By Ysolt Usigan
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Of course, with the task at hand of securing borders, protecting nations, and keeping the peace, studying complications are inevitable when in combat.
As many enlisted men and women will attest, however, pursuing an education enables them to maintain consistency and find scholastic solace. Whether they are continuing a course of study they started stateside, or hitting the books to explore new avenues of interest, having the ability to connect to a classroom online is a much-needed diversion.
For Lieutenant Alex Krutz, cyber-school parlayed a sense of normalcy by enabling him to maintain a pursuit he began at home. The First Lieutenant with the 1-635 Armor Battalion for the Kansas National had 24 of the 36 credit hours toward a master's degree in management under his belt. He vowed to complete his last four classes from his Kosovo deployment, a task that required he work online and submit assignments every day, even after full days of serving as platoon leader in charge of several peacekeeping patrols.
In addition to ensuring that the platoons under his command had proper resources, information, intelligence, and equipment in order to function, Krutz would also run missions like checkpoints, presence patrols, cordon and searches. "[We’d work] long days in the field," he explains. "At times, we’d be away from our camp for days with no Internet access."
Although Alex found the scheduling conflicts challenging, he made it his student mission to devise a proper work/school balance with dedication. "Students need to be devoted, willing to learn, and capable of staying focused on accomplishing their long-term goals," he asserts. "[The] military tends to stress patience and planning for long term projects … we're more prone to stay focused on achieving goals and not diverting from plans."
Professors agree.
"Their best characteristic seems to be these students' dedication to something bigger than just themselves," says Will Wilson, U.S. Army colonel and director of post-graduate psychology studies and programs at a private university. "They want to accomplish things for others and make a social difference."
Deidra Renee Duncan, an adjunct instructor for an online college, is also impressed by the unique challenges faced--and overcome--by students on the front lines.
"At the beginning of the war with Iraq, one of my MBA students e-mailed to tell me he was studying for his accounting course every night at his camp outside Baghdad while listening to the mortar rounds explode in the distance," she says. "The commitment of these student soldiers to obtain a good education never waivers."
As for why they do it, the answer is simple, Duncan relays. "I’m going to study this course and get an education because I want a more-than-decent life when I get out of this war, get back home, and complete my military duties," an accounting student told Duncan. According to the accounting professor, "I’ve seen a lot of soldiers who retired out of the army, but had no education. They weren’t able to get good jobs when they returned to civilian life -- no job, no money, no hopes of getting ahead."
As a First Lieutenant Signal Officer for the U.S. Army, Tilisha Rodgers is determined to excel. Though computer networks on military campsites in Baghdad currently serve as her ad-hoc classroom, Tilisha is focused on increasing her post-military career marketability.
She believes the business and organization security management course of study she is pursuing will boost her present value and further her future goal to work for the National Security Agency or the Department of Homeland Security.
"For one of my classes, I had to create a facility that requires security upgrades and establishes a security plan for the current environment," Rodgers explains. "I used the building I currently work at, and actually put the RAM (Random Access Memory, the type found on most computers) measures I worked on into action."
It’s that same tenacity that makes Tilisha and other military personnel excellent students. "It’s all about applying what you know," suggests Duncan.
Colonel Wilson points out that in order to be a successful online student--soldier or civilian--you should be focused and refrain from procrastinating. "[Student soldiers] know how to work with deadlines and do what they have to do to meet them," he says. "They've been tempered by military training that has affected and clarified their values … they know how to get things done without making excuses, and they’re willing and able to work successfully."
Colonel Wilson recalls a Special Forces Army Sergeant in one of his psychology e-courses. "He could only communicate with me through e-mail when he’d have the opportunity to get back to a ‘safe' or clandestine house," he says. "He was so committed to completing his degree, and he had to go through extreme efforts to maintain online contact."
However, there are times students just can’t possibly make it to a safe house or computer lab. Just like on-campus students need extensions from professors--sometimes for personal reasons--student-soldiers run into assignment roadblocks, as well.
"Sometimes, [military students] will have duties assigned to them without any warning that prevents them from completing their homework on time," recalls Duncan. "Our [college administration] advises [instructors] to work with these students, and I always do my best to do just that," Duncan explains.
The arrangements made with most instructors are tolerant. Since student-soldiers’ reasons are sometimes matters of national security, online professors don’t ask, and an honor code system is enforced.
"I just have to take their word for it that their military duties are causing them to have to turn in their homework," Duncan says. "If necessary, at the professor’s request, the college can verify with the soldier’s commanding officer that the student is on a military assignment that is preventing him/her from completing his homework on time while he’s on duty."
With such complications in store, students have to find a way to connect to the learning platform, do the readings, add to postings, and find literature and other study resources. "It’s not a simple task at all, but many manage to pull it off," Wilson explains. "But since deployed students have to meet the same deadlines as traditional students, some delay taking certain courses."
Luckily, military superiors are more than understanding when it comes to their officers taking classes during deployment. Wilson, who has worked on both sides--education and military--says he’s never witnessed an unsupportive leader.
"I would rather have my troops, for instance, engaged in some worthwhile endeavor that would focus their energy on something productive and developmental," he explains. "There’s [some] ‘dead time’--too much time to think about things you can’t do anything about." With all the serious issues and dangers soldiers face day to day during deployment, it’s good to "get away" emotionally.
Such is the case for Huy Tran, First Lieutenant Officer and Logistics Officer for the Air Force. Having a diversion from such extreme situations is exactly why Tran has set his sights on a master's degree.
In between working as the unit travel representative in charge of the deployment and redeployment of more than 1,300 combat airmen spread throughout nine locations and fulfilling his responsibilities with the Logistics Readiness Section of his unit, he's signing on to the online classroom.
"The class experience keeps me focused and gives me something else to think about when I’m not working," Huy explains.
Now with only four courses left to complete before graduation, he stays focused on the end result — his MBA. While some might consider deployment a roadblock to educational pursuits, Huy sees education as an excellent diversion from military work; he says it keeps him grounded.
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