ROTC at Messiah College
Military Leadership at a Spiritual Level
Timothy Mackie
Issue date: 3/11/10 Section: News
It's six a.m. and the sleepy grey light of early morning floods the science center at Dickinson College. The cadets file in heavy-lidded and yawning, adjusting straps on their uniforms and making small talk with their squad members. I am the only one in the room wearing something other than pixilated camo fatigues.
A big guy with an even bigger grin, who introduced himself as Sgt. Garcia, orders a cadet to do some pushups for getting a question wrong. Another cadet from her unit gets down alongside her and does them with her. Eventually, even Garcia drops and does a few.
A stern voice calls the battalion to attention. Garcia tells the cadets their assignment for the morning.
"HOOAH!" they reply.
I've been invited by Cdt. Elizabeth Kraft to sit in on "Leadership Lab" to get a feel for the ROTC lifestyle and culture. ROTC (pronounced "rot-see") stands for Reserve Officer Training Corps. It is the Army's primary source of junior officers. Kraft represents one of ten Messiah College students (eight men and two women) who participate in the Dickenson Army ROTC program. While these students go to class in Jordan or Boyer, attend 24 chapels a semester, and eat meals in Lottie Nelson, they lead a second life training for service in the US Army.
What, we have ROTC here?
My friend Devin Thomas, a 2009 Messiah College graduate and current employee of the Grantham BIC church, drops his spoon into his chocolate mousse.
"ROTC kids! At Messiah!" he says, gaping. "You're pulling my leg, Mackie."
I give him the facts. Awestruck, he wonders aloud how he managed to spend four years as a Messiah College student without knowing about the ROTC presence on campus.
Thomas' bewilderment is hardly unique. The ROTC students at Messiah College are not, by any means, a vocal subculture. They aren't even an official student group, just an informal organization called Officers Christian Fellowship. Out of respect for the school's Anabaptist roots, they rarely wear uniforms on campus and do their PT (physical training) across the railroad tracks in the field by the Dept. of Safety house. "If we said we were just a bunch of friends who like to put on uniforms and PT, I guess we could train on Bittner Beach, but why deny who we are?" says Kraft.
Kraft, a sophomore communications major, says that most students have no clue about the ROTC program, and those who do know are occasionally hostile. She recalls a fellow student in her CCC class, who told the class that ROTC students have no business at Messiah College.
The Messiah College ROTC students have more obligations than their Dickenson comrades. For starters, they make the 20 minute drive from Grantham to Carlisle at least four times a week, often in the very early morning. According to Kraft, they have group PT on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday as well as a Leadership Lab on Tuesday.
The Officers Christian Fellowship (OCF) adds a spiritual aspect to the Messiah College ROTC students. Led by senior cadets, the OCF meets for weekly fellowship (in Lottie) and Bible study in members' apartments. "Every ROTC program teaches you military leadership, but at Messiah we take leadership to a spiritual level," says Kraft.
Leadership Lab
Ten minutes into Leadership Lab, I'm getting the distinct feel that this class isn't much different from my "civilian" classes. The atmosphere is relaxed, Garcia is standing in the back cracking jokes, and they have guest speakers with talking points and slideshows. One of the senior cadets gives each squad an "ice-breaker" activity. The cadets pair off and each pair is assigned different-and often conflicting-social codes corresponding to different cultures. Another pair plays the role of American soldiers trying to bring everyone together to a meeting.
While the exercise seemed silly at first-I overhead Kraft's group getting into a faux-heated argument about bacon-it mirrored real conditions that soldiers might encounter in Iraq and Afghanistan, both multi-ethnic countries. After the exercise, the senior cadet leading the class introduced a major who had done a tour of duty on the Iran-Iraq border. He spoke to the group about his experiences in building relationships with Bedouin tribes, local villagers, and Iraqi military police.
I got to meet one of the commanders of the Dickinson ROTC unit, Col. Christopher Rodney. He says that he's very impressed with the Messiah College students for going the extra mile of commuting to Dickinson. "These are very positive students who bring a lot of energy to the place," he says.
Over the course of the morning, I absorb some of the idiosyncrasies of Army slang. For example, the all-purpose interjection "hooah" can mean "yes," "okay," "understood," "hell yes," "let's do it," or really just about anything. It can also be used as an adjective meaning "awesome" or "hardcore." In general, it is considered poor taste for civilians to use the word.
The greatest army in the world
Kraft and the other ROTC students get a reprieve from the financial and career anxieties that plague most civilian college students. "The Army pays all your tuition and fees," says Kraft. "You will have a job when you graduate, which is pretty good in this economy. Plus you get to serve your country and be in the greatest army in the world."
Military service requires an intense commitment to responsibility and duty. Kraft says that a soldier is not only accountable to their superiors, but is also responsible for their peers. Kraft looks after the health and well-being of the other Messiah College ROTC students, keeping a first-aid kit in her room at all times.
