Prepare for Service

Wing Fitness Commander Micah Jones has wanted to fly since he was 5-years-old. As a boy, his father took him to air shows. He remembers being impressed with the loud noise of the engines and the pilots in their uniforms.\n"When you're a little guy, anybody in uniform gets your attention," Jones, a junior in Air Force ROTC said. "I remember one guy actually took me up in the cockpit and pointed out things to me. When you're a little guy that's just the coolest thing on the Earth and I was just hooked."\nMany students become 'hooked' and join the Air Force and Army ROTC for various reasons. Some want to become leaders, defend their nation, fulfill a family legacy or experience the thrill of flight in an F-15. Others just want to graduate debt free.\nThose reasons are still intact if not reaffirmed after the events of September 11 and its aftermath. While many ROTC upperclassmen face the possibility of defending their country during wartime after graduation, they remain staunchly devoted to their career choices and ideals, while expressing some apprehension about the future.\nLt. Col. Wayne Pollard, professor of military science in the Army ROTC program, understands why his upperclassmen might be concerned.\n"Secretary Rumsfeld and the President say, 'The public needs to be patient and this is most likely a two year (engagement)," Pollard said. "Well, if you're a senior, two years from now you are going to be on the ground, clearly. Because you're going to be graduating in May, your basic course (post-college training) is basically about five months, so by Christmas-time, which is a year away, you're going to be on the ground in a unit and a platoon leader and most likely involved in this thing in some way, shape or form."\nPollard said his cadets might play an integral part in the war because the standing Army does not have enough people to fill its ranks because of budget cutbacks following Desert Storm.\nFor Operations Officer Alison Hanger, a 5th year senior, the prospect of going to war was not foremost on her mind when she joined the Army ROTC in her sophomore year. She joined the ROTC in part for travel and adventure opportunities. A highlight of Hanger's ROTC career was in her junior year when she attended Airborne School, a program that trains cadets to parachute from planes at heights of 1250 feet.\nHanger, who plans a career in the Signal Corps (the communications systems branch of the Army) said the reality of possibly going to war is just beginning to sink in.\n"What has happened has made the Army a lot more real for me," she said. "What the Army does is train and train and train. I guess I never really thought about something happening like this that would cause us to do anything but training."\nLt. Col. Andrew Dean, who currently teaches in IU Army ROTC, understands the reality of war. A 22 year veteran, he served in Desert Storm as a batallion tank commander when his son, Casey, was 10-years-old. Casey is a senior in the Army ROTC program and is company executive officer. Like his father, Casey is interested in the Armory division. Dean believes his son developed his love of tanks after being exposed to them during his own career. He says that he would have 'normal fears' if his son went to war, but that he has faith in the training of the Army ROTC.\nThe training of the Army ROTC and the Air Force ROTC is designed to groom future leaders of enlisted soldiers in the military. ROTC cadets will become second lieutenants upon graduation, and their practical and academic programs are geared toward instilling the core values of leadership and discipline.\nJuniors and seniors in both programs attend two-hour labs once a week. In the labs, the advanced Air Force cadets help to train the freshman and sophomores through marching exercises. They also make sure that cadets wear the uniform properly. For example, they check to make sure cadets wear name tags on the right pockets of their dress blues. The advanced senior members of the Army ROTC use their labs to lead cadets on Infantry squad decision-making, so students learn to deal with adversity. An example of an exercise in combat skills would be the 'low crawl', in which cadets crawl on their elbows and knees to avoid enemy fire. Other aspects of the training include marksmanship skills and rappelling.\nFor juniors and seniors, the academic courses in both programs focus on leadership skills and pragmatic issues such as conflict resolution. Students also gain a more in-depth knowledge about the career fields and branches within the Air Force and Army ROTC. For example, Air Force ROTC seniors learn that a Unified Command is an organization that coordinates the Army, Navy and Marine Corps in the implementation of a military strategy, such as a war effort.\nAfter graduation, students attend basic training for five months to two years, depending on the chosen branch of service. At various military bases, students will learn the more technical training that is involved with, for example, intelligence training in the Air Force or Armory instruction in the Army.\nThoughts of going to war and what will occur after graduation occasionally cross Casey's mind, but right now, he says, life in the Army ROTC is business as usual.\n"Of course everyone has their own feelings about everything, but when it comes to just training or whatever it's just the same old thing," Casey said. "We're trying to have a good time."\nFor Micah Jones flying has always been his primary reason for joining the Air Force. The Muncie native enthusiastically chronicled his first experience solo flying in a glider at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, CO., the summer between his freshman and sophomore year.\n"It was wonderful because in a glider there is no engine," he said. "You don't hear anything. Of course when you're flying there is always a buzz or a whine; a buzz in the case of a propeller engine and a whine in the case of a jet engine. But in a glider there's no other noise. You just hear the wind."\nJones said he would go to combat out of a sense of gratitude for the freedoms that he has enjoyed while growing up in this country, such as the opportunity to fly.\nFellow Air Force cadet Vice Wing Commander Zofia Walentynowicz, a senior, would also be willing to fight for her country. She is most animated when the subject turns to her career assignment as a navigator on 'strike fighters,' which are smaller, faster planes such as F-15s. She explained that her role will be similar to that of Goose in the movie 'Top Gun' and she loves the prospect of a career in a fighter jet. She looks forward to pulling loops in the air.\n"I love them," she said. "I could sit on a roller coaster and ride over and over and over again."\nLt. Col. William DeKemper, commander of the Air Force ROTC detachment at IU, said that he does not anticipate an upsurge in recruits because of the war, because ROTC is commonly a three or four year program. Most students, he said, should enter the Air Force because they want a career in the military.\nJones, who wanted to join the Air Force 'ever since he knew how careers worked', contemplated his future, and took a moment to reflect on history.\n"I love a lot of characters like Churchill and Patton," he said. "In times of crisis, when they (their countries) needed them they were there. But when things settled down, they were pushed back. I thought that was kind of neat that you had that kind of devotion to rise to the occasion when you had to and then step back when they didn't need you"