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One young alum is getting ready to go to Afghanistan; another has just come back. "I'm looking forward to it," says 2nd Lt. BEN KEATING '04, who is a platoon leader with a light cavalry squadron at Fort Drum, N.Y. "It's something that we train for and it's a mission that's important. I'm looking forward to getting over there and seeing what we can do to help influence the situation."

Spc. JENNIFER GABLER '06, on the other hand, recently returned home. Afghanistan, she says, "was like nothing I had ever experienced before." Gabler left college to serve; she'll return to UNH in the fall to finish her degree in business administration. In Afghanistan, she served in Bagram with the 210th Engineers, a National Guard unit, as an electrician.

"It's a completely, completely different culture," she notes. "You have to be sensitive because you're in their country."

In the year since the UNH cadets in the New York Times article left their R.O.T.C. program, their military commitments have taken most of them far from New Hampshire.

RYAN and CASSANDRA COOK CROSBY '04 are assigned to the 101st Airborne Division at Fort Campbell, Ky. Cassandra is a distribution platoon leader in charge of a 30-man transportation platoon; Ryan is a company fire support officer for a light infantry company. "Two of the soldiers in my section have Purple Hearts for the wounds they sustained during the ground invasion of Iraq in 2003," says Ryan. "They never complain and never question their orders. I love them all like they were my brothers." The Crosbys expect to be deployed to Iraq in the next few months for a 12- to 18-month tour.

KRISTEN WENTZ '04 is working in an Army hospital in Georgia.

Second Lt. MEGAN MCGREVEY '04 finished her officer basic course in Texas and is assigned to the N.H. Medical Service Corps at the Veteran's Affairs hospital in Manchester, N.H., as a patient administration officer. She plans to become a physician's assistant. "It is a very difficult program of study, but I'm told it's well worth it, especially once you are able to help, and care for soldiers," she says.

Lt. SCOTT QUILTY '04 is on a year-long assignment at Fort Benning, Ga., as an executive officer, the second in command of an infantry training brigade. Six years ago, he was at Fort Benning—as a trainee.

"It's a different perspective," he says. "Working in the basic training environment, you get to see guys come in as civilians and leave as soldiers," he says. "It's a whole lot of fun."

Second Lts. RACHAEL BROWN '04 and BRIAN REEVES '04 were married on New Year's Day in Piermont, N.H., at the inn that her parents run. They are expecting their first child and are living at Fort Sill, Okla., while Brian takes an officer basic course.

Rachael's medical school plans have been put on hold temporarily. She will likely begin her officer basic course in January at Fort Sam Houston in Texas while Brian is stationed two hours away at Fort Hood. "I guess I'm learning that you never know what life's going to throw at you," she says.

She realizes that as a new mother, she may find the course difficult, especially the long day. But the Army is good about providing services for mothers, she says: "It's one of the Army values, I guess you'd say."

Karen Brown hopes that once the baby is born, her daughter will leave the Army. But, she says, "They have to make their own decisions. She's a good strong person, and I think in the end she'll make the right decision that works for her." ~

(Editor's note: Read more information about these alumni at http://alumni.unh.edu/rotc.)

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