It all started out near the end of my senior year of high school. I had my plans for school ready, but was not sure exactly of what to expect. With careful consideration and support from my friends and family, I decided that I would join the ROTC and attempt to pursue an officer commission in the Army. Without having any clue of what to expect, we loaded up the truck and headed off to the beautiful Indiana University.
I had heard the stories of how other ROTC programs were and how some people said that they were tough and unenjoyable as a freshman. Optimistically, I did it anyways. Upon arriving, the first person to meet me was a senior, also in the ROTC, to help me out with getting my things to my dorm room. It took me by complete surprise. I was not expecting the seniors, or really anyone for that matter, to be so nice and informative. I could not have been more wrong.
I was also lucky enough to be roomed with another friend of mine in ROTC who happens to be my best friend now. I think he was the only person in my entire life at the time that I didn't have one problem with. I soon came to realize that it wasn't just him. It was all of us. We all are from different backgrounds, but there is one thing that unites us —Loyalty and Duty to our Nation. Never in my life had I ever connected with anyone so quickly and so well. With the amount of time we spend with each other, it is very difficult not to. Whether it is the roughly 8 hours a week that we spend doing things for the ROTC or the insane amount of time that we spend hanging out with each other, we are always together and always making our friendships stronger.
Two years later from that initial culture shock, I can gladly say that the bond now couldn’t be any stronger. Now that I am a junior in the program, I am responsible, along with all of us, to make the program and the cadets under me stronger and better trained than those who have come before us. This means assimilating the freshmen and sophomores into our program also.
Although this is a very basic concept, there are about 150 different ways of saying it. We all have a different story. We all have a different reason. Through it all, we will always be part of the Bison Battalion at Indiana University. To us, it is more than just a program. It is a brotherhood.
Name: Logan Hunter
Hometown: Greensburg, IN
Degree and Major: International Studies
Graduation Year: 2016