Kraft aspires to be an ordnance officer after she graduates, inspired in part by the character SFC William James from The Hurt Locker. She says that military culture fosters a sense of community and camaraderie that is unequaled in the civilian world. "It goes beyond standing in formation; we're a body on campus," she says. Speaking of her colleagues at Messiah College, she says, "If you're going to die for them, you need to be there for them all the time."
A big guy with an even bigger grin, who introduced himself as Sgt. Garcia, orders a cadet to do some pushups for getting a question wrong. Another cadet from her unit gets down alongside her and does them with her. Eventually, even Garcia drops and does a few.
A stern voice calls the battalion to attention. Garcia tells the cadets their assignment for the morning.
"HOOAH!" they reply.
I've been invited by Cdt. Elizabeth Kraft to sit in on "Leadership Lab" to get a feel for the ROTC lifestyle and culture. ROTC (pronounced "rot-see") stands for Reserve Officer Training Corps. It is the Army's primary source of junior officers. Kraft represents one of ten Messiah College students (eight men and two women) who participate in the Dickenson Army ROTC program. While these students go to class in Jordan or Boyer, attend 24 chapels a semester, and eat meals in Lottie Nelson, they lead a second life training for service in the US Army.
What, we have ROTC here?
My friend Devin Thomas, a 2009 Messiah College graduate and current employee of the Grantham BIC church, drops his spoon into his chocolate mousse.
"ROTC kids! At Messiah!" he says, gaping. "You're pulling my leg, Mackie."
I give him the facts. Awestruck, he wonders aloud how he managed to spend four years as a Messiah College student without knowing about the ROTC presence on campus.
Thomas' bewilderment is hardly unique. The ROTC students at Messiah College are not, by any means, a vocal subculture. They aren't even an official student group, just an informal organization called Officers Christian Fellowship. Out of respect for the school's Anabaptist roots, they rarely wear uniforms on campus and do their PT (physical training) across the railroad tracks in the field by the Dept. of Safety house. "If we said we were just a bunch of friends who like to put on uniforms and PT, I guess we could train on Bittner Beach, but why deny who we are?" says Kraft.
Kraft, a sophomore communications major, says that most students have no clue about the ROTC program, and those who do know are occasionally hostile. She recalls a fellow student in her CCC class, who told the class that ROTC students have no business at Messiah College.
The Messiah College ROTC students have more obligations than their Dickenson comrades. For starters, they make the 20 minute drive from Grantham to Carlisle at least four times a week, often in the very early morning. According to Kraft, they have group PT on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday as well as a Leadership Lab on Tuesday.
The Officers Christian Fellowship (OCF) adds a spiritual aspect to the Messiah College ROTC students. Led by senior cadets, the OCF meets for weekly fellowship (in Lottie) and Bible study in members' apartments. "Every ROTC program teaches you military leadership, but at Messiah we take leadership to a spiritual level," says Kraft.
Leadership Lab
Ten minutes into Leadership Lab, I'm getting the distinct feel that this class isn't much different from my "civilian" classes. The atmosphere is relaxed, Garcia is standing in the back cracking jokes, and they have guest speakers with talking points and slideshows. One of the senior cadets gives each squad an "ice-breaker" activity. The cadets pair off and each pair is assigned different-and often conflicting-social codes corresponding to different cultures. Another pair plays the role of American soldiers trying to bring everyone together to a meeting.
While the exercise seemed silly at first-I overhead Kraft's group getting into a faux-heated argument about bacon-it mirrored real conditions that soldiers might encounter in Iraq and Afghanistan, both multi-ethnic countries. After the exercise, the senior cadet leading the class introduced a major who had done a tour of duty on the Iran-Iraq border. He spoke to the group about his experiences in building relationships with Bedouin tribes, local villagers, and Iraqi military police.
I got to meet one of the commanders of the Dickinson ROTC unit, Col. Christopher Rodney. He says that he's very impressed with the Messiah College students for going the extra mile of commuting to Dickinson. "These are very positive students who bring a lot of energy to the place," he says.
Over the course of the morning, I absorb some of the idiosyncrasies of Army slang. For example, the all-purpose interjection "hooah" can mean "yes," "okay," "understood," "hell yes," "let's do it," or really just about anything. It can also be used as an adjective meaning "awesome" or "hardcore." In general, it is considered poor taste for civilians to use the word.
The greatest army in the world
Kraft and the other ROTC students get a reprieve from the financial and career anxieties that plague most civilian college students. "The Army pays all your tuition and fees," says Kraft. "You will have a job when you graduate, which is pretty good in this economy. Plus you get to serve your country and be in the greatest army in the world."
Military service requires an intense commitment to responsibility and duty. Kraft says that a soldier is not only accountable to their superiors, but is also responsible for their peers. Kraft looks after the health and well-being of the other Messiah College ROTC students, keeping a first-aid kit in her room at all times.
Kraft aspires to be an ordnance officer after she graduates, inspired in part by the character SFC William James from The Hurt Locker. She says that military culture fosters a sense of community and camaraderie that is unequaled in the civilian world. "It goes beyond standing in formation; we're a body on campus," she says. Speaking of her colleagues at Messiah College, she says, "If you're going to die for them, you need to be there for them all the time."
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