Some students join the Reserve Officer Training Corps to serve their country. Some need the money for college. And some just want to be President someday.
Georgetown ROTC cadet Peter Goff (SFS ‘03) looks like he was born to be in the military. Well-built with a buzz cut and a Hoya Battalion T-shirt tucked into his jeans, Goff exudes the confidence, authority and earnestness common to those accustomed to both giving and receiving orders. For Goff, ROTC is much more than a means of paying for college, or a way to serve his country. Like many Georgetown cadets, Goff views ROTC as a mandatory stepping stone on the path to a political career.
“I joined ROTC because I plan to go into government and I felt this was the appropriate way to get the necessary military experience,” Goff said.
ROTC was created by an act of Congress in 1916, after U.S. military officials recognized that colleges were a huge resource from which they might draw officers. ROTC programs were implemented at universities across the country to provide standardized training procedures for these potential officers. Today there are 100 Georgetown cadets enrolled in Georgetown’s Hoya Battalion, which also coordinates ROTC for area colleges such as George Washington University, American University and the University of Maryland. Cadets receive a full-tuition scholarship for up to four years. In return, they promise to serve the same number of years in the U.S. military.
The focus of ROTC cadets at Georgetown has shifted over time. In 1838, Georgetown was home to D.C.’s first infantry militia, the Georgetown College Cadets. Members of that militia could be called to active duty at any time. Students joined solely to serve in the U.S. military. It wasn’t until after the approval of the GI Bill in 1944 that cadets began to receive scholarship money, making financial issues the new driving force behind enrollment in the program. Today, however, Georgetown recruiters downplay the financial benefits of joining ROTC as they target students who are interested in leadership positions in the future. According to Georgetown ROTC Recruiting Officer Major Jon Chytka, most cadets join ROTC with the intention of “setting themselves up for success later on.”
“Look at the people in charge today. Everyone, even Democrats, has had military experience,” Chytka said. “Even Bill Clinton had one year of M1 [ROTC training].”
Goff joined ROTC his junior year after completing a 30-day training camp, a requirement for students that join the battalion after their sophomore year. Goff was put in charge of lower-ranking cadets, much like a non-commissioned officer in the U.S. military. Now a senior, Goff serves as Batallion Commander. Upon graduation, cadets in ROTC can choose between a commission for active duty or National Guard duty. Goff will join the National Guard and receive officer training, and will be committed to serve for six years, of which he expects to spend at least six months deployed.
As Goff watched coverage of explosions lighting the sky over Baghdad, he, like most Americans, was not surprised about the invasion of Iraq. Instead, his thoughts went automatically to the former cadets he knows now serving on active duty in the Middle East- a reaction that he feels sets him apart from most Georgetown students.
“There are five graduates from the last three or four years over there and more are going now. I was mostly concerned for them and their families,” Goff said.
Goff said that the war intensifies cadets’ commitment to ROTC and military service.
“In ROTC, war renews our sense of purpose. During training we can see how what we learn will have an effect. The war makes it real.”
Matt Bigge (SFS ‘91), a cadet during the first Gulf War, also said that his ROTC experience personalizes the war. Since cadets know people risking their lives, he said, they are affected differently than those who just watch the war on CNN. During World War II, Bigge said, participation in the military was so high that everyone in the country had a friend or relative fighting in the war. Today, the United States has a standing military of two million, less than one percent of the population. According to Bigge, most people do not know anyone in the military, let alone someone in combat.
“Soldiers at school, not students in uniform”
ROTC, of course, was not always just an item on the to-do list of future politicians. In 1942, the U.S. Army established its Specialized Training Program, which offered enlisted men training in mathematics, engineering, foreign languages and medicine at U.S. universities before deployment. Many of those enlisted in the Army had never attended college, and military officials felt that they needed specialized training in areas crucial to military operations. Georgetown was included in this program; as the war began, regular students vacated the campus-only 142 of the over 1,300 students remained after deployment. Months later, Georgetown was selected as a site for the ASTP, and 1,300 enlisted men replaced those who had been sent overseas. Due to the war, Georgetown instituted an accelerated academic schedule in 1942. The fall semester began in July, students attended classes on Saturday, and holiday breaks were shortened. The University also adopted a quarterly term system that allowed students to graduate in two-and-a-half years instead of the customary four. During World War II, those affiliated with the military at Georgetown were treated like “soldiers at school, not students in uniform,” according to 1943 University publications. Like soldiers, they marched to and from class. Commanding officers disciplined them for any academic or conduct violations.
In contrast to World War II, when training on campus was intended to give those affiliated with the military a background in academic areas, specialized training for today’s cadets is centered around military science. Cadets enroll in courses such as leadership theory, military roles and national objectives, and logistics. In addition, they must attend physical training and field training exercises. These changes in the role and capacity of Georgetown ROTC between World War II and today are due largely to the Vietnam War, which had a major effect on University policy.
In 1968, a group of students hired an airplane and dropped thousands of leaflets on graduation ceremonies. The students wanted to dramatize that the audience could have been innocent Vietnamese citizens showered with napalm. Students began to protest the presence of ROTC at Georgetown, questioning the conflict between Georgetown’s close relationship with the Army and its Jesuit mission. In 1969, about 50 students held a sit-in at the ROTC office and in 1970, ROTC classes were cancelled and cadets were subsequently denied academic credit in the wake of protests from students and faculty members. At the time, the University received roughly $500,000 in federal scholarships and grants for ROTC, and cutting the program meant losing that money. In 1973, the School of Foreign Service proposed making ROTC an academic department and giving limited credit for ROTC classes. Rev. Richard McSorely. S.J. (an anti-war activist and former prisoner of war), Rev. Jerry Hall, S.J. and student John Liddy held a weeklong hunger strike to protest the proposal. Eventually, the University abandoned it. Expanding the military science program was never reconsidered, and today, only military science classes taken in a cadet’s senior year count towards the students’ degree completion. They are denoted on students’ transcripts as electives.
