Younger students able to join R-O-T-C

There was a time when you couldn’t join R-O-T-C after your first year in college. But a new “summer camp” is changing that. U-N-I military science director Lieutenant Colonel Michael DePuglio says if students didn’t take freshman and sophomore military science courses, they can go to an intensive, four-week summer camp in Fort Knox, Kentucky, and join in their junior year. He says it’s not quite a “boot camp” for ROTC. DePuglio says confidence isn’t the only benefit of taking the summer camp that’ll qualify a college kid for ROTC.He says the camp qualifies students for a two-year scholarship that pays tuition, books and a stipend and automatically makes them a second lieutenant in the Guard, Reserve or Army when they graduate. DePuglio says concerns over the war on terrorism have not dampened enthusiasm for the Reserve Officer Training Corps or military careers. He says students have a renewed interest in military service and it makes him feel good as well as having more students involved.