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Christine Cabal, a third-year molecular cell and developmental biology student, is participating

It is not every student who has monitored the medical conditions of U.S. base camps in Afghanistan. But that is precisely what Juliet Kirkpatrick, a fourth-year microbiology, immunology and molecular genetics student, did.

After serving for eight months, Kirkpatrick came to UCLA to complete her final two years of schooling, and she is currently a member of the ROTC program. Prior military-service experience aids students in their understanding of basic procedure and tactics, which is useful in completing the UCLA ROTC program to eventually be commissioned as U.S. Army officers.

Of approximately 60 students in Army ROTC at UCLA, 32 percent of them have prior service experience with the military, and of third-year students, the ratio is even greater at 46 percent, said Major Michael Berry, the UCLA ROTC admissions and recruiting officer.

Prior service may range from simply completing basic training to full deployment. The percentage is high among third-year students because many are transfer students who come in with prior service and are automatically considered to be at Military Science Level Three, as basic training gives them credit for the first two levels.

Some come back because they want to make a career out of the military, others because they want to lead, and still others because of the escalation of international events over the past several years. It has been almost two years now since the March 20 anniversary of the war in Iraq, and some students say they continued with their military careers because the need for soldiers is still prevalent.

Starting their third year as MS3 students, cadets are evaluated on their ability to lead a group.

On March 6 starting at 7 a.m. squads of third-year ROTC students set out from the Student Activities Center to complete a series of missions in order to secure the campus from fictitious invaders.

The training session, consisting of two-hour missions, was meant to give the cadets practice not only with tactics and drills, but also in leadership. Each mission was led by a different squad leader, who was evaluated on his or her ability to give orders and organize the squad.

Even with prior service experience, students do not say that they have a greater advantage in the training sessions, though it may give them a better perspective and understanding of how the military works.

“They already know the basics and so can move into more about the strategy and tactics of being a leader,” Lt. Col. Shawn Buck, the chair of the UCLA Department of Military Science, said. “They also know more what it’s like living with the military lifestyle.”

Between the occasional training sessions that begin at 6 a.m. on Saturday, the physical training twice a week and the numerous other responsibilities ROTC members must fulfill, the military lifestyle can be demanding for students.

But in the training sessions themselves, because the focus of ROTC is different from that of basic training, students say they do not feel that those with prior service experience are any better off.

“The main purpose is to build you as a leader,” Kirkpatrick said. “It is about decision-making skills and basic soldier skills like keeping low to the ground and knowing how to move.”

Kirkpatrick has prior service experience. After two years in college she joined the reserves, went to basic training and became a preventative medical specialist.

“When I came back from training, my unit got deployed ... and as soon as I finished summer school I went to Afghanistan,” she said.

Kirkpatrick was stationed there for eight months, primarily at the Bagram Air Base from which she did medical assistance missions and base camp assessments of the other bases in the area.

She said she came back to school once she was finished in order to become an officer. In the military, unless people have college degrees, they are ineligible to be commissioned as officers.

“When I joined the army and I was learning what it meant to be enlisted, I wanted to be an officer because I wanted to be in charge of making decisions and leading people,” Kirkpatrick said.

Jeremy Eckel, a fourth-year geology student, served as an infantryman at Schofield Barracks in Hawaii before he came to UCLA. He said he came back to the military because he missed the challenge.

“You have more influence as an officer,” he said. “You see a bigger picture as an officer; as an enlisted man you receive a plan and you execute it.”

Matthew Foster, who graduated from UCLA in June 2004 with a history degree, returned to the ROTC program to become an officer after his prior service because of the events in the Middle East.

“I did my four years and decided to get out,” Foster said, “but six months later I was missing being in the military and things weren’t getting better overseas, so I joined ROTC to go back in as an officer.”

Foster served originally in a special operations task force with the Third Ranger Battalion and was one of the first on the ground after Sept. 11, 2001, in Pakistan and Afghanistan. He said he and his battalion conducted a series of raids, going after Taliban and al-Quaeda cells in that region for three months.

After Sept. 11, 2001, Berry said there were a number of students who came to speak to him about joining ROTC. But he said that while a desire to serve might be part of the reason many students join, there must be much more than just the emotional patriotism.

“That thought process was a contributing factor in a percentage of students,” he said. “But it has to be a reason among many reasons. I applaud all those who developed a sense of service from that tragic event in history, but there is a lot more to serving as an army officer.”