Web Special: Making the Contract
After Sullivan’s class, the cadets mill around in the MIT ROTC building lobby. They dawdle, looking at photos and chatting in small groups. But as soon as they are told, they hurry to line up outside. The cadet bearing the Paul Revere battalion flag takes his place at the end. Two cadets each take command of part of the line. “Fall in! Right face! Forward march!” they shout. “Left, left, left right left.” The cadets march in single file.
The cadets strike up cadences to time their march, reminiscent of summer camp, but with a definite army twist. “Oh my buddy’s in a foxhole / a bullet in his head. / Our leader says he’s wounded / but I know that he is dead,” they sing.
Only during the cadences does Waterman feel out of place. Her voice, much higher than the others, does not blend in. “I always sound out of tune,” she says.
PT is on the outdoor track today. Sarvis and a male cadet start unwrapping an American flag for a ceremony in honor of a cadet who is contracting. From this point onwards, he will not be able to back out of military service. He is pledging seven years: three more in ROTC, and then four in the Army. Students choose when to contract. If they decide they don’t want to stay in the program, they can leave after one year, and they do not have to pay back the scholarship money they have already received. “When you’re contracting, you’re joining a lifestyle. It’s not just a job,” Captain McKinney says.
“Morning, Paul Revere,” Lieutenant Colonel Leo R. McGonagle says. “It’s a great day to be a solider or a cadet.”
The cadet who has chosen to contract steps up to the flag, and McGonagle leads the cadet in the oath of enlistment.
“I do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me...”
They end with, “So help me God,” and the cadets cheer.