Readying to rise and shine in ROTC
Mary Laase joined a different army.
A 24-year-old Northeastern University senior, Laase signed up for the Reserve Officers Training Corps in the winter of her freshman year, 2000-2001.
"I thought it was a great opportunity to kind of give back," Laase said, "and have a career that had some meaning to it."
It's a greatly changed armed force that Laase and her classmates will join full time -- with more of its people being sent to Iraq. It's a military whose commanders acknowledge is stretched thin around the globe. It's a time when even the domestic front is on color-coded tenterhooks against terrorism, and prospects have dimmed for peaceful fulfillment of military obligations in exchange for paid schoolwork.
Just as there has been a falloff in re-enlistments for active duty, Reserve, and National Guard duty, the numbers are down in the local ROTC program, following a surge of enlistments after 9/11, according to Captain Brook Lee, adviser of the battalion's Northeastern division. Northeastern's ROTC program is part of the Liberty Battalion, which comprises approximately 75 cadets from several Boston campuses: Berklee College of Music, Boston College, New England Conservatory, Suffolk University, and the Wentworth Institute of Technology.
Matt Tina, 22-year-old senior and Marblehead native and ROTC member, attributed declining numbers less to world events than to competing pressures.
"It's college and it's Boston," Tina said. "You get a lot of interest and the kids who don't want to do it end up not wanting to do it because it's college and it's Boston. It's not that they're not interested in the military."
In fact, despite stories about turmoil in the military's upper ranks and near-daily casualty notices from Iraq, the Northeastern cadets interviewed show no waning enthusiasm.
They express pride in their future, one set to land them on active duty in under two months, which holds a more clearly defined mission than that of most classmates.
"Our responsibility is a lot greater than those who are just getting out of college and trying to find a job," Laase said. "I already have a job."
Roommates often marvel at the commitment required by being in the ROTC, according to Laase's classmate Shannon Harrington, 22, from Beacon, N.Y.
"They have no concept of what it involves," said Harrington.
For the seniors, who are at the business end of a four-year progression, training days begin at quarter of six -- 0545 hours.
Physical training -- "PT" -- includes cardiovascular workouts and push-ups and sit-ups, with a premium placed on improvement.
Upperclassmen guide the younger cadets, and after a stretching period the seniors (called "fours") hold an
Each takes a regular courseload, with an added military science class on top of it; some schools, including Northeastern, do not regularly count ROTC service toward academic credit.
On Thursday, there are labs, which teach basic soldiering skills such as marching, navigating, staying in formation -- an application of skills learned in class.
Other assignments include weekend training sessions and day trips to area facilities for drilling.
Of the crowded schedule, said Tina, "It's just another skill that the Army gives you: time management. Most college kids who complain that they don't have enough time are being lazy."
"A lot of people's reaction is: 'I can't believe you get up that early,' " said Harrington. "But that's the least of it for us," added Laase.
"We still go out . . . just like any other college student," Harrington said. "We just make sure that we get up at 5:30 the next morning. You kind of tailor your behavior to be more professional."
