| Undergrads
with guns. That is how war correspondent David Axe summarizes
the bifurcated existence of some thirty thousand cadets currently
participating in Reserve Officers Training Corps programs
at 270 U.S. colleges and universities. In Army 101,
Axe takes readers inside an Army ROTC program in his investigation
into the training and lives of student-cadets being hardened
into the next generation of volunteer citizen-soldiers.
Drawing heavily
from candid interviews conducted with cadets and trainers
of the Gamecock Battalion at the University of South Carolina,
Army 101 traces the experiences of a representative
mix of students — freshmen to seniors of both sexes
and many races — essentially minoring in the military
while also pursuing regular undergraduate degrees in diverse
fields. Axe invites us along to witness the quagmire of confusion
in a nighttime training exercise, the immersion into procedures
and jargon of the classroom, and the high aspirations of candidates
at Airborne School. Replete with a vivid account of the annual
Ranger Challenge — the varsity sport of ROTC —
and a campus visit from the commander in chief, George W.
Bush, Axe's narrative follows the unit through the exercises
and experiences that are designed to recast the cadets as
junior officers in America's long war on terrorism. Not all
guns and marches, the volume also explores the rivalry and
revelry that define the cadets' off-hours as much as they
characterize the lives of all college students.
Respectful of his
subjects' motivations and achievements, Axe is also critical
of the training they receive. ROTC is an uneasy marriage of
civilian and military existence and, according to Axe, produces
officers who can demonstrate the best and worst aspects of
both worlds. His investigation exposes chinks in the armor
and draws attention to program weaknesses, from the physical
and emotional strain of dual lives to sexual harassment, war
protests, disheartening morale, and other reasons why cadets
wash out. Axe also interrogates military and government policies
that unequally distribute the rewards and responsibilities
of service.
Army 101
is an insider's look at the current state of training and
the cultural values being taught to those who will soon join
the ranks of nearly ten thousand ROTC graduates already serving
in activity duty around the globe. This is the story of the
USC Gamecock Battalion — undergrads with guns.
"Through candid interviews with a representative group
of ROTC cadets, David Axe gives us an honest portrait of the
young people who choose to become Army officers in this age
of the global war on terror and willingly sign up to confront
the hazards of deadly combat in Iraq and Afghanistan. By extension,
Axe grants us insight into the overall ethos of our all-volunteer
military forces in these first years of the twenty-first century."
— John W. Gordon, professor of national security affairs,
United States Marine Corps Command and Staff College
"David Axe
offers an insightful look at a premier ROTC program, and the
making of the minds and bodies of the young men and women
who will be the backbone of the next generation of Army officers.
. . . The officer candidate cameos he shapes are of highly
motivated, physically fit young men and women but with a dubious
facility for critical thought. Army 101 is well worth
reading for what this holds for the future."
— Walter C. Rodgers, former senior intelligence correspondent
for CNN and author of Sleeping with Custer and the 7th
Cavalry: An Imbedded Reporter in Iraq
David Axe is a freelance journalist and war
correspondent. His coverage of U.S. military operations in
Iraq has been featured on C-SPAN and Salon.com and
in the Washington Times and Village Voice.
He is the author of War Fix, a graphic novel war
memoir. Axe lives in Washington, D.C.
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