Friday, March 16th, 2012

By Sara Ruggles

Land of the Free, Home of the Brave.  As of September 2011, there were over 1.2 million active duty military personnel.  Have you ever imagined what your life would be like without these brave and selfless men and women?

Over 80 of these Americans walk the same halls as we do on a day-to-day basis here at Lawrence Tech.  Led by students Nicholas Pettit and Jason Moore, and faculty advisor Richard Bush, the recently formed LTU veterans’ Group is proud to support their Veterans at Lawrence Tech.

The group is open to all active and inactive military students.  The group hopes to reach out to alumni in the near future, as well as provide a place for veterans to speak about their experiences, maintain camaraderie with other veterans, and discuss benefits and how to get the most out of them.

Several students were contacted to discuss their experiences and roles in the military.

Scott Maiale served in the Marine Corps from 2001-05.  In 2003, he was deployed to Kuwait when the U.S. invaded Iraq.  In 2005, he served in Iraq.  He worked in supply, and his accomplishments include working with the British Army supplying maps and being in charge of supply lots that are “worth more than you would believe.”  He is looking forward to being able to share information with other vets and having a solid support group.

Jason Moore was an aviation structural mechanic for the Navy.  He was responsible for daily maintenance on four EA6-B Prowlers (jet aircraft) and 16 Martin Baker ejection seats. “My shop was also responsible for the oxygen, air-conditioning, pressurization, and fire extinguishing systems on the aircraft. I was also a troubleshooter for my shop, which means that I was working on the flight deck of the USS Enterprise during flight operations. If something breaks on one of the jets before they are launched off of the ship, it was my responsibility to fix it on the fly so it could make the flight schedule,” he explained.

Moore is the current secretary for the LTU Veterans’ Group and is proud to be a founding member.  It is inevitable that mixed emotions come from serving in the military, as Moore found out. “When I first joined the military in 2004, I felt proud and patriotic. However, my feelings would change just before I separated from the Navy with an honorable discharge. I was pretty naive about politics and our country’s foreign policy before I joined the military, but that all changed. The more I learned about our country’s policies and political ideologies, the less I wanted to be part of it.”

Nicholas Pettit joined the Army reserve in 2010.  Burnt out from school, he bravely chose to serve his country.  Due to government needs, his original job changed and he was reassigned as an 88M, which is a driver.  The job change was not well received at first, but now he is pleased to go off-roading once a month at Fort Custer to maintain his training.

Pettit is president of the LTU Veterans’ Group. He feels that it is important to have a student veterans’ group on campus because of how vague most military benefits are.  “Jason saved me from wasting a semester of my GI Bill as a part-time student this semester. Since you only have a certain amount of time you can use it, I would be losing out on a lot of money if I didn’t use it this semester,” he said.

The LTU Veterans’ Group will hold elections once more veterans express an interest.  Future plans include hosting workshops to create strong resumes and help translate military terms so that civilians can understand.  Once established, the organizers plan to be affiliated with Student Vets of America.

LTU students who have served our country in the military are invited to attend the regular meetings of this group on the first Monday of each month at 1 p.m. in the atrium of the Buell Management Building.  For more information, don’t hesitate to contact Pettit at nicholas.r.pettit@gmail.com or Moore at jmoore2@ltu.edu.

* stats taken from http://siadapp.dmdc.osd.mil/personnel/MILITARY/history/hst1109.pdf

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