Students leave civilian world for military jobs

Sara Pickup has been participating in some form of ROTC since
she was a freshman in high school.

Now, after eight years in both Junior ROTC in high school and
Navy ROTC at UCLA, she is awaiting her commissioning. The ceremony,
to be held on June 25, will mark Pickup’s official entrance
as an ensign into the U.S. Navy.

“I always wanted to be in the Navy,” the fourth-year
anthropology student said. “I got interested when I was
around the age of 13 or 14, and it was mainly that I could never
see myself sitting behind a desk or not doing something that would
be impacting the world.”

Cory Jobst, a fifth-year history student, has no ROTC
experience. But he recently applied for Officer Candidate School to
enter into the U.S. Marine Corps in October in hopes of someday
becoming a pilot.

He too, if accepted, will be joining the ranks of those in the
armed services, and while he does not have years of experience
under his belt, his future lifestyle will be similar to that of the
others coming from the ROTC if he is accepted.

“When I left high school to go to college, I did not know
that I would go into the military,” Jobst said. “It was
only within the last few years, with the experience of working in
the real world, that I figured out when and where I want to
go.”

By the time Jobst said he had decided he wanted to join the
military, it was too late to join the ROTC, but he is now
determined to join the armed services. He said if he is not
accepted into the program for this October, he will continue
applying until he is able to go.

Pickup is one of the 11 students graduating and being
commissioned this year from UCLA’s Navy ROTC program. In
addition to the students from the Navy program, Army ROTC is
commissioning 14 students this year and Air Force ROTC is
commissioning eight students.

These students, upon their graduation from college and
commissioning as officers in their respective military branches,
will no longer be members of the civilian world. Their futures, or
at least the career paths they will take for the next couple years,
are written.

But these students know what is coming, at least in part. They
have been participating in the ROTC program for at least two years,
sometimes four or more, and they committed long ago to devote the
next several years of their lives to the military.

The reasons are varied for why some students join ROTC from the
beginnings of their college careers and others wait until after
they graduate to apply to go into the military.

“There are some people who have always had that dream of
being a pilot,” said Jason Penny, the public affairs officer
for the Los Angeles Navy Recruiting District. “That is the
path they pursue from the get-go, so they set out that path for
themselves. Those are the folks in ROTC.”

One of the added advantages of this route is that students have
already begun to adjust to the military lifestyle before they are
actually commissioned into the military.

“When you go through (OCS) you do not have that exposure
to the military, the leadership, the stress, the traditions, and
you have to change from the civilian to the military life,”
Penny said.

ROTC also gives students additional years of training in
leadership skills through the courses they take and the structure
of the group on the campus.

“They are arranged where they are in leadership
positions,” said Maj. Matthew Parker, a Marines officer
instructor in the department of naval science at UCLA. “They
plan the training schedule, plan functions and athletic events. …
They get a little bit of a head start.”

But the decision not to join ROTC is usually not made on
purpose. It is typically that, upon entering college, students have
not yet made up their minds about what they would like to do, Penny
said.

“I actually didn’t always have an idea that I would
join the military,” said Gary Solyian, a fourth-year
philosophy student who will be attending OCS in October next year.
“I considered teaching in China, being a teacher or joining
the military, and through UCLA, the hardships I’ve faced, it
has led to this.”

Students who do not do ROTC are not necessarily at any real
disadvantage, except perhaps for the years of experience, Penny
said.

“After graduation, ROTC students are commissioned as
ensigns,” Penny said. “You are also commissioned as
ensigns after OCS. … As I understand, people who get commissioned
within certain dates are part of a year group … and there is no
disparity between ROTC, OCS and Academy among the people in the
year group.”

Solyian said that his family has a history of military
experience, but his parents always pushed him to look at other
career possibilities as well.

He searched, but Solyian said he finally settled on the
Marines.

Not being in ROTC did have its advantages for Solyian because it
gave him an extra flexibility to explore his options.

“Without the time constraints of ROTC, I can stay up late
if I want to, I can party ““ there are no repercussions from a
commanding officer,” he said. “I can also have a job
outside and spend more time at school.”

But students who have participated in ROTC said they found that
the benefits have outweighed the time commitment and added
responsibility. Pickup said her ROTC experience was more than worth
it, especially now with the knowledge that within a couple of weeks
she will be a surface warfare officer stationed with a ship in San
Diego.

“My college got paid for. … I have a job waiting for me
at the end of the tunnel,” she said. “ROTC
doesn’t restrict you as much as people think. You can
contribute as much or as little as you want to … and when you are
getting distracted in college, it always keeps you
anchored.”