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PHS students accept ROTC scholarships

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ROTC photoSeniors Ryan Sullivan and Charles Tuan, the only two in the graduating class planning to participate in the program, accepted ROTC scholarships for their prospective colleges this November, .

Of the 5000 candidates from across the nation that applied for ROTC scholarships, only 1500 received them, two of which were Sullivan and Tuan.

“I thought it was competitive, but Charles and I were also qualified candidates and I’m glad everything worked out the way it did,” Sullivan said, who is accepting an Army ROTC scholarship offer for Vanderbilt University, pending admission.

Tuan also will join the Army ROTC program, having accepted his scholarship for University of California, Santa Barbara.

“We were competing with many applicants that came from families with strong military ties,” Tuan said.  “Although I was initially surprised of the selectivity, it was relieving [to be] notified of my admittance to the [ROTC].”

ROTC, which stands for Reserve Officers’ Training Corps, is a program in which certain college students participate in order to become officers upon joining their specific military branch after graduating.  All ROTC graduates start out as 2nd Lieutenants.

“I am hoping to be in the infantry,” Sullivan said.  “I think it will be exciting and will be a good test under pressure.  Also, I feel like leading in the infantry directly furthers the goals of the Army.”

Tuan also plans to join the infantry once commissioned.

While in college, students in ROTC engage in demanding physical training sessions, three days a week at 6:30 a.m., and are required to take a class on military strategy once a semester.  Training gets progressively more intense as an upperclassman, which includes extensive weekend time commitments.

Applying to ROTC required both Sullivan and Tuan to complete an application similar to that of most universities, take a physical fitness test, and interview with an officer currently in the military.

“I interviewed with a Lieutenant Colonel, who is a professor of military science at Vanderbilt,” Sullivan said.  “We talked a lot about why I wanted to join the Army.”

Sullivan had wanted to be in the military for as long as he can remember and started seriously thinking about it as a freshman.  Having originally wanted to go to the United States Military Academy at West Point, he started to look at other options later.

“I realized that ROTC was the best mix of getting a good education, preparing for a career in the military, and still having a fun college experience,” Sullivan said.

Tuan first started looking at the military seriously as a freshman and has been focused on exploring possibilities since.  Similar to Sullivan, he refined his choice from the military academies, mainly the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis, to traditional universities with ROTC options.

“Charles really went about all of this by himself,” his father Bert Tuan said.  “He only told me he was thinking of ROTC six months ago.”

After college, Sullivan and Tuan will be required to serve four years of active duty, followed by four additional years of being in the reserves.

With President Obama having plans to withdraw all troops from Afghanistan by 2014 and ROTC participants being void for deployment until officially commissioned, there is little chance either Tuan or Sullivan would see combat.

“I made sure to tell my mom this many times,” Sullivan said.  “My family is supportive, but cautiously supportive.”

While none of Sullivan’s nor Tuan’s immediate family members were in the military, both have had relatives that have served.  Tuan’s grandfather was a Colonel in the Air Force and Sullivan’s grandfather participated in ROTC at UC Berkeley in the 1950’s.

“As of now, I have no idea what I plan to do with the Army, other than my goal of being an infantryman,” Sullivan said. “It all depends on the way ROTC works out and how my first four years of active duty go.”

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