“A lot of soul-searching”
January 17, 1991 was supposed be a day of celebration for several senior cadets in the Hoya Battalion. The cadets had planned a party to either celebrate being assigned to active duty or commiserate the beginning of a job search. But as Doug Faherty (SFS ‘91) walked in the door, he was not greeted by the shouts and laughter of his friends. Instead, the sounds of CNN filled the otherwise silent room as a group of cadets sat in front of the television watching the opening scenes of the first Gulf War.
The prospect of seeing active duty was a grave concern to many Georgetown cadets. The U.S. government’s casualty expectations for Operation Desert Storm reached 10,000 during the escalation to war in the fall of 1990.
“Many of us did a lot of soul searching about our ability to lead fellow citizens as the prospect of combat became a reality,” Faherty said. “We all did our best to make sure we were prepared technically and emotionally to rise to the occasion, if necessary.”
Cadets attended an assembly in October 1990 that outlined a new “Early Commissioning” process and rapidly accelerated Officer Basic Course. Usually, cadets graduate college and are sent to Basic Officer Training, a 12-week program, after which they are commissioned as officers. The accelerated course and early commissioning would allow cadets to enter active duty as commissioned officers before graduation. It was thought that casualties would be so high that cadets would be needed overseas. But none of the cadets would see action, and the U.S. suffered only 148 casualties in the month long conflict.
The first Gulf War created expectations of low casualties and efficient operations, so the commencement of the war with Iraq last month did not cause cadets to worry about seeing combat. Cadets are aware that casualties will likely be low and the war will be over before they graduate and complete Officer Training. Goff said many may be stationed in Iraq on peacekeeping missions in the future, but know that it is extremely unlikely that they will see action during this conflict.
“To do what they would not”
War affects enrollment in ROTC. During the Civil War, 1,100 Georgetown students and faculty members fought-200 for the Union and 900 for the Confederacy. Of those, 358 were cadets. After the war, enthusiasm on campus for military service dwindled and participation in ROTC shrank significantly. Georgetown had become divided during the war and administrators struggled to unify students who had fought as enemies only months before. The rift was widened when General George Tecumseh Sherman spoke at commencement exercises in 1871, forcing students to again consider their stance on the war.
The split may have followed unique circumstances, but it wasn’t a unusual scenario. War causes a polarization of public opinion. People are forced to identify their position either for or against it and, in the case of ROTC cadets, reconcile their actions with their political views. According to Bigge, the size of ROTC decreased when war broke out in January 1991 and the Battalion was divided into two camps.
“The first was composed of cadets who thought ‘This is what I came here to do,’” Bigge said. “The second group was made up of cadets who joined ROTC for the [scholarship] money, who thought, ‘No one told me I would ever have to use an M-16 on anything but a target range.’”
The threat of active duty doubtlessly causes cadets to reconsider their military commitment. Bigge recalled that during the Gulf War in 1991, one cadet became a conscientious objector and another unexpectedly announced he was gay, despite having a girlfriend.
Goff, however, said he does not think there will be a major decrease in ROTC enrollment due to the war. He noted that before the attacks of Sept. 11, there were 76 cadets in the program. Currently, there are 100, an increase that Goff categorized as the natural response to an attack.
“The media is giving those in the military more respect than they have in the past,”Goff said.
Northwestern University sociologist Charles Moskos holds that the professional military character must understand the costs of war, making it, in part, a pacifist character. During the first Gulf War, then-Batallion Commander Mark Lewis (SFS ‘91) identified more with campus peace activists than pro-war students.
“Peace activists I can understand, especially if they are consistent. I can respect the fact that they are out there making something happen.” Lewis said. “It really burned me up to hear other 19- or 20-year-olds taking the hard line about war when they would not put themselves at risk. They wanted me and my friends to do what they would not.”
This “chicken hawk” phenomenon still exists today, and is often an issue in political campaigns. Whether for or against war, politicians from the Vietnam era that did not serve in the military often are criticized for their lack of involvement. Lewis believes that current students who seek a future in politics will be held accountable by the public if they fail to serve in the current war.
Despite the historical divide in campus opinion over both ROTC and the first Gulf War, Bigge characterized the atmosphere today on campus and in D.C. as positive, except for a few isolated incidents. He said it was interesting to observe Lafayette Square and the National Mall during protests, although on one occasion when he was wearing his uniform he was shoved by a protester.
Unlike the past, when opposition to ROTC itself was more vocal, Goff said that he does not sense any animosity toward the program on campus.
“I feel comfortable walking by the protest in Red Square in my uniform. Students recognize that it is a political decision to go to war,” Goff said.
As Goff prepares to graduate and enter officer training school, he is conscious of the fact that he may see combat in the near future. However, he said he thinks his experience with ROTC at Georgetown has prepared him well.
“It’s not fear; it’s never really fear. There is always nervousness and some apprehension, but you know you’ve been trained,” Goff said.
Bigge, who along with Lewis and Faherty, served in the U.S. military campaign in Haiti in 1994, attributes many of the successes of his military career to his participation in the Hoya Battalion. Bigge thinks his Georgetown background played a large part in the Army’s decision to make him responsible for entering military dictator General Raoul Cedras’ mansion, a dangerous military stronghold, and physically capturing the dictator.
“The experience I got entering the military straight out of college is light years beyond what people get when they enter the business world,” Bigge said.
“Some of my classmates got to make coffee for an investment banker after they graduated, he said. “I deposed a dictator.”
