ANN ARBOR—On the morning of Sept. 11, while late-sleeping University of Michigan students were still oblivious to the terrorist attacks, the U-M’s Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) was already in class at North Hall.

Around 9 a.m., someone turned on the television. The U-M ROTC Air Force detachmentcongregated around it—colonels, professors, and cadets all frozen in the same state of shock.

“We knew that it was going to definitely involve us more than maybe anyone else watching it in Ann Arbor,” says Nick Smith, a 20-year-old cadet from Gaylord.

Karen Mesko, an 18-year-old cadet from Traverse City, remembers hearing about the third plane hitting what she calls “my Pentagon.” The attacks hit her hard, she says, but they have not changed the way she views her role in the Air Force.

“I train every day with the knowledge that I might be called to serve in military operations. Knowing that it’s more imminent doesn’t change my outlook,” she says.

Like Mesko, the nearly 300 U-M ROTC students have all made a commitment to serve as commissioned officers in the U.S. military, in return for college scholarships of up to $80,000 for four years. Because officers must have college degrees, no ROTC students currently enrolled at U-M will be serving before May 2002.

“We explained to the Wolverine Battalion that their mission here is to go to school, get their training, and use this as a learning experience for the future,” says Lt. Col. Robert McCormick, admissions and scholarship officer for the Army ROTC.

The first learning opportunity came immediately, in the confusing hours following the attack. National military headquarters issued a command that, for possible safety concerns, ROTC students were not allowed to wear their uniforms in public.

Mesko says the order angered her.

“It’s a privilege I’ve earned,” Mesko says. “The fact that the terrorists created a situation in which I wasn’t safe wearing my uniform really made me mad.”

The uniform directive only lasted for a day, but it foreshadowed the many ways ROTC students would now be put in the spotlight. McCormick said that while inquiries for enrollment have not gone up, media calls have been flooding in. Additionally, the campus community is paying more attention to its students in uniform, and ROTC students and staff report that response has mostly been positive. People give ROTC members “thumbs-up” on the street and partiers on balconies pause to cheer as uniformed students pass by. At home football games following the attacks, cadets putting up the American flag received a standing ovation when they entered the stadium.

Despite the overall approval, the students say that since the attacks, there have been days when they felt uncomfortable being in uniform. U-M student groups and the Ann Arbor community organized a number of anti-war rallies, and while the ROTC students or their North Hall headquarters were not targets of verbal or physical attacks, students said they felt awkward walking around campus. But they note that the demonstrations on campus have been peaceful and respectful.

Capt. Dennis L. Hopkins, a 1977 U-M ROTC alumnus, says that the relatively calm demonstrations contrast with some demonstrations he remembers from his days as a ROTC cadet at the tail end of the Vietnam War. The unpopularity of the Vietnam conflict, he says, made being in uniform extremely difficult, and potentially dangerous: demonstrations at U-M often became rowdy, and students across the country set fires to and occupied ROTC buildings.

The dissent on campus these days, Hopkins says, is actually beneficial. It helps ROTC students find a middle ground and avoid becoming too hawkish. Col. John Gaughan, chair of the Air Force ROTC program, agrees. He says that coming face-to-face with dissenting and diverse viewpoints produces thoughtful officers.

“Their ability to defend themselves intellectually coming out of the U-M is much superior because of this exposure,” he says. “You want an officer corps that is able to think, that is a part of society.”

Additionally, Gaughan says, part of the future officers’ mission is to preserve the demonstrators’ freedoms of speech and association from the threat of fundamentalist terrorism.

Gaughan and the other program directors encourage free discussion within North Hall, as well. Gaughan says the students often ask him challenging questions about the current crisis, proving to him that they are aware and thirsty for more information. In that respect, he said, they are reacting to the conflict like all U-M students are.

Most U-M students, however, will never be as close up to the conflict as U-M’s future ROTC graduates will be. When the new ROTC officers become commissioned, they will enter a global military arena that will be vastly changed. According to Gaughan, the ROTC program is preparing its students with instruction on counter-terrorism, humanitarian aid, and other special operations.

Air Force Cadet Nick McAlister, a Minneapolis native, says he feels ready for the challenge.

“The way I will act is the same, with the values of an officer in the Air Force, even though the purpose of my job will be a little different,” he says. “Instead of protecting the country against other countries, I will be protecting it against other individuals.”

U-M Navy ROTC

Contact: Shiri Bilik Phone: (734) 764-7260 E-mail: sbilik@umich.edu

U-M ROTC Air Force detachment