ROTC, military past shape future officers

It is not every student who has monitored the medical conditions
of U.S. base camps in Afghanistan. But that is precisely what
Juliet Kirkpatrick, a fourth-year microbiology, immunology and
molecular genetics student, did.

After serving for eight months, Kirkpatrick came to UCLA to
complete her final two years of schooling, and she is currently a
member of the ROTC program. Prior military-service experience aids
students in their understanding of basic procedure and tactics,
which is useful in completing the UCLA ROTC program to eventually
be commissioned as U.S. Army officers.

Of approximately 60 students in Army ROTC at UCLA, 32 percent of
them have prior service experience with the military, and of
third-year students, the ratio is even greater at 46 percent, said
Major Michael Berry, the UCLA ROTC admissions and recruiting
officer.

Prior service may range from simply completing basic training to
full deployment. The percentage is high among third-year students
because many are transfer students who come in with prior service
and are automatically considered to be at Military Science Level
Three, as basic training gives them credit for the first two
levels.

Some come back because they want to make a career out of the
military, others because they want to lead, and still others
because of the escalation of international events over the past
several years. It has been almost two years now since the March 20
anniversary of the war in Iraq, and some students say they
continued with their military careers because the need for soldiers
is still prevalent.

Starting their third year as MS3 students, cadets are evaluated
on their ability to lead a group.

On March 6 starting at 7 a.m. squads of third-year ROTC students
set out from the Student Activities Center to complete a series of
missions in order to secure the campus from fictitious
invaders.

The training session, consisting of two-hour missions, was meant
to give the cadets practice not only with tactics and drills, but
also in leadership. Each mission was led by a different squad
leader, who was evaluated on his or her ability to give orders and
organize the squad.

Even with prior service experience, students do not say that
they have a greater advantage in the training sessions, though it
may give them a better perspective and understanding of how the
military works.

“They already know the basics and so can move into more
about the strategy and tactics of being a leader,” Lt. Col.
Shawn Buck, the chair of the UCLA Department of Military Science,
said. “They also know more what it’s like living with
the military lifestyle.”

Between the occasional training sessions that begin at 6 a.m. on
Saturday, the physical training twice a week and the numerous other
responsibilities ROTC members must fulfill, the military lifestyle
can be demanding for students.

But in the training sessions themselves, because the focus of
ROTC is different from that of basic training, students say they do
not feel that those with prior service experience are any better
off.

“The main purpose is to build you as a leader,”
Kirkpatrick said. “It is about decision-making skills and
basic soldier skills like keeping low to the ground and knowing how
to move.”

Kirkpatrick has prior service experience. After two years in
college she joined the reserves, went to basic training and became
a preventative medical specialist.

“When I came back from training, my unit got deployed …
and as soon as I finished summer school I went to
Afghanistan,” she said.

Kirkpatrick was stationed there for eight months, primarily at
the Bagram Air Base from which she did medical assistance missions
and base camp assessments of the other bases in the area.

She said she came back to school once she was finished in order
to become an officer. In the military, unless people have college
degrees, they are ineligible to be commissioned as officers.

“When I joined the army and I was learning what it meant
to be enlisted, I wanted to be an officer because I wanted to be in
charge of making decisions and leading people,” Kirkpatrick
said.

Jeremy Eckel, a fourth-year geology student, served as an
infantryman at Schofield Barracks in Hawaii before he came to UCLA.
He said he came back to the military because he missed the
challenge.

“You have more influence as an officer,” he said.
“You see a bigger picture as an officer; as an enlisted man
you receive a plan and you execute it.”

Matthew Foster, who graduated from UCLA in June 2004 with a
history degree, returned to the ROTC program to become an officer
after his prior service because of the events in the Middle
East.

“I did my four years and decided to get out,” Foster
said, “but six months later I was missing being in the
military and things weren’t getting better overseas, so I
joined ROTC to go back in as an officer.”

Foster served originally in a special operations task force with
the Third Ranger Battalion and was one of the first on the ground
after Sept. 11, 2001, in Pakistan and Afghanistan. He said he and
his battalion conducted a series of raids, going after Taliban and
al-Quaeda cells in that region for three months.

After Sept. 11, 2001, Berry said there were a number of students
who came to speak to him about joining ROTC. But he said that while
a desire to serve might be part of the reason many students join,
there must be much more than just the emotional patriotism.

“That thought process was a contributing factor in a
percentage of students,” he said. “But it has to be a
reason among many reasons. I applaud all those who developed a
sense of service from that tragic event in history, but there is a
lot more to serving as an army officer.”