Graduating into war

Carrie Bruhl was there almost two years ago when U.S. troops
entered Iraq. The UCLA alumna was there because she was flying an
Apache Longbow helicopter into combat.

Bruhl, who graduated from UCLA in 1999 with a degree in
psychobiology, was a member of the army ROTC program and upon
graduation was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the army.

Now a captain stationed in Germany, Bruhl is one among many
students who came from UCLA’s ROTC program and were
eventually deployed to serve either in Iraq or Afghanistan.

These students said the training they received in ROTC helped to
prepare them in part for their future military experiences.

“It doesn’t teach you how to be an officer because
there are a lot of unexpected things to come, and you just have to
experience them,” Bruhl said. “But it gives you the
basics of what it means to be a soldier and how hard it is; it
helps you to be a better leader.”

Upon graduation from UCLA, there are a variety of routes
students can take, from going on active duty to joining the
reserves.

“ROTC complemented and built a base of knowledge for many
of the other schools and training events that I attended,”
said Erik Lewis in an e-mail interview. Lewis is a first lieutenant
who graduated from UCLA in 2001 with a history degree and was
deployed to Iraq in March 2003 to serve there for one year.

Because of the variety in paths available to students, ROTC
focuses on leadership training and basic army experience.

“The most critical skills I learned at the ROTC program
were time management and leadership,” said Daniel Medal, who
graduated in 2001 with a degree in sociology and went on to serve
in Iraq.

Medal, who had originally found ROTC by accident when he signed
up for a military science course to get an extra two units, found
more than just experience and physical training in the military. On
his first day in Arizona, he met the woman who would, about nine
months later, become his wife.

“We got married in November, reported in January 2003,
which was three months before we were going to deploy,” Medal
said. “She left before I did … but we rolled into Iraq
together, although we didn’t know that at the time because we
were in different units.”

In Iraq, Medal served as an electronic warfare platoon leader,
which meant that he led a platoon of about 25 members on missions
primarily to gather intelligence. Medal said that the type of
leadership training he received in ROTC aided him in his role.

“Things don’t always go smoothly and as a leader, a
platoon leader, you have to be able to remain composed in these
situations and fulfill what you have to do,” Medal said.
“You have to stay composed, to stay calm, and in Iraq this
keeps people alive.”

Unlike Medal, Julian Flores was deployed to Afghanistan. As a
first lieutenant who graduated in 2002 with a psychology degree,
Flores has been in Bagram, Afghanistan for the past 10 months,
aiding in coordination, communication and the relaying of
information.

Flores said in an e-mail interview that ROTC was beneficial in
preparation for the army.

“Mentally they challenged the way I thought,” Flores
said. “We are always finding new and better ways to
accomplish a mission.”

In Iraq under fire

Bruhl is also a platoon leader, but over a different kind of
team. She commands 15 people along with four Apache helicopters,
each of which is valued at about $25 million.

Bruhl, who was a part of the first group of Apache Longbows ever
stationed in Europe, was sent to Kuwait with her platoon on Feb. 9,
2003.

They were supposed to be among the first to cross over the Iraqi
border on March 20, the official beginning of the war, but
sandstorms kept them from crossing until March 23.

They arrived at night to the forward assembly area after flying
all day and were told they were leaving on another mission that
same night.

“We were very nervous because there was not a whole lot of
planning,” Bruhl said. “Three squadrons were supposed
to fly, but not all of the aircraft got fuel. … One of the
aircraft in my platoon crashed on takeoff because he couldn’t
get up out of the sandstorms fast enough.”

Bruhl said when they got into the air, they heard over the radio
the chaos of the other helicopters that had left before them.

“There was a barrage of fire,” she said.
“People were coming out of their homes; Iraqi civilians were
driving around shooting at us. We were flying over neighborhoods,
flying through urban areas. We had no idea that the terrain was
like that.”

After facing too much heavy firepower, they called in and said
they couldn’t complete the mission.

“We had always trained where we fly up and shoot missiles
at a tank, World War I- or World War II-style, and we weren’t
ready for people hiding behind homes and pickup trucks. … It
looked like fireworks, trying to avoid all of the fire,” she
said.

By the time Bruhl got back, her aircraft had taken eight rounds
and one rocket-propelled grenade.

Back at the base, she said there was mass confusion because the
aircraft were landing everywhere, and it wasn’t until later
that they realized they were missing a helicopter and a crew, who,
by morning, had been taken prisoners of war.

After this initial mission, Bruhl and her platoon remained in
Iraq until February 2004. She is currently back in Germany with at
least two more years of service to go.

“It has definitely been worth it, though I get kind of fed
up with all of the deployments and the army lifestyle
sometimes,” Bruhl said. “But how many people can say
they can fly an attack helicopter? I am a woman in a male-dominated
profession, and I wouldn’t trade that experience for
anything.”

Ashley Lee, a captain in the army who graduated from UCLA in
2000 with a political science degree, is, like Bruhl, an Apache
Longbow pilot. She served in Korea from April 2002 to April
2003.

Lee said ROTC enabled her to accomplish goals, the first of
which was completing the UCLA program.

“Everywhere you go in the army, you have a mission, and
everyone in your unit has a job to support that mission,” Lee
said in an e-mail interview. “When you know that your actions
directly affect its success, you are driven to become that great
officer and … inspire soldiers to do the right thing.”