Their alarms go off at 4:30 a.m. each morning. They wake up and get dressed in the dark, long before the sun even begins to poke its head out over the horizon. They’re careful not to wake their sleeping roommate who will only wake up hours later to go to their own classes.
Brown helps to figure out how to hoist a box of ammo up a cliff on a training weekend.
The only difference between the two boys is that one will go to class in Bailey or Humanities to start their day, and the other will have an almost three hour intense workout or field training, some days regime, before they make that same trek to Bailey. This is how both Connor Gagliardi ‘13 and Gordon Brown ‘12 start their mornings three to five days a week.
The national Reserve Officer’s Training Corps (ROTC) program “was born when President Woodrow Wilson signed the National Defense Act of 1916,” as stated in their section of GoArmy.com. It is a college-based program that gives those who desire it the opportunity to receive training in various military fields such as the Army, Navy, or Air Force while simultaneously getting a college education. After graduation, students are commissioned as officers. They get to decide on their service selections in the fall of their senior year. The program also pays for tuitions as well as gives students money for books, and a monthly paycheck. Union takes that offer and goes one step further by paying for the housing for each of these students.
In addition to a regular course load, these students train three days a week and take a course in military science at either Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute or Siena College.
Currently seven students are part of the ROTC program at Union. Three are in the Army branch, three are in the Navy branch, and one is a member of the Air Force branch. These students wake up and have to be to RPI or Siena at 5:45 a.m. three times a week: twice for physical training and once for drills. This is all in addition to taking the regular courseload at Union and one course at RPI.
“The army detachment is based at Siena, and it’s divided into different companies,” said Brown. He further explained that “Alpha company of the army is located at Siena, the Bravo company is at RPI, and the Charlie company is at The University at Albany.”
Brown, an American Studies major and Classics minor, came to know this information about the inner-workings of the ROTC program over time after deciding that he was seeking something more exciting than a “desk job” upon graduating college. Brown’s family doesn’t have much military history, aside from his grandfather being in the Navy during World War II.
“I wanted to enlist for a while when I was a kid, but I realized that you have to go to college these days and I didn’t really know ROTC existed until my freshmen year [of college],” he said. “Going to college gives you better job prospects when you get out of the Army.”
After being introduced to the program by a friend at Union, he decided to go to fitness training to give the program a try and see if it lived up to his childhood dreams. Brown was extremely successful with fitness training and decided to participate in the “Ranger Challenge,” a highly competitive warrior skills competition.
“We compete in marksmanship, urban warfare, combat lifesaving, land navigation, weapons assembly/disassembly,” described Brown.
Every school that does ROTC sends a team to compete. After being named captain this past fall due to the former captain leaving for medical reasons, his squad came in second in the New England division and first in Union/Siena’s division which includes various larger schools with big ROTC programs in New England such as, the University of Connecticut, and Boston College.
“I got really interested after [competing in Ranger Challenge] and then I went to a ‘catch-up’ program for people who have missed their first year or two at Fort Knox, Kentucky and did really well. I had to do well to earn a scholarship, because only 10% of cadets there got one,” Brown said. “I came back and contracted at the beginning of this year.”
After coming back to school in the fall, Brown was thrown into the fast track of the ROTC program here at Union.
“In the fall we train five mornings a week and then on weekends as well. Any other free time we have is totally gone,” he said. Compared to his fall schedule, Brown’s training this term is slightly less demanding with training four days a week and every other weekend.
“It tapers off in the spring and we just do fitness training three days a week, and then we stop in the middle of spring term because Siena, [who is on the semester system,] gets out [for summer break.]”
When Brown graduates, he will be a second Lieutenant. Afterwards he will attend Advanced Infantry Training and then hopefully Ranger School.
“It depends on how the war goes over the next few years. [Going into combat] is what we train for, so it’s an honor to get the opportunity to lead a platoon,” he said.
Gagliardi, on the other hand, is involved with Union/RPI’s Navy branch. He is a Resident Advisor, on varsity track, an EMT for Union College Emergency Medical Service, and club soccer’s Secretary/Treasurer. Gagliardi’s schedule, needless to say, is packed with many things to do, but since he always wanted to be in the military, it seems worthwhile. “I was told about the program back when I was applying to the Naval Academy,”he said. “Soon after I applied, I found out that I had been accepted.”
Pictured here, Gagliardi is driving a nuclear powered sub.
It’s important to mention that, in addition to all the many demands of the program during the year, there is also summer training. According to Gagliardi, “In addition to the required training during the school year there is professional training during the summer months. This training can take the student anywhere in the country.” He also expanded that this training lasts from three to five weeks, but depends on which branch and which year the student is in.
The professional training is designed for the student to better understand the job they will have to perform once commissioned, he explained.
For Gagliardi, though, he is not quite sure what he wants to do within this branch when he graduates, but does note some changes he’s been through since being part of ROTC. “I knew I wanted [to do something with] aviation…or anything but submarines, but now after looking around, I’m reconsidering submarines.”
Anyone interested in learning more about the ROTC programs are encouraged to go talk to a student in the program to see what it is like. “I really like it,” Gagliardi notes. “It’s a good program, and it’s especially nice to know that you’ll have a job for the next five to six years after you graduate.”
Brown adds that the program has “been really competitive lately because the army has a pretty good officer core that’s been developed [over the last few years] because of the war. They have a lot of men who have been deployed and ROTC, specifically has gotten really competitive for scholarships especially.” He also address a common misconception by those who are on the outside, and don’t completely understand the inner-workings of the ROTC program. “I think a lot of people think the ROTC is something where you just show up, get a uniform and look spiffy; but it’s so much more than just that.”
Loading ...