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s a child living in low-income housing and watching his mom work two jobs to put food on the table, Omar McArthur saw some vivid examples of what he did not want out of life.

McArthur discovered what he did want when he walked into the East Carolina Air Force ROTC office late in his sophomore year, after a troubled start to university life. Once he was a cadet, he found the drive to catch up with his class.

“Thinking about my future is what brought me here,” said McArthur, a junior who was chosen to be a field commander at the AFROTC’s training camp last summer. “I’m looking for security—job security and financial security. When I think about how my mother had to work so hard, and how she worked hard to get me things I needed and things I wanted, I wanted to try to have something better for me and for my family.”

When he signed up, McArthur joined more than 150 students in the Air Force and Army ROTC programs who live dual lives as students and cadets on campus. He is part of a group for whom the backdrop of college life is discipline, structure and accountability—characteristics that can be in short supply among the students who sit beside the cadets in classes each day.

“It’s definitely tough trying to live the college life and be with your friends when you know you have to get up for PT [physical training] in the morning at 6 o’clock,” said Charles Smith, an Army cadet from Knightdale. “It’s more of a mental toughness that’s prepared me for the future life.”

The financial rewards are substantial. There are four-year, three-year and two-year scholarships available that can total $68,000, plus a living allowance of $4,000 a year and $900 for books. The program also awards four $1,000 book scholarships and doles out prime dorm room space, including 40 slots in Fletcher Hall and nine in Jarvis. ROTC students majoring in nursing are offered additional incentives and scholarships.

When students enroll in either the Air Force or Army ROTC programs, they agree to take elective classes that teach leadership and military theory. They agree to attend weekly leadership labs and participate in physical training sessions at least three times a week. They spend most of one summer—after sophomore year for Air Force and after junior year for Army—at a national camp with other cadets.

In addition, corps members attend countless university events, march in honor guards at athletic events and parades and shoot the cannon at Pirate football games. Frequently, they compete with units from other colleges at events like the Army Ranger Challenge in Virginia, in which the ECU Ranger team placed second among 19 participating schools.

ECU's Army Ranger team placed second among 19 participating schools during last year's Army Ranger Challenge in Virginia.

‘I can keep myself on track’

For cadets like Joelle Banjo-Johnson, a sophomore originally from London, the military route seemed preordained. She was raised a Navy brat, moved from base to base, so college wouldn’t have seemed right without a built-in military family. She said that her full slate of obligations—in addition to ROTC she is an honors student and a member of the Student Government Association—sets her up to succeed.

“If I have lots of things to do, I can keep myself on the right track,” Banjo-Johnson said. “It’s when I get bored that I get in trouble.”

As a second-year cadet in the Air Force program, Banjo-Johnson is in full preparation mode for field training, an intensive summer program that, for Air Force students, bridges the gap between the two years of volunteer participation in ROTC to the upperclassmen years, when they sign a contract to serve after graduation in the active duty Air Force.

Some, like Smith and McArthur, dive in even with no prior knowledge of the demands and lifestyle of the military. “We have some who just come in off the street and they say, ‘Hey, my parents have never been in the military, I don’t know anybody who’s ever been in the military. Talk to me about what this is all about,’” said Lt. Col. Dennis Millsap, the lead officer for the Air Force ROTC program.

Jacob Bowen spent his first three-and-a-half years at ECU as a traditional student. But as graduation neared, he felt a pull of duty and enlisted in the National Guard. In February 2004, he was deployed for a year in Iraq. Returning home, Bowen could have finished school in just one semester. But the military was offering so many tuition benefits that he decided to complete a second major—this time as a cadet in the Army ROTC program. “I need to educate myself more,” he said.

Leslie McCann started in a soccer uniform. Originally a member of the women’s soccer team, McCann traded her cleats for combat boots and found that the teamwork of college athletics was trumped by the experience of working side-by-side with other cadets.

“It was a transition, but what wasn’t new was being able to work as a team, and the camaraderie,” said McCann, an Apex native who comes from a military family. “It’s almost like it’s a different level of camaraderie. My mission to be on a sports team was just to win a game. Here, it’s part of everything. It’s really hard to describe how awesome it is.”


Providing a feeling of family

Several cadets mention the family aspect of the ROTC corps, but these families comprise more than just brothers and sisters. There are also mother and father figures—officers in the cadre and senior cadets who hold the younger students accountable on anything from parking tickets to sinking grades. It’s an aspect of the ROTC experience that endears them to parents at home, Millsap said.

“When you’re in the geography department, and you get a ticket, the geography professor will not pull you aside and say, ‘What were you doing going 60 in a 45 zone?” Millsap said. “But I will. That’s the difference. I’m going to sit you down and say, ‘What was going through your mind? And then they get the idea that, wow, I am being held to a higher standard.”

Senior cadets like Bowen and Adam Phillips say they learn valuable leadership skills in the protected university environment that they will soon employ on a military base.

Phillips recalls a conversation with a recent ECU Air Force ROTC graduate—now a field artillery officer—who arrived on her base and within 30 minutes was expected to take command of a flight of 54 soldiers. “You get to have them when they come in and they’re 17 years old, and then you watch them until they graduate, and then you get to hear about all the fun places they go,” said Joan Phillips, the receptionist in the Air Force ROTC office who is retiring this spring after 46 years. “I’ve just seen a lot of them mature and spread their wings through the program.”

“It’s amazing to see them come back in a year or two, and hear the stories,” said Dr. Steve Duncan, the ECU director of military programs. “Some of them have been in Afghanistan, some are flying jets. It’s just astounding how fast they grow up.”

The benefits of the ROTC experience transcend the eight years of military service that cadets are required to serve after they graduate, Bowen said. His time in Iraq and in the Army program have prepared him to face virtually any situation and have, he believes, made him more employable down the road.

“You’re just a better student,” said Bowen, who served as company commander in the fall. “You’re more prepared. You get so many leadership skills. When I do something in one of my classes, I feel like I’m light years ahead of the other students. All this experience, it just really builds you up and makes you very marketable.”