By Tejal Patel
“Company, attention!” yells Stephen Totter, a third-year Reserve Army Training Corps (ROTC) cadet at the University. “Shoot ’em in the face, hooah,” mumble the cadets in response.
It’s 7:30 a.m. on a Friday in October 2007 and as acting-1st Sgt. for the day, Totter orders the first-through-third year cadets to fall into grid formation.
Before going out to Ronkonkoma on eastern Long Island to board Blackhawk helicopters that will take them 84 miles upstate to Camp Smith, N.Y. for their field-training exercise, the cadets must make sure they have all the necessary forms of identification. Scattered left hands go up holding military ID cards. Shawn Springs, a battalion training sergeant at the University, asks who doesn’t have their dog tags and four embarrassed hands go slightly up. “Raise your hands all the way up,” says Springs, showing the cadets what a fully raised arm looks like.
It’s already 8 a.m., and the first and second year cadets that were assigned to go on the helicopters should have already left in vans on their way to Ronkonkoma. But they’re not ready yet. Some are just arriving, an hour late. “MS-1’s, you’re disappointing me,” says Capt. Wilfred Massidas, referring to the first-year cadets. He has been at the University as a recruiting officer since Fall 2007.
All morning the cadets have been running around the Physical Fitness Center from the Military Science office to the gym and back, getting their rucks together, their sleeping bags properly packed up and continuously being yelled at by higher ranked officers. So why did they join ROTC? Surely not to be yelled at for doing something wrong every minute of every day.
The University, along with other schools in the nation, is showing a growth in the number of recruits for its ROTC program in comparison to previous years even though the Army is having difficulty keeping its numbers up. Army Chief of Staff, Gen. George Casey, testified in November 2007 that, “The current demand for our forces exceeds the sustainable supply. We are consumed with meeting the demands of the current fight and are unable to provide ready forces as rapidly as necessary for other potential contingencies.” According to an article on Governmentexecutive.com, the Army fell short of its monthly recruiting goals in May and June, and it has begun lowering standards for new entrants in an effort to fill the gap. On top of that, the war in Iraq continues to be unpopular and has lasted much longer than many expected.
However, for Capt. Massidas, this is the least of his worries. “The war in Iraq, I don’t see it as a factor in getting potential prospects,” he says, adding that incoming freshmen are not the least bit concerned about Iraq. Massidas feels that these ROTC cadets don’t seem to mind because being in the Army has either been a life-long dream of theirs, or they just want to serve their country.
“I think our cadets are educated enough not to just pick up their facts from what they see in the evening news,” says Capt. Massidas.
The Observer, the independent daily newspaper of the University of Notre Dame and Saint Mary’s College in South Bend, says the university has had 24 new recruits and is expecting more to arrive this semester. For them, this will put the class of 2011 “on the higher end of the program’s averages.”
The Boston Globe reports that statistics from each fiscal year since the war began in 2003 show that the Army has accepted a growing number of recruits that do not meet its own minimum fitness standards. Statistics for October 2007 show that at least one of every five recruits required a waiver to join the service, says The Globe. The military is also offering new bonuses to those who re-enlist in hopes of increasing a force that is under immense stress from serving repeated and lengthy tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Training for the Army can also be difficult and not everyone is qualified to continue with such training. According to the House Armed Services Committee, only 11 percent of people ages 17 to 24 are qualified for military recruitment in the U.S. and are enrolled in college. Reasons for disqualification include medical conditions, drug or alcohol abuse, criminal records and low aptitude.
However, some disqualifications can be overcome even if it takes a long time. Richard Bruno, a second year ROTC cadet at Molloy College had planned to attend West Point after his senior year of high school, but couldn’t do so because he was diagnosed with brain cancer and had to stay home for two years for treatment.
After attending the West Point graduation ceremony in May and seeing his friends commissioned, he says that he felt they were doing their part and he had to do his.
Bruno joined ROTC after five years of remission. “It’s something I always wanted to do for a long time, but wasn’t able to,” he says. “I’m doing it now that I can.”
Other students who are joining ROTC are doing so either for the scholarship money they receive or because they’ve always wanted to join.
Anthony Fasano, 20, just joined the ROTC program as a third-year cadet and attends Adelphi University.
“I wanted to do it years ago, but I got denied because of my eyes,” Fasano says.
Although the four year scholarship is a great incentive because as the host school, Hofstra offers cadets full tuition as well as full room and board, some cadets join for other reasons. “I wanted to gain leadership skills and always wanted to be in the Army,” says Justin Wahl, 18, a first year cadet who learned about the program from his brother who joined before him.
The University is showing higher numbers of recruits for the class of 2011. According to Capt. Massidas, 2007’s incoming freshmen class has 11 contracted cadets, which means these students are receiving four-year scholarships, 14 currently enrolled and working toward a scholarship and four prospective recruits. In comparison to the sophomore class, which has nine contracted cadets, eight currently enrolled cadets and four new additions, this is a decent increase.
“It’s good, but that’s why we are going to the dean of admissions to make students who are struggling to pay for school aware of the four year scholarship,” Capt. Massidas says.
The program plans on getting their message out by building a good relationship with those admissions counselors who are aware of the scholarship ROTC offers.
“Ideally, this program, if we had a choice, we would start off with incoming freshmen,” says Capt. Massidas. “But a lot of times, students are hesitant to make that decision in the first year of college.”
Capt. Massidas calls the ROTC program “one of the best kept secrets here on Long Island.” He is focusing on talking to the dean of admissions in all of the four-year schools on Long Island to tell the “ROTC story.” Along with some steps forward at the University, he has also made progress at Adelphi and Stony Brook Universities.