Student soldiers reflect on service
Nelly Singh
Issue date: 9/18/08 Section: News
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For most of these students, enlisting in the Army started out as a need for financial assistance which grew into something more.
Former Staff Sgt. José Robledo, a junior in business administration who recently transferred to Columbia University, had his path changed when he decided to go active duty after high school to finance his education.
Robledo, who had a full ride to study theatre arts at Penn State, said he didn't want to join the Army, but joined "begrudgingly" because his dream was not in accordance with his parents.
Looking back, it has changed him a million times for the better, he said.
"I was squad leader, and now I'm seeing my squad go to Iraq. And, they're leaving without me. It's kind of hard," Robledo said.
Robledo's experience overseas, and at his most recent locations, Mosul and Baghdad, Iraq, allowed him to meet local Iraqis, the Iraqi police and the Iraqi army. "It was nice to get to know the people, their neighborhoods, their customs, their traditions, their language, and be appreciative of who they are," he said.
Robledo started out in the infantry and was involved in patrolling neighborhoods, establishing good rapport with local communities and religious leaders, or imams, on a quick reaction force and ended up as a sniper section sergeant in Baghdad.
"It's really hard, because most people have an image of soldiers over there [of] what you see on the news: you kick down the door, there's a massive raid, all these guys go in and they start yelling and screaming, and maybe some shots are fired. That doesn't get results. People don't like it when you kick their doors down, oddly enough," he said jokingly.
In addition to Robledo's primary job, he, along with his unit, provided soccer balls to the kids and protected the women during the elections in Iraq, he added.
"Between getting shot at and getting blown up - that made the real mission of taking care of people hard," Robledo said, referring to a medical mission in which a particular neighborhood (and only neighborhood for his unit) didn't trust them. "They didn't want to be seen with Americans, because when we leave, there's nobody there to protect them."
Spc. Christopher Gehrke, a freshman majoring in architectural engineering, is in Afghanistan right now and is on his way home.
"It's really kind of a mundane life. … I love my country and don't mind being in the Army. It's been a good experience. I've learned a lot about Afghan culture and a lot more about the country," Gehrke wrote in an interview via AOL Instant Messenger.
Gehrke, whose military occupational specialty is a combat engineer, is in the security force for the Provincial Reconstruction Team in the Laghman Province. The mission of PRT is to work with provincial leaders to deliver essential services and develop the capacity to govern in an effective, sustainable way, according to the U.S. Department of State's web site.
One of Gehrke's missions includes talking to local villages and inspecting the work contractors are doing.
"The people here are improving their lives with the projects that we build for them, but they still have a long way to go," Gehrke said.
Gehrke's typical day is waking up early in the morning, checking and inspecting his Humvee, going out from one to five hours, and "we're usually back for lunch, and then the rest of the day is my own," of which he usually calls home every other day to his family and girlfriend.
Most students aren't put in this situation, and it takes a lot of courage to be in an unfamiliar country, according to Gehrke.
Age doesn't matter "because just about everyone has the same risks and have a lot to lose if they don't make it home," Gehrke said. "I'd say the biggest thing is when you're the gunner and that first RPG [rocket-propelled grenade] explodes right next to you, and you stay up in that turret and man that weapon."
Former Spc. Rob Slater, a junior majoring in criminal justice, worked on the Patriot missile system in Germany and went to Israel and Egypt.
Slater always intended on joining the military and loved it, but said, "It's not for everybody."
A slight challenge facing this select group is integrating with their classmates especially since they are older and have a different level of maturity, even compared to people their own age.
According to Mark Bauman, a higher education graduate student at Penn State doing his Ph.D. dissertation research on the military mobilization process of undergraduate students and their transition to college life, the military experience accelerates your maturity.
"[Sometimes] they find themselves having trouble connecting with the student body because they've been through [in some cases] this very dramatic experience. And then, you have somebody sitting next to you in class who is lamenting about some party they can't go to or some test they got a 'C' on," Bauman said.
"It was kind of awkward, but I got used to it pretty quickly," Slater said.
For Robledo, the transition was difficult at first. "I was taking classes with a lot of freshmen. The hard part was being in classes with [some] people that weren't taking it that seriously."
According to Slater, he also saw the side of Israel which is not usually covered on the news; a common practice by the media of the portrayal of situations in many countries.
"[We saw] how the Arab Israelis get along with the Israeli's over there. It's an absolutely beautiful country. It's peaceful everywhere you go. When you see it on the news it's only usually for bad reasons. So, you get this impression that it's like a constant war zone over there. It's not," Slater said.
"It was just a rewarding experience. I made friends that I'm going to keep for life. We started to look out for each other. You go through really hard circumstances, and it just forces you to become really best friends even with the guys you don't like. They almost become like your extended family," Slater said.
Kiesha Richardson's case was much different than the others.
Richardson, a pre-junior majoring in political science, is working for Kellogg Brown and Root Inc. as a morale welfare and recreation coordinator in the camp called Korean Village in the province of Anbar in Iraq.
Richardson learned the meaning of the word community while working in her camp in Iraq.
To her, this word now "seems to be confined to the physical properties of a group of buildings and similar people living in a specific area. Whereas, the little camps in Iraq feel the way communities in the States used to be: your neighbors taking care of you and you taking care of your neighbors, [people] helping each other out [and] genuinely being concerned for the next man's well-being," Richardson wrote in an e-mail.
Influenced by her parents' military background, need for money and an escape from the daily rituals of life, she joined the Army Air Force Exchange Service in Germany when her parents were assigned to Hanau, Germany. Later her mother was deployed to Iraq, so Richardson followed her there and ended up working for KBR Inc., which is also serving as her co-op experience.
"Call me crazy, but I missed being in Iraq," Richardson wrote, referring to when she returned to the States to attend school.
Richardson describes her job as the fun police as she provides free Internet, phones, movies, video games, and such to the troops and the rest of the camp.
"There's no way we can make these men and women forget that they are in a war zone, but we do what we can to make them feel as if there's a little piece of home with them," she wrote.
Although Richardson's education has been delayed, it's for a good reason, she wrote. According to Richardson, if she would've taken the typical college-life route, she would not have been able to afford going to her dream school, Drexel.
"I know that sounds corny, but it's true. Sometimes my mother and I would walk to 30th Street Station and the Drexel side of the street always seemed brighter for some reason. I just wanted to go there," Richardson wrote.
Bauman found from his interviewees that there are challenges serving in the military, but "many of the members that I spoke to really, really enjoyed their experience which sounds a little strange. Why would you enjoy this kind of situation," he said trying to relate to people looking from the outside in.
"I think that when they come home … I think it gives them perspective. They've seen another culture, they've seen another world. They've been away from their family and friends. And they've come home, and they seem to have a real good sense of what's really important," Bauman said.
The Army has opened Robledo's "eyes to other things. You see how people live in other places; Drexel isn't that bad. There are people out there that have it much worse."
Robledo said his experience in the Army opened up his eyes in the sense that people here in America really take for granted how much they do have; women's suffrage has just recently come about in Iraq; "the idea that a girl can do more than just be a housewife is pretty new to them, [and] the fact that a young boy doesn't have to take up the family business. It's the little stuff people here take for granted."
Gehrke said he has grown up and also become a better person.
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