Preparing Today for the Military Tomorrow

You may have seen them walking in the Yard in their white, blue, or camouflage uniforms. They spend a large part of their week marching, keeping physically fit, and taking military sciences classes at a school down the river. About five times a year they practice using pistols, rifles, and other weapons. After graduation they will serve throughout the world as members of our nation's armed forces.

They are the few, the proud. They are Harvard's contigent of the Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC).

Requirements Of The Cadets

This year 85 Harvard undergraduates have opted to cross-register at the MIT ROTC program. Eighteen are Army cadets, 46 Navy, and 21 Air Force. Ten years ago, when Harvard students gained permission to cross-register at MIT after Faculty legislation banning ROTC, these numbers were much smaller (see accompanying story).

Army cadets are required to spend a minimum of two hours in classes and several hours in drilling per week. They must also prepare themselves to take the Army's physical fitness test which requires the men do 40 situps and 40 pushups in two minutes each and the two-mile run in 17 minutes and 55 seconds.

During the summer between their junior and senior years, cadets spend six weeks at a ROTC advanced camp at Fort Bragg, N.C., where they are evaluated on their leadership potential, training exercises, and live weapons firings, says Captain Jeffrey A. Welch, a ROTC instructor at MIT.

Undergraduates attend Navy ROTC classes for three to four hours per week, in addition to hour-long drills twice a week sometimes at 7:30 a.m. After their freshmen and junior years, midshipmen sail on month-long summer training cruises in the Mediterranean, Pacific, Atlantic, or anywhere else the Navy goes.

Freshmen and sophomores in Air Force ROTC spend one hour per week in classes at MIT, while juniors and seniors spend three. Cadets also attend a one-hour "leadership lab" each week on "air force related extracurricular activities," and have to be able to run 1.5 miles in 12 minutes, says Air Force Major Simeon S. Tubig, a ROTC instructor at MIT.

After their sophmore year, Air Force ROTC cadets are required to spend four weeks participating in a field training exercise. "They learn military stuff, like marching, Air Force rules, customs, etc.," Tubig says. "It's like summer camp, but a lot harder."

Some ROTC cadets and midshipmen find all these time obligations difficult to juggle along with their Harvard academics, varsity athletics, extracurricular activities, or a social life. For some, being in ROTC means sacrificing one of these areas, while others say they can manage to do it all.

"If you are totally organized, and incredibly motivated, then you can do well in school and great in extracurriculars," says a freshman in Navy ROTC who did not wish to be identified. "But you have to give up a lot in socializing, talking with and meeting people which is the most important part about Harvard."

"There is a definite tradeoff between studying and ROTC unless you give up your social life," says the midshipman, who is "pretty sure" he is going to quit ROTC next year. "If ROTC was more flexible to allow for greater participation in other activities, I think it would benefit their program and they would be able to retain more people."

Army cadet M. Erik Wiese '89 concurs with his Navy counterpart. "ROTC does interfere with academics and extracurriculars," he says. "But you have to set some priorities, service to your country or service to yourself." Wiese participates in freshman crew and is a member of the Pershing Rifles, a military fraternity organization.

"The army allows for other extracurriculars; I row crew, and they allow me," says Eliot House resident Erik G. Kaardal '88, who is also the Harvard Republican Club's program director. "It's admittedly time consuming, but it's a great opportunity to further my education."

"It does somewhat constrain my social life, but it allows me to use my managerial skills," Kaardal says. "However I wouldn't say that Army ROTC classes hurt my academics here."

"It's like taking a fifth class, and sometimes even more," says Air Force cadet Robert M. Alexander '86 of Quincy House. "It's a real time commitment."

"However I don't think it has really affected my academics, and if anything it has improved my social life because I've met a lot of new, interesting people," he says.

Other students find the ROTC obligation does not affect their opportunities to pursue other interests. "It's just another time commitment I have to schedule," says Navy midshipman Brooks L. Ensign '88, Kaardal's roommate. "I think ROTC enhances my Harvard experience: I'm involved in a lot of other things, intramural sports, political activities, model U.N., and I have a great social life."

Reaching Over Tutition Costs

Using a large media blitz, ROTC has become increasingly prominent and popular on the nation's campuses in the past decade. In exchange for enrollment in a college ROTC unit, passing grades, and at least three years of duty after graduation, the armed services will provide a student with military training, uniforms, books, a $100 per month stipend, and a commission in the service after graduation.

The ROTC program also grants merit scholarships that range from four years for incoming freshmen to one year for rising seniors. In exchange, the recipients sign a contract committing themselves to four years of active duty after graduation.

Army cadets have the choice to serve four years active duty, six years of reserve, or six years of National Guard. However, freshmen with four year scholarships, in any branch of the armed forces, have the option of quitting after their first year with no financial obligation, says Welch.

The scholarship, which can be a boon for families struggling to finance a college education, pays tuition (Harvard's tuition this year was $10,590), $350 towards textbooks, and all health and athletic fees, in addition to the standard ROTC contract, "all tax free," Welch says.

The ROTC instructor says that 12 out of the 18 Harvard Army cadets are on scholarship. In comparison, all 46 members of Navy ROTC and the 21 members of Air Force ROTC are receiving scholarships, according to Navy Lieutenant K. Callahan and both instructors of ROTC units at MIT.

"If I was at a less expensive school I would still be in ROTC, but since I go to Harvard, a scholarship is very important," says Kaardal '88, "I like the camaraderie and the espirit de corps that goes along with the Army."

Cadets and midshipmen agree that ROTC service gives them leadership experience, increases their self-confidence, and forces them to be moreorganized and responsible. Both ROTC commanders ofthe MIT Army and Navy batallions attend Harvard.

"Upperclassmen lead the midshipmen on drills,and in orientation week they had to make sure thattwenty men got everything they needed to live,"says a freshman in Navy ROTC who did not wish tobe named. "They make you really responsible; ifyou lose a pen, it's like 30 pushups."

"We send the cadets on field training exercisesto Fort Devens [in Ayer, Mass.] once a semesterwhere they learn about leadership and teamwork inland navigation, patrolling, and competitiveexercise," Welch says. "Seniors run the wholeorganization, they lead and command the cadetbatallions."

"Serving in Air Force ROTC is a combination ofwanting to serve my country and the scholarshipboth," says Alexander, whose father is a generalin the Air Force. "I also get a good job when Igraduate."

Wiese, who is not on scholarship, participatesin Army ROTC for patriotic reasons. "I view it asa duty to give the same things I have gotten to mykids, and to do that I have to be willing to standup for American interests as defined by thePresident and the American Congress," he says.

"But even with all the time problems that makeme want to quit, when I put on my uniform andofficer's cap, I feel so proud of myself and mycountry that I don't want to [quit] anymore," saysan anonymous Navy midshipman