NICOLE ALBERTSON
News Assistant
Hours before the sun rises or the morning dew melts off the grass fields, two Pepperdine students among 92 cadets in training march across the UCLA campus with sweat dripping from their foreheads and a smile across their faces. For three mornings each week, students gather in the brisk morning hours to be a part of the Army Reserve Officer Training Corp (ROTC). As they march together in unison, sounding off a spirited “Bruins” for each completed command, these ROTC recruits are building their strength from the inside out.
“It is noble to serve your country,” said Pepperdine freshman ROTC cadet Bridgett Walker.
Over the past few years, Pepperdine students have become increasingly involved with the UCLA ROTC extension program that includes students from universities like Mount St. Mary’s and Loyola Marymount. Pepperdine’s growing number of participants, including sophomore Demi Jones and Walker this year, two 2006 alumni cadets and another two cadets currently studying overseas, has made it the second largest consistent contributor to the program next to host university UCLA. There has also been an increase in female cadets in the program.
This year Pepperdine is contributing to the female cadet increase with Jones and Walker. Both women came from an army family– their fathers served in the military– and are following in their footsteps.
“The army has always been such a big part of my life,” Jones said. “If I were to live a civilian life I think it would be boring. I like to move and I like to change. I can get all of that from the army.”
The influx of women cadets in a male driven program is a new trend, said Captain and ROTC veteran Thomas Higginson. There is one senior female cadet and three or four female cadets for each class following.
“The program is about equal opportunity, respect and dignity,” Higginson said.
But some fields like infantry and armor still do not allow women to participate because of the field environment that forces officers to co-habitate in very close quarters.
As the ROTC program celebrates more than 87 years of experience, the program leaders – most are products of the ROTC program themselves – are emphasizing the importance of education and the new benefits that the program is offering cadets.
“We want to emphasize a moral ethical foundation,” said Lt. Gen. and Professor Christopher Talcott. “We produce cadets who are ready to go out and lead anything. We want to make them ready to be decision makers and force them to face their fears. We push them into situations that make them uncomfortable so that they can overcome it.”
“ROTC is a great option for students,” said Pepperdine sophomore and ROTC cadet Demi Jones. “It just something really good to get involved in.”
As a first year cadet, Jones is preparing for a career after college and taking advantage of the benefits that come with the ROTC program.
“They provide good scholarships and a monthly check for Pepperdine costs,” Jones said. “They give me money for books as well.”
The program provides full college tuition, on or off campus housing payments, up to $500 a month in tax free allowances and $900 per year for book allowances. The grand total rounds out to $22,900 on top of the tuition cost. The benefits continue as cadets are also guaranteed scholarships for graduate schools after or before their completion of service.
“Education is a huge deal,” Talcott said. “We need soldiers who are smart and can solve intellectually stimulating problems. The demands of an army officer are incredible, so they have to be smart enough to bridge the gap between American culture and other cultures and be able to help other people.”
After graduating from the program, with a minimum of two years experience, each cadet has a choice of enrolling full-time with active duty or part-time with the army reserves.
“The cadets have an option of 16 different divisions after the program,” Higginson said. “But about 75 percent of them choose to enter full-time into active duty.”
Enlisting in active duty ensures each officer a minimum salary of $85,000 a year, full medical benefits for themselves and family members as well as the opportunity to be fully engaged mentally, Higginson said.
Enlisting as an army reserve allows officers time to attend graduate school, medical school or any higher education.
“We had an officer recently take an educational delay to attend a seminary and become a navy chaplain,” Talcott said. “We can use all professions in the military, so it is really beneficial to us if officers attend graduate schools. They can take their experiences and tackle other fields.”
But the ROTC makes each cadet work for the benefits they acquire. The cadets must be in the program for at least two years in order to graduate. While the sophomore and freshman cadets only have to attend training twice a week from 6:30 a.m. until 9:30 a.m., junior and senior cadets must attend trainings three times a week. Training sessions include Physical training (PT) such as running, swimming, push-ups and sit-ups- as well class room education on stress leadership, military tactics, land navigation, rappelling and first aid.
This constant training also consists of 33 day Leadership Development Assessment Course in held in Wash. The development course tests their mental, physical, and emotional stability and progress in high stress states. The camp reenacts a battlefield scene to see the cadet’s leadership skills.
But with all of the hard work and early mornings put into each training session, the cadets are gaining more than just the physical benefits of military training.
“It is intimidating on the surface, but you get really close to the people that you are with,” Jones said. “You’d be surprised how much you can get done this early in the morning and how much fun it can be.”
10-04-2007