I am a recent Boston College grad and an officer in the U.S. Marine Corps. What I write here is not meant as a military recruiting effort. My only goal is to get BC students to consider the armed forces as a legitimate short-term or long-term option for their futures. Here is why: It took several circumstances falling into place right in front of me to lead me to become a Marine officer.
So far, the Corps has been a perfect fit for me.
The chance almost passed me by simply because around campus and around the greater Northeast the military was seen as a less-than-desirable place to be. This was the mentality even before the Iraq war. The military was seen as a place for confused dropouts, hillbillies, and those who could not succeed in more conventional professions. I could even sense a feeling around campus that it was un-Christian to join. Opinions in The Heights, for example, suggested that military service is contrary to the Jesuit tradition.
These ideas, coupled with a lack of information about how to get involved, almost kept me from doing what I now love.
The truth is that if we treat our military as a place only for underachievers, then that is all it will be. It is a self-fulfilling prophecy.
But throughout history, it has always been the elite of society who put on the armor and ride into battle. Why should today be any different?
Someone who received a strong education from a highly regarded school like BC could do a lot of good making decisions and helping form policy in our military. A BC grad would not be out of place in the armed forces.
As for those people who suggest that military service is incompatible with an ethical, or even a Christian, lifestyle, I would challenge them to advocate for a much smaller U.S. military, or for no military at all.
If that thought seems too scary to bear in this, or any, day and age, then our service members must be doing something noble, if at times unpleasant, in putting our citizens' minds at ease.
2008 Woodie Awards
