it wasn't just the bond-
ing and prepping for the year that elicited
satisfaction: It was the seniors' ability to lead
the team more tactfully and passionately
than ever before.
The class, according to Doyle, firmly com-
mands the cadets, resulting in them garnering
more power and control within the program.
"They took it upon themselves, it's a really
neat thing to watch," Doyle said, adding that
Blanchard "has it in his mind that it's his bat-
"I learned to grow very passionate
about serving my country, serving other
people, serving the greater cause that
is Something greater than you and me.
Cap tai Albert Park
- where campus visitors often harassed vet-
erans and ROTC members - they are now not
only welcomed, but also celebrated.
"It definitely changed here on campus,"
Monts said. "I think that really changed after -
9/11, and I heard from cadets and midshipmen
that they're often stopped by people and had
people expressed their thanks for what they do
for the country."
On multiple occasions, Ann Arbor resi-
dents have paid for Doyle and Bryant's meals-
and greeted them with countless thanks and
appreciation.
"It's a difficult life," Bryant said of her
career. "It's alife whereyou sacrifice fromyour
own personal goals and dreams sometimes for
the sake of something else. The fact that we
weren't recognized or even in a negative light,
like it was in Vietnam, that was much more
difficult, so I'm very happy about the current
state of our culture."
For the soldiers, cadets, cadre and veterans,
individual progress and growth is not the only
measure of success - the goal is progress as a..
nation.
When asked to explain his purpose for join-
ing ROTC, Blanchard paused. After explain-
ing his leadership tactics while training the
freshmen at orientation, he thought about his
answer, eventually uttering each word of it
naturally.
"I want to progress myself as much as I
can and become as good quality of a leader as
I can," Blanchard said. "The military setting,
for me, has worked very well: I like the disci-
pline and the ability to make myself as good
as a person as I could possibly be. It will have
somewhere down the road some kind of posi-
tive impact."
While Blanchard is unsure of his future
in the military after his six years of service
following graduation, he understands the
rewards he has received from training in such
a high-stress, disciplined environment. No
matter if he serves until retirement, or goes
into engineering, his leadership skills have for-
ever changed.
For Park, the future is uncertain as well. He
has two years left serving on cadre for the Uni-
versity's program, and then he plans to return
to active service. While Park originally joined
the military to follow an 800-year-old family
tradition of service in the Korean military and,
now, the American military, his purpose to
serve has shifted.
Being commissioned to protect the coun-
try inspired a new purpose for Park: laying
the foundation for the military's future, and
protecting the ones that he loves from future
dangers.
"There was obviously something that had
to be done from the attacks on 9/11," Park
said. "What really compels me to work and
stay happy in my work is to make sure I did-"
the most I could do to rectify the inequity; do
my part so that other people didn't have to. I
get deployed to keep my friends and family
safe from subsequent attacks on American
soil. So that took a huge grasp on my heart,
actually. I learned to grow very passionate
about serving my country, serving other peo-
ple, serving the greater cause that is some-
thing greater than you and me"
aptain Albert Park kept a quote in
the back of his head while deployed
in Afghanistan in 2007. The quote
- said by Captain Ronald Speirs, a
World War II veteran played by Matthew Set-
tle in the HBO miniseries "Band of Brothers"
- motivated him while completing his duty as
a U.S. soldier.
"We're all scared. You hid in that ditch
because you think there's still hope. But Blithe,
the only hope you have is to accept the fact that
you're already dead. And the sooner you accept
that, the sooner you'll be able to function as
a soldier is supposed to function. Without
mercy. Without compassion. Without remorse.
All war depends on it."
In 2006, Park -- who was commissioned at
California State University, Fullerton in 2005
- served as the headquarters commandant
for a joint international post in Iraq. He spent you can't operate," Park said. "Every time that
most of his time maintaining logistics and you go out on patrol, you hope that you come
ensuring operations ran smoothly and with- back alive. You just take it day by day. You can't
out violent interactions. When he was sent to really think about the future."
Afghanistan in 2007, however, he began to see After completing his work in Afghanistan in
bloodshed first hand. 2008, Park was deployed to Haiti in2010 to pro-
Stationed in Jalalabad, Afghanistan - the vide humanitarian care after the 2010 earth-
future base of "Operation Geronimo," which quake and sent to Iraq, again, in 2011.Park then
ended with Osama bin Laden's death in 2011 had a choice to make: his next assignment.
- Park's daily patrols to villages brought fre- From a list of 72 possible locations for his
quent encounters with the enemy, the anti- next chapter, one stood out as Park's first
coalition militia (ACM) otherwise known as choice: the operations and executive officer
the Taliban. Park hoped to transfer to a differ- and assistant professor for the University's
ent post. The attacks he experienced, which Reserve Officer Training Core program.
could occur daily, involved firearms and rock-
ets. Park described the daily action as "exhila- The aftermath
rating," though "definitely scary."
"If it's my time, it's my time; I just let that be On Saturday, September 15, 2001, a football
what I operated off, because if you're scared, game was scheduled. The Big House was filled
to the brim, but the atmosphere was quite dif-
ferent than a normal game. Senior Vice Pro-
vost Lester Monts remembers the Army ROTC
cadets and midshipmen raising the flag at the
game while the national anthem played, elic-
iting an out-of-character noiseless response
from the audience.
"When the colors came out of the tunnel,
there was almost complete silence in the sta-
dium," Monts said. "I never heard the national
anthem sung with such gusto as I heard on
that particular day ... And that's just a descrip-
tion of their patriotism and appreciation for
what the military does for them and alike."
Since the terrorist attacks on September 11,
2001, the enrollment in the University's ROTC
program has increased - with 555 total mem-
bers in 2001 growing to 898 in 2013. While
enrollment comes in peaks and valleys, its
Blanchard attended camps as a child with
plans to attend the U.S. Military Academy,
influenced by his dad who served in the mili-
tary himself. Now, 12 years later, Blanchard
serves as the University's Army ROTC cadet
battalion commander, the highest position
available for a cadet in the program.
This summer, Blanchard attended the
five-week Leadership Development Assess-
ment Course at Fort Lewis, near Tacoma,
Wash. - a mandatory program that com-
mission cadets participate in after their
junior year - with other rising seniors in
the program. There, Blanchard received a
rating of Excellent - the highest possible -
in addition to the coveted Recond badge, an
additional honor for top-performing cadets.
Upon returning to campus, Blanchard helped
lead the ROTC program's first five-day-long
orientation in late August at Fort Custard in
Battle Creek, Mich.
Blanchard described the few days as the
"best experience" he's had in ROTC. The
orientation gave 96 ROTC members - 42 of
whom are new to the program - an opportu-
nity to bond and progress as a unit.
Compared to brief bonding stints, his
talion, and he is going to run it."
While usually the level of bonding and inte-
gration with the freshmen and transfers takes
months to master, Bryant said the orientation
reached that level within a few days, resulting
in an impressive class of new and old members
for the start of the year.
Like Bryant, within a matter of five days,
Park saw immense improvements among the
battalion, especially with those who have
never been exposed to the military.
"It's so gratifying and extraordinary to
see their progress just in a matter of five
days - hell, just in a matter of three days,"
Park said. "This is all because of the efforts,
not only of us the cadre, but the seniors.
They've been in that program for two to four
years, and they are just regurgitating every-
thing they've learned into these cadets. It's
an amazing feat to see, actually."
A change in respect
Since 9/11, Monts has noticed a newfound
appreciation for ROTC members amongst the
campus community. Compared to a largely
unsupportive campus during the Vietnam War