{"id":5139,"date":"2013-03-25T16:32:50","date_gmt":"2013-03-25T21:32:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/thecr\/?p=5139"},"modified":"2013-03-26T12:00:09","modified_gmt":"2013-03-26T17:00:09","slug":"student-balances-college-and-rotc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/thecr\/archives\/5139","title":{"rendered":"Student balances college and ROTC"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"army-uniform\"<\/a>by Claire DeRoin– <\/b>Gage Thackston, a junior mass communications major, knows exactly what he is going to do once he graduates. That\u2019s more than can be said for some seniors.<\/p>\n

Thackston is currently enrolled in ROTC: Reserve Officer Training Corps. ROTC is a program that allows students to complete military training and classes at the same time as their regular college courses. It\u2019s a four-year program, and at the time of college graduation, the program is complete and the student is then an officer of the United States military.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter college I will be commissioned into the U.S. Army either as a National Guard officer or as an active duty officer, whichever will best benefit the military,\u201d Thackston said. He has a little say in where he ends up, but not much. ROTC offers a wish list in which students can pick whether they\u2019d be active duty or reserve officers, but nothing is guaranteed.<\/p>\n

Once commissioned into the United States Army, Thackston would like to be a helicopter pilot. \u201cMy Dad was in the Army, and that\u2019s pretty much the whole life I\u2019ve known. I really enjoyed it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a big relief knowing that you just have to get through college and you\u2019ll have a job waiting for you,\u201d Thackston said.<\/p>\n

He has training one weekend a month. Training isn\u2019t just push-ups and target practice, though. What was the most exciting thing he\u2019s done in training? A man of few words, Thackston shrugged, grinned, and said, \u201cJumping out of airplanes.\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition to monthly training, Thackston drives up to USD for a military science class once a week.<\/p>\n

\u201cTeachers and advisors here are really supportive,\u201d Thackston said. That makes it easier to balance Morningside classes, ROTC classes, and his soccer schedule.<\/p>\n

Other than the ROTC program, Thackston considers himself a normal student. Morningside students consider him one of them, too, for the most part. On days when he has class at USD for ROTC, he wears his ASU’s, Army service uniform. \u201cAt USD, they see more soldiers on campus, so they treat you with more respect.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stacie Hays, Morningside\u2019s career counselor, said Morningside does arrange for recruiters to come set up a table campus and talk to students about military careers and opportunities. These events are generally held in the Olsen student center. Occasionally, she added, recruiters will swing through campus informally. That\u2019s not a surprise, since Morningside participates in the ROTC program.<\/p>\n

As for advice for students looking to join the military after college, Hays said that it depended on which job in the military a student was looking for. \u201cThe military often offers pretty occupational-specific training once you enlist. It\u2019s important to start making contacts with people,\u201d Hays said. \u201cOnce you have those contacts, you\u2019ll have more information available to you.\u201d Hays also mentioned that graduating with a flexible, well-rounded liberal arts degree is a benefit to the ROTC program.<\/p>\n

Given the option between deploying and staying stateside, Thackston would deploy. \u201cIt\u2019s always good to have peace, but deep down, you train for it. You want to see if you can actually do it; put your skills to the test.\u201d<\/p>\n

This summer, Thackston will head to South Korea for training. The escalating nuclear situation in North Korea may worry some Americans, but Thackston doesn\u2019t mind. \u201cThey [the military] wouldn\u2019t put me in harm\u2019s way,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Claire DeRoin– Gage Thackston, a junior mass communications major, knows exactly what he is going to do once he graduates. That\u2019s more than can be said for some seniors. Thackston is currently enrolled in ROTC: Reserve Officer Training Corps. ROTC is a program that allows students to complete military training and classes at the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":80,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56109],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5139","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-morningside-people"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/thecr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5139","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/thecr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/thecr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/thecr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/80"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/thecr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5139"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/thecr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5139\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5144,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/thecr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5139\/revisions\/5144"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/thecr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5139"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/thecr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5139"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/thecr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5139"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}