Harvard Students to Head MIT ROTC Unit

Although the University does not recognize the Reserve Officers Training Corps (ROTC), two Harvard juniors have been elected to the top jobs in MIT's Air Force ROTC unit.

Scott A. Gunn '01, who has wanted to be a pilot ever since seeing the movie Top Gun as a child, will be commander of the unit beginning in the fall.

Kwabena L. "Bobo" Blankson '01, an Alabaman who is the first American citizen in his family, will be vice-commander.

Together, the two hold primary responsibility for just about everything the 55 Air Force ROTC students at MIT will do.

And while Gunn says he knows ROTC's return to Harvard "won't happen," the two say they are working to increase the presence of ROTC on campus.

Military Men

Gunn, an applied math concentrator, who joined ROTC during the second semester of his first year at Harvard, will find out today whether he has been selected to enter training as a fighter pilot.

"I was never this anxious during college applications," he sighs.

He participates in just about everything ROTC offers, from the rifle drill team to the Arnold Air Society, a public service group. Right now, he's helping in a VETTECH course, teaching veterans how to use computers.

He also commands a seven-person public affairs unit, helping to publish the detachment's newsletter.

"I live [at ROTC] half the time now," he says. "I'll live there all the time next year."

Blankson never intended to end up in ROTC, but after being accepted to Harvard, he began to search for ways to pay for college.

"I found that ROTC allowed me to meet my educational goals and serve my country," he says. "Frankly, I'm surprised more students don't advantage of it."

A cognitive neurology concentrator whose parents hail from Ghana, Blankson hopes to spend his years in the Air Force as a doctor.

ROTC will pay for him to attend medical school as well as college, but the additional education will increase his commitment from the standard four years of service as a commissioned officer to eight years.

"It would be nice to have the option of leaving earlier if I decided it wasn't the thing for me," he says.

But Blankson he says he hopes to stay at least 10 years in the air force.

He has applied to spend part of the summer at Lackland Air Force Base in Texas to train with other pre-med ROTC students.

In the Air Force

ROTC is about a ten-hour a week commitment during the school year, the two say, varying according to what a student is involved in.

Students have classes on Tuesdays and Thursday at 8 a.m. to go over military issues. On Wednesdays, students wear their uniforms--either camouflage or dress blues--and attend a leadership lab for two hours. There they hear from guest lecturers or participate in physical training.

After a student's sophomore year, they spend the summer at Lackland undergoing "basic training for officer candidates," Gunn says.

"Four weeks of fun in the sun," Blankson laughs.

Their days begin early with physical training, and the rest of the day's activities run the gamut from firearms and survival training to leadership exercises.

As commander and vice commander, Gunn and Blankson will be responsible for organizing and overseeing the school year activities of the unit during the year.

The two have learned a lot about how to lead a ROTC unit, partly from some poor leaders they've had along the way. The detachment commanders during the freshman year were especially uninspiring, they say.

"They weren't good leaders or role models," Blankson says. "That's changing. We're going to be part of that change."

Over the summer, the two plan to spend a lot of time organizing the coming semester's activities.

"We're going to be planning this summer, and all the semester will be is executing our plan. Meticulously," Blankson says.

The Controversy

Ever since the University disbanded its ROTC detachment during the 1960s, ROTC's tie to the University has been tenuous.

In 1993, the Faculty Council voted to stop paying MIT for its ROTC program, in protest against the military's "don't ask don't tell" policies toward gays. An independent trust fund established by alumni began paying MIT for Harvard's students.

Although the University allows students to participate in the MIT program, it does not give students academic credit for their ROTC training.

College administrators rejected a proposal by the Undergraduate Council to allow ROTC's return to campus last year.

But Gunn says the University's refusal to allow a Harvard detachment is beside the point, since there are too few Harvard students involved in MIT's detachment to sustain a detachment. Ten students currently participate in the program from Harvard.

MIT's detachment of 55 is considered too small even now. There's even been talk, he says, of closing MIT's detachment and moving it to Boston University.

Even at nearby MIT, Gunn says the detachment's Northeast location is problematic.

"It feels we're very detached from the military environment," Gunn says.

Although they are not recognized as a student group, Gunn and Blankson would like the group to have a more visible presence on campus.

"Ten years ago, we couldn't exist on campus in any way, shape, or form," Gunn says. "We're slowly working our way back in some places."

In recent years, the University has allowed ROTC students to receive their commissions on the steps of Memorial Church and to table at activities fair.

However, because ROTC is not an officially recognized student group, members are still not allowed to list ROTC as an activity in their yearbook entries.

Gunn is negotiating with the College administration to change this policy.

Both Gunn and Blankson say it will take a lot of public relations work before ROTC is fully accepted by Harvard's liberal campus. But they also agree the school needs to recognize the good the military does.

"The military isn't something people should be afraid of," Blankson says. "It's something to take pride in."