Cadets on campus: ROTC has gone from a four-letter word during the Vietnam War era to a mainstay on post-9/11 campuses

University Business, March, 2008 by Ron Schachter

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SEVERAL DOZEN NORTHEASTERN UNIVERsity (Mass.) undergraduates have gathered before dawn at the Marino Recreation Center for much more than recreation. They run through their calisthenics and rapid-fire sit-ups and push-ups as partners shout encouragement and check stopwatches. Others circle the track one story above the gym floor or duck incoming missiles during a high-powered dodgeball game.

These students--clad in standard issue black shorts and gray Army T-shirts--belong to Liberty Battalion, Northeastern's chapter of the Army's Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC). Within 18 months of graduating they may well find themselves in a war zone.

The group is evidence of the post-9/11 growth of officer training programs at schools nationwide, almost 40 years after ROTC became a four-letter word to many Vietnam War pROTCsters on college campuses. Back in those days, Northeastern counted about 2,800 ROTC cadets, one of the largest contingents outside of the U.S. military academies. "It was a way to stay in college and not go to war," explains Lt. Col. John McClellan, a professor of military science. He now commands 120 cadets headed to the leaner, all-volunteer Army as second lieutenants.

Serving the New Army

Besides their three-times-a-week, one-and-a-half-hour physical training classes, and their regular academic courseloads, today's Northeastern cadets follow a four-year sequence of military science courses--from an introduction to the Army, to land navigation and military tactics, to leadership and ethical decision making.

When they graduate and receive their commissions, many will spend four years on active duty and another four on a list from which they can be recalled. The rest will opt for six years of National Guard service and two years on the recall list.

Nationwide, more than 28,000 students (6,000 of them women) are enrolled in Army ROTC at 273 host institutions, either attending those schools or commuting from almost 1,100 other colleges for military training and coursework. (The Air Force ROTC and the Navy ROTC--which includes future Marines have nearly 12,000 and 6,000 participants, respectively) Because many are on military scholarships, the cost to their schools is often minimal.

While the numbers scarcely approach the 177,000 all-male Army ROTC cadets at the height of the Vietnam War (when the program was the primary alternative to the military draft) and the more than 60,000 just two decades ago (when the Cold War was still a concern), today's ROTC is alive and well, say its proponents. It supplies more than 60 percent of the Army's officer corps and 52 percent of its generals.

In fact, the number of ROTC grads over the past decade has swelled from 3,600 annually to nearly 4,100 last year, en route to the Army's goal of 4,500. "Our mission is growing," observes Lt. Col. Norman Gauthier, who runs ROTC at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (Mass.). Gauthier is aiming to increase by half the 60 cadets enrolled from WPI and 16 surrounding colleges. "Last year I had a senior who commuted 45 miles, five days a week, for military science classes and physical training at 6 a.m.," he points out.

Northeastern's McClellan, meanwhile, is working to reestablish ROTC at Boston neighbors Emmanuel College and Roxbury Community College and to add them to the network of satellite schools his program serves. At Purdue University (Ind.), the number of Air Force cadets has almost doubled over the past decade to its current level of 200.

The 9/11 Effect

Those involved with ROTC agree that 9/11 catalyzed the recent growth of their programs. "People felt the need to serve and defend the country," says Northeastern's president, Joseph Aoun.

The numbers back him up. In the academic year following 9/11, ROTC enrollment jumped more than 5 percent for the Army and nearly 7 percent for the Navy. The Air Force ROTC recorded its largest numbers in a decade, and Purdue, which has one of the largest Air Force programs in the country, saw almost a 40 percent surge in participation from pre-9/11 levels.

Lt. Col. Elizabeth Cisney, who leads ROTC at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, still finds 9/11 references in student applications. "Most of them will indicate that the events of that day were a wake-up call," she says.

In the past several years, ROTC numbers have subsided for all three military branches although they remain above pre-9/11 levels at many schools--as the patriotic rush to join has given way to a more sober assessment of the ongoing war in Iraq. The concerns have hit home for Nebraska's cadets, who have seen two recent graduates die in the war. "It certainly makes them more serious about what they are doing," notes Cisney.

"There are concerns in the minds of students and parents about joining the military in this day and age," adds Northeastern's McClellan, who regularly fields questions such as, "What's it really like in Iraq?" and "How soon will my son or daughter be deployed?"

The answer to the latter question: from a few months to one-and-a-half years after graduation. Cisney aims to reassure first-year ROTC candidates, however, that "with a four-year lead time, the world situation may change."