ROTC unaffected by national drop-off

By Evin Page, contri= buting writer
Posted on M= arch 31, 2008

Despite the present armed conflict in Iraq and Afghanistan, recruits have continued to sign-up for the program and not just because of = the accessibility of scholarship money.

Junior Sean Fitzgerald is one of the 95 uniformed cadets in the JMU Reserve Officer Training Corps Battalion and one of those that signed h= is life away to the U.S. Army for the next eight years. These cadets hope to become commissioned Army officers after graduation.

“I think our generation gives a lot of hope to America= ,” Fitzgerald said. “I think our generation is different from past generations…they want to make a difference.”<= /p>

According to scholarship and enrollment officer Army Capt. Les= ley Kipling, a 1999 JMU graduate and alumna of the battalion, there was signifi= cant growth in the program between 2000 and 2005.

Many of the cadets come from military families, so they know t= he military, according to Kipling.

The military is essentially all Darlene Carter knows. Carter is breaking the Air Force tradition by joining the Army, but she wants to purs= ue an aviation career like her father, a retired Air Force officer, and brothe= r, an Air Force Academy graduate currently in pilot training.

“I want to take an active part in the fight…combat support is just as important, but I want to be on the front lines,” Carter said. “I can’t sit back and watch people give their live= s. I value all of the same things that the Army embodies: honor, integrity, serv= ice, loyalty, duty and selfless service. I want to live my life according to tho= se values, in an organization that values and promotes them.”=

Nationally, numbers have wavered over the years since the atta= cks on September 11, 2001. Since the wars in Af= ghanistan and Iraq= began, commissions coming out of Army ROTC have grown from 3,308 in 2001 to 4,408 in 2004 - an increase of 33.3 percent, according to an article in The Washington Post. This was short lived in 2005 when there was a 16 per= cent decrease in AROTC enrollment.

JMU produces around 25 to 30 new officers every year.
JMU’s award-winning program is ranked in = the top five percent of 273 AROTC programs nationwide. The battalion has earned distinguished awards such as the MacArthur Award, which recognizes the nation’s most outstanding battalions, as well as individual Cadet Com= mand awards for the past two years.

The program offers a large variety of two-to four-year scholarships for prospective cadets coming into the program from high schoo= l. Upon receiving these scholarships, cadets commit themselves to serve after = they complete their undergraduate degree. Both Carter and Fitzgerald will serve = four years active duty and four years in the Army Reserve.

These cadets are aware of the chance they will be deployed.

“Deployment is part of being a soldier nowadays…It= is unfortunate that the evils of war are sometimes necessary, but that’s what happens in an imperfect world,” Fitzgerald said. “The good must fight off the bad.”