PLU International Voices: Joel's Back!

Wednesday, November 2, 2016

Joel's Back!

Hey everyone!

Some of you reading this might remember me, I worked as an International Admission Intern from Oct 2014 until about January 2015! Prior to that, I enlisted in the US Army in June 2015 and then shipped off to basic training in February 2016 so that's when I stopped working here. However, I'm back now with ISS (YAY!) and you can read more about what's going on in my life ever since I left WA for half a year: http://pluinternationalstudents.blogspot.com/p/about-joel.html

Today's blog post will concern my time with the Army ROTC at PLU. ROTC is the Reserve Officer Training Corps and in a nutshell, participants in the PLU Army ROTC are called cadets and cadets will commission in their graduation year as 2nd Lieutenants in the US Army. Before I joined ROTC, I was a PFC (Private First Class) with the Army and my job title was a Unit Supply Specialist. Now, I'm a cadet and when I attend my monthly drills/training with my Reserve unit, I shadow other officers and essentially act as a platoon leader.

I personally think that ROTC is a great program. I took the GRFD scholarship, which meant that my tuition and fees were paid for by the Army. PLU also offers free room and board to scholarship cadets so that's another benefit. I was also promoted from PFC (E-3) to Cadet (E-5) and being able to commission in 2018 is the icing on the cake.

So, what do we do in ROTC? Well, since the goal is to commission as a 2LT (usually a platoon leader position) in the Army, we're training and learning necessary skills and tools that will help us succeed as future 2LTs. We've done Land Navigation, Operation Order briefs and write-ups, Basic Rifle Marksmanship, Field Exercises and almost daily physical training.

Here are some pictures of things I've done at ROTC so far for the past 2 months. I'm enjoying myself back working with ISS, and also with ROTC and I hope you're doing great yourself!