ROTC

By Jack Wagner

Confidence, leadership skills, physical fitness, a guaranteed job and a free college education -- there is one program on campus that promises all of these things and more: the now award-winning Santa Clara ROTC.

Reserve Officers' Training Corps cadets are proud of the program, as are the people who lead it. In exchange for reduced tuition, they agree to service in the Army, early-morning workouts and additional classes, all while leading relatively normal college lives.

"I think our battalion is very strong because everybody watches everybody's backs," freshman Luis Aguilar said. "When we're out there a lot of the guys are just giving it 120 percent."

The Santa Clara ROTC program recently received the 2009 MacArthur Award for the 8th Brigade, marking it as one of the best programs in the nation. They were one of eight brigades nationally to win the award. The Santa Clara battalion also includes San Jose State University and Stanford University students.

This award recognizes unit performance based on the ideals of the late General Douglas MacArthur. The battalions selected for the award were the most successful of the 273 units nation-wide in achieving the mission of training and commissioning the majority of lieutenants entering the Army each year.

According to Capt. Vincent J. Mucker, students in ROTC are able to get a full college experience like every other student, but they are also gaining extra skills. Mucker serves as the enrollment officer for the Santa Clara ROTC program and as the Military Science I instructor.

"ROTC students are just like every other student," said Mucker. "They have just already made the decision that when they graduate they want to commission in the army."

Every quarter ROTC students must take one extra class, military science, for all four years they are at Santa Clara. Outside of this, the cadets must take military history once during their academic careers at Santa Clara.

There are also field-training events that occur throughout the year. "We have a field training exercise in the fall and in the spring, which is a three to four day exercise where we go out and live in the woods and practice being soldiers," Mucker said.

On Wednesdays, the day they have lab classes, students in ROTC are required to wear their camouflage uniforms the entire day.

The aspect most cadets find most challenging about the ROTC experience is the required physical training. Every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, cadets meet from 6:30 a.m. to 7:30 a.m. and train physically to meet the standards of the Army fitness tests. The extra activities can tire them out. As a result, members of ROTC sometimes choose not to go to parties on the weekend or go to sleep earlier than their peers during the week.

"Waking up at 6:30 a.m. is not easy; not everybody can do it," Aguilar said.

All freshmen and sophomore Santa Clara students are welcome to take the military science courses, which prove to be most interesting to those who are curious about the military.

Despite the extra classes, the training events and the physical development, ROTC students are able to do everything that non-ROTC students are able to do. Chase Vara, a freshman, decided to join ROTC at Santa Clara rather than attend one of the military academies because he wanted to have the social college experience.

"There's still a lot of opportunities to go out and be social," said Vara. "You do get the opportunity to lead a normal college life; you just have some more expectations to deal with."

According to Mucker, the main benefit for students who take part in ROTC is the leadership training they receive. He also noted other pluses include the physical fitness and confidence that come from doing ROTC at Santa Clara.

Roughly 55 to 60 percent of cadets at Santa Clara are receiving a full scholarship from the program. They are guaranteed work after graduation with job security and further career opportunities. Cadets are also given money for textbooks and monthly stipends. According to Mucker, the value of a student on a full scholarship for four years can exceed $260,000.

To receive these benefits the students must sign a contract with the Army agreeing to repay their scholarship through a service obligation. This obligation can take the form of either eight years in the Army Reserves or four years in active duty with the Army. Upon graduating college and contracting with the Army, students are commissioned as second lieutenants.

Aguilar says he joined ROTC because, "I plan to do something related to medicine, so I thought about doing a profession in the military as a medic."

For the 74 cadets who are contracted to commission, there are 74 different answers why they chose to pursue ROTC.

Contact Jack Wagner at jcwagner@scu.edu or (408) 554-4546.