Serving an option for dedicated

Ali Derr may be wearing a uniform to work next year, but she certainly won’t be asking if… Ali Derr may be wearing a uniform to work next year, but she certainly won’t be asking if you want fries with that.

Instead, she and seven other Pitt grads will be putting their skills from four years of the Reserve Officers Training Core, or ROTC, to work serving their country in military careers.

“My dad was an officer in the Air Force, so I grew up in a military family. However, I swore I’d never join any of the branches because I wanted to stay in one place,” Derr said.

Far from sticking with that conviction, Derr’s post-graduation plans include a four-year stint with the Navy Surface Warfare Community and a move to her new home port in Yokosuka, Japan.

Derr chose the Navy because she felt it offered her the widest range of options as a woman in the military.

“I could be a Marine, fly an airplane, work aboard a ship, or eventually find a job on shore,” Derr said.

Captain Roy Nickerson, an Army ROTC instructor at Pitt and Robert Morris University, as well as the Recruiting Operations officer for the Panther Battalion, feels not everyone realizes the wealth of opportunities available through the military as Derr does.

“We readily admit that a military career is not for everyone, but it may be good for a lot more folks than what people give it credit for,” Nickerson said.

“I have the privilege to listen to a lot of people who counsel young people on their potential futures and a lot of them speak from a platform of ignorance concerning the military.”

Nickerson believes that military training is a valuable asset that does wonders for a resume and translates into useful skills for any career.

“I might be a little biased, and I speak in general terms, but I haven’t found a career path yet that can parallel the impact someone in the military can have on the world,” Nickerson said.

His students agree.

“I would have to say the military is the best job offer that anyone can be given,” Emily Alex, a Pitt senior planning to serve in the Navy Nurse Corps in Portsmouth, Va., said.

Despite her contractual obligation to serve the Navy for four years on active duty and four years in the reserves, Alex says she feels she has in no way had to sacrifice long-term plans because of her commitment to the military.

“Just recently I got engaged to an amazing guy, whom I met in ROTC,” Alex said.

“The military is very considerate and accommodating to military families and it also has many opportunities for enlisted soldiers and officers for continuing their education.”

One of the biggest advantages that ROTC graduates attribute to their military training is the strong foundation for leadership that the program lays.

“Being in the Navy ROTC program has helped me to develop leadership skills that I know I will be using for the rest of my life,” senior Paul Galatro said.

“It’s also given me confidence. I haven’t even graduated yet and I have already done some amazing things like fly in a T-34 with a naval aviator in the seat in front of me directing me how to do acrobatic maneuvers, and driven, under the watchful eye of experienced officers, numerous types of vessels, some of which were nuclear powered.”

An Engineering major, Galatro’s first step away from college and into the real world of military service will ironically land him back in school.

He will spend six months going to Nuclear Power School in Charleston, S.C.,and then either stay there or move on to “Prototype” in New York.

“‘Prototype’ is where we will begin training on an actual reactor,” Galatro said.

“Basically nuke school is the classroom learning and prototype is the hands-on learning.”

Galatro is hardly alone in his extended training after Pitt.

“Most people believe that our cadets leave Pitt and jump straight into supervisory roles and/or deployments,” Nickerson said.

“This is not true. Our graduates go on to receive approximately 8 to 12 months of additional training dependent upon their career field prior to going to their first unit.”

Nickerson and his ROTC grads feel that this extra training is well worth the effort.

“Most of the people I know graduating [as civilians] are entering the workforce with entry-level jobs in large offices with fairly little responsibility in the grand scheme of the organization,” Derr said.

“ROTC graduates, however, will be in charge of anywhere from 10 to 25 people and making sure that the mission of the particular ship, squadron or battalion is properly carried out.”

Alex too believes that the extra training provided by the military is beneficial to her future as an officer.

“During our ROTC training we have had summer “cruises” in which we have seen the different careers the Navy has to offer, and experienced those careers by spending a month on a ship, submarine, or for me, at the Navy Hospital,” Alex said.

“The leadership training from the Navy ROTC unit has been one that allowed us to try out and perfect our leadership skills so we can lead our sailors and Marines in the future.”

ROTC grads share their civilian classmates’ joy in anticipating greater independence and a heftier paycheck after graduation, but with each other they share the common bond of realizing their goal to serve their country.

“I’m just really excited to get started,” Galatro said.

The term of active duty for ROTC graduates will officially begin with a commissioning ceremony to be held at Soldiers and Sailors on May 19.

Twenty-four seniors will be commissioned in all, eight of whom hail from Pitt and the rest from Carnegie Mellon and Duquesne.