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Captain Carrie Bruhl, who graduated from UCLA in 1999, is seen here in an Apache Longbow helicopt

Carrie Bruhl was there almost two years ago when U.S. troops entered Iraq. The UCLA alumna was there because she was flying an Apache Longbow helicopter into combat.

Bruhl, who graduated from UCLA in 1999 with a degree in psychobiology, was a member of the army ROTC program and upon graduation was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the army.

Now a captain stationed in Germany, Bruhl is one among many students who came from UCLA’s ROTC program and were eventually deployed to serve either in Iraq or Afghanistan.

These students said the training they received in ROTC helped to prepare them in part for their future military experiences.

“It doesn’t teach you how to be an officer because there are a lot of unexpected things to come, and you just have to experience them,” Bruhl said. “But it gives you the basics of what it means to be a soldier and how hard it is; it helps you to be a better leader.”

Upon graduation from UCLA, there are a variety of routes students can take, from going on active duty to joining the reserves.

“ROTC complemented and built a base of knowledge for many of the other schools and training events that I attended,” said Erik Lewis in an e-mail interview. Lewis is a first lieutenant who graduated from UCLA in 2001 with a history degree and was deployed to Iraq in March 2003 to serve there for one year.

Because of the variety in paths available to students, ROTC focuses on leadership training and basic army experience.

“The most critical skills I learned at the ROTC program were time management and leadership,” said Daniel Medal, who graduated in 2001 with a degree in sociology and went on to serve in Iraq.

Medal, who had originally found ROTC by accident when he signed up for a military science course to get an extra two units, found more than just experience and physical training in the military. On his first day in Arizona, he met the woman who would, about nine months later, become his wife.

“We got married in November, reported in January 2003, which was three months before we were going to deploy,” Medal said. “She left before I did ... but we rolled into Iraq together, although we didn’t know that at the time because we were in different units.”

In Iraq, Medal served as an electronic warfare platoon leader, which meant that he led a platoon of about 25 members on missions primarily to gather intelligence. Medal said that the type of leadership training he received in ROTC aided him in his role.

“Things don’t always go smoothly and as a leader, a platoon leader, you have to be able to remain composed in these situations and fulfill what you have to do,” Medal said. “You have to stay composed, to stay calm, and in Iraq this keeps people alive.”

Unlike Medal, Julian Flores was deployed to Afghanistan. As a first lieutenant who graduated in 2002 with a psychology degree, Flores has been in Bagram, Afghanistan for the past 10 months, aiding in coordination, communication and the relaying of information.

Flores said in an e-mail interview that ROTC was beneficial in preparation for the army.

“Mentally they challenged the way I thought,” Flores said. “We are always finding new and better ways to accomplish a mission.”

In Iraq under fire

Bruhl is also a platoon leader, but over a different kind of team. She commands 15 people along with four Apache helicopters, each of which is valued at about $25 million.

Bruhl, who was a part of the first group of Apache Longbows ever stationed in Europe, was sent to Kuwait with her platoon on Feb. 9, 2003.

They were supposed to be among the first to cross over the Iraqi border on March 20, the official beginning of the war, but sandstorms kept them from crossing until March 23.

They arrived at night to the forward assembly area after flying all day and were told they were leaving on another mission that same night.

“We were very nervous because there was not a whole lot of planning,” Bruhl said. “Three squadrons were supposed to fly, but not all of the aircraft got fuel. ... One of the aircraft in my platoon crashed on takeoff because he couldn’t get up out of the sandstorms fast enough.”

Bruhl said when they got into the air, they heard over the radio the chaos of the other helicopters that had left before them.

“There was a barrage of fire,” she said. “People were coming out of their homes; Iraqi civilians were driving around shooting at us. We were flying over neighborhoods, flying through urban areas. We had no idea that the terrain was like that.”

After facing too much heavy firepower, they called in and said they couldn’t complete the mission.

“We had always trained where we fly up and shoot missiles at a tank, World War I- or World War II-style, and we weren’t ready for people hiding behind homes and pickup trucks. ... It looked like fireworks, trying to avoid all of the fire,” she said.

By the time Bruhl got back, her aircraft had taken eight rounds and one rocket-propelled grenade.

Back at the base, she said there was mass confusion because the aircraft were landing everywhere, and it wasn’t until later that they realized they were missing a helicopter and a crew, who, by morning, had been taken prisoners of war.

After this initial mission, Bruhl and her platoon remained in Iraq until February 2004. She is currently back in Germany with at least two more years of service to go.

“It has definitely been worth it, though I get kind of fed up with all of the deployments and the army lifestyle sometimes,” Bruhl said. “But how many people can say they can fly an attack helicopter? I am a woman in a male-dominated profession, and I wouldn’t trade that experience for anything.”

Ashley Lee, a captain in the army who graduated from UCLA in 2000 with a political science degree, is, like Bruhl, an Apache Longbow pilot. She served in Korea from April 2002 to April 2003.

Lee said ROTC enabled her to accomplish goals, the first of which was completing the UCLA program.

“Everywhere you go in the army, you have a mission, and everyone in your unit has a job to support that mission,” Lee said in an e-mail interview. “When you know that your actions directly affect its success, you are driven to become that great officer and ... inspire soldiers to do the right thing.”