Amy Harper has always wanted to fly. Kelli Ann Woods decided in junior high school she needed to serve her country. And since childhood, Carl Beyer has yearned to carry on the family tradition of military service.
These three distinct stories have converged in the ROTC program at OU. And they are just three of thousands who have come to this university only to go on to serve, some in peace and some in war, at the end of their four years.
Upon graduating, ROTC students receive their commissions. They are then obligated, at the minimum, to four years of active duty and an additional four years of inactive reserve, a daunting timeline to most civilians.
“It’s a little scary knowing you’re committed for eight years,” says Harper, a member of the Air Force ROTC. “[But] the longer I stay in, the more anxious I get to commission.”
Harper, aviation sophomore, has wanted to fly airplanes “pretty much since birth.” Joining the Air Force was just a natural progression.
“I’m an aviation major so it made sense to go where all the cool planes are,” she says.
Harper’s older sister was also in the Air Force ROTC program at OU and has seen tours of duty in Iraq. But that doesn’t mean that every member of the family was initially supportive of Harper’s decision. She says her mother in particular has been nervous.
“She’s terrified every time I tell her I’m going to fly,” Harper says. She says this hesitance springs from an incident during the first time Harper and her mother flew together when the plane lost radio signals.
For Beyer, psychology senior and member of the Army ROTC, the military was somewhat of a constant in his childhood. Beyer has many family members who have served in the Army. And as a child, serving in the military is what he wanted to do.
“For a while I [wanted to serve],” he says. “From [ages] 5-10, that’s all I wanted to do.”
And at 17, a trip to a National Guard recruiting office helped rekindle that fire.
“He was a terrible recruiter,” he says with a laugh. “I just figured it out for myself.”
The promise of a free ride to college helped persuade Beyer as well as Woods that the military was a good option.
Woods, international securities studies sophomore, says she joined the Naval ROTC program because of the educational opportunities it offered, but also for “the sense of honor, courage and commitment.”
Balancing this responsibility with school, however, can sometimes be a challenge even for the most organized students. Woods has physical training (PT) three mornings a week at 5:30. In addition, there are Tuesday/Thursday drill periods, the required naval science classes and the additional requirements of Calculus I and II and Physics I and II, classes that are not required for an international securities studies major.
In addition, Woods is an S-4 Logistics Officer. As one of four staff in charge of supplies and plans for the battalion of 80-85 members, Woods stays busy. But Woods’ motivation lies in the fact that her college education is paid for. She says she owes the taxpayers who are funding her education the “common courtesy” of doing her best.
But even the most dedicated students have some hesitations about giving so many years to the military. Woods says being a female in the military offers some unique challenges and perhaps some sacrifices as well.
“As a girl, there’s a clock ticking,” she says. “You kind of worry about the family and kids aspect.”
She maintains, however, that for every sacrifice, NROTC has given her abundant opportunities. She says through her training she’s had the chance to fly and land a helicopter, be on a submarine and access weapons that “guys have only seen in Halo.”
“The time doesn’t bother me because I realize any time I spend in the military I’m getting rewarded tenfold,” Woods says.
The thought of enlistment, however, weighs not only on the minds of students, but the families as well.
Harper says it has been hard on her parents, particularly her mother, to have two daughters in the military.
“It sickens her,” she says. “[But] she’s very supportive.”
Woods also says her mother took some convincing when confronted with the reality that her daughter would be enlisting.
“It took her a while to realize it was something I had to do,” Woods says, adding that now she is “100 percent” supportive.
After convincing their parents, these three hope to convince other students on campus that ROTC doesn’t always fit the boot camp stereotype.
“I was scared I was going to come in and they were going to say ‘go run three miles,’” Harper says. In reality, she says it was nothing like that.
“It’s kind of like joining a sorority,” she says. “It’s an instant group of friends.”
Beyer too says ROTC is a very close-knit group.
“On the weekends, we still go out with each other,” he says.
Other misconceptions include the idea that all members of the military are for the war in Iraq.
“Just because I’m in ROTC, I’m not pro-war,” Woods says.
“We’re not a group of just trained killers,” Beyer says. “Last year, half our class was going to law school. [But] the way the war is shown in the media, that’s how people see ROTC.”
In reality, the cadets and midshipmen of ROTC are just like many of their peers—they want to make a difference in the world.
Woods cites the influence of a Pakistani friend as part of the reason she is so passionate about the Middle East. She says the portrayal of the people of the Middle East is “totally wrong” and she wants to change it. For this reason, she is minoring in Arabic and will be studying in Jordan as part of her Summer Cruise, a naval training program.
“I would love to be an ambassador to one of the Middle Eastern countries,” she says.
Dream jobs aside, these students will be spending a great part of the next decade of their lives in service to their country. And while some hesitance is normal, Beyer says he is not extremely worried because the War in Iraq has taken on a more peacekeeping function.
“My unit has gone [to Iraq] twice in the last four years, and we haven’t lost a single member,” he says.
In the end, however, students in ROTC want most of all to be understood and respected.
“I wish that we could get a little more recognition on campus,” Woods says. “I think we’re a good representative of the University of Oklahoma. You won’t meet a better group of kids on campus. You don’t find many kids our age that want to serve our country. [It’s] not something to take lightly.”
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khorn 3 years, 5 months ago
Nice article Nicole.