This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at Ohio U chapter.
In the “me generation” it’s easy to forget that some selfless individuals are out there working for us even when we don’t see them or hear about them. The United States Army risks their lives daily and works tirelessly to keep America safe. Erin Muri, an Ohio University sophomore, is a member of the ROTC program at Ohio University and fully intends to become a member of the United States Army upon graduation.
Why did you join the ROTC program?
I joined the ROTC program in the spring of her freshman year in the Air Force. I quickly realized that I would rather be on the Army side of things. It’s just an amazing opportunity to do something bigger than yourself.
Tell us a little bit of what’s involved with ROTC.
It’s a complete lifestyle. We have physical training three times a week, a two-hour military lab in which we do different things each week, and we also have to go to a military science class where we basically talk about the army. We also do things on the weekend with the community, like a 12K run/march which was on January 31st. A lot of it is physical work. We are also really big into community service. It’s pretty cool with all the opportunities we’re given. I also want to talk to my squad leader into going to the VA hospital and see if the veterans would want to talk to cadets. We also do a lot of field training.
What do you want to accomplish when you graduate?
I want to be in the army for a long time. Definitely career army. Specifically I would like to be a Civil Affairs Officer, which focuses on showing the positives, learning about the cultures of other places, and winning the hearts and minds of civilians. It’s a special operations command, so it’s a tough job to get. I wouldn’t be able to do that until I reached a captain ranking, so until then I’m not certain what I want to do. I might want to be a combat arms position, which would be out in the field, deploying if they needed us or maybe military intelligence.
Do you ever get scared?
I haven’t really been placed in a position where I would be scared. Our goal is to end up in the army.I think that it’s just something I want to do so much that it doesn’t really scare me.
How does ROTC affect your everyday life?
ROTC is my main group of friends. I just recently moved into Gamertsfelder Hall, and we all stick together and have each other’s backs. A huge part of our lives is academics because if you don’t have a good GPA then your chances of commissioning and becoming an officer go way down. So when you study or take a test you’re thinking about ROTC. You have to watch what you eat, and how you act because you’re representing the United States Army.
If you had one piece of advice for someone who might want to join ROTC but they aren’t certain what would it be?
Test it out. You won’t know for certain if it’s for you until you try. In certain cases you don’t need to commit right away, you can enter the program as an open enrollment student and test out the waters. People come and go all the time, and that’s okay, sometimes it’s for people, sometimes it’s not; however, if you accept a scholarship that’s a different story.
How can you prepare for ROTC?
Practice time management, there’s a lot of that. Eating right and exercising is important, but mostly having the desire and motivation, because if you don’t have the desire or motivation then it’s going to be really hard to wake up at 5:30 a.m. every morning.
What is the best/worst part of ROTC?
The best parts are the opportunities, I like seeing how much we do around the school and we’re all just one big family.
There are no bad parts, although waking up at 5:30 a.m. isn’t fun. We have a saying “embrace the suck,” and we just keep pushing. It’s a great program with a great foundation and great people who just want to make a difference and they’re choosing the United States Army to do so.