Annotated Bibliography

DAO, JAMES. "Major Military Academies Report Significant Rise in Applicants." New

York Times 18 June 2009: 18. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 1 Apr. 2010.

This resource is mainly about the enrollment statistics over the past couple of years and

possible reasons for an increase in enrollment. The source for this article is the New York

Times which means that it is in fact a reliable source. I can use this source for the statistics.

They may not be Virginia Tech statistics of enrollment, but I can use them as an overall

average for the nation.

"Prospective Cadets | Corps of Cadets | Virginia Tech." Corps of Cadets | Virginia Tech.

Web. 01 Apr. 2010.

This page on the Virginia Tech website for the Corps of Cadets is for future students who are

thinking about joining the corps. It goes through a basic freshman year for a cadet. This is

great because I can see what a student might be influence with when trying to decide whether

to join or not. This website shows the intense labor a corps cadet goes through except they

still do it. They must know that this is all to come which proves that they would be joining

the corps cadets for a specific reason that was more important than the fact that they would

be doing some much physically straining work like the early pts or the pre freshman year

camps.

"Recruiting." Corps Of Cadets Association - Home. Web. 01 Apr. 2010.

This is the Corps of Cadets website for Texas A&M. They are one of the few colleges that

have a large ROTC program like that of Virginia Tech’s program. The page basically goes

through what it is like to be a cadet at Texas A&M. I would use this as a comparison tool so

that I can see the difference, if any, between Virginia Tech’s corps and other schools’ corps.
Schachter, Ron. "Cadets on Campus. (Cover story)." University Business 11.3 (2008): 48-52.

Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 1 Apr. 2010.

This resource is mainly all about corps cadets across the nation. The article mainly follows

the idea that 9/11 was the cause of any increase in enrollment for ROTC schools. It mainly

focuses on Army ROTC and focuses some Navy ROTC so the statistics of enrollment are not

going to be completely useful, but they can be used for a basis. Virginia Tech does both have

a high Navy ROTC enrollment as well as Army. I feel like most of the time I see either of the

two. This could be the reason that they only show these two statistics. I can link these with

the James Dao article containing all of the statistics. From that I can see the different reasons

any cadet would join and reasons that would cause an increase in enrollment.

Temple, Harry Downing., and Floyd Richard. Vranian. Donning the Blue and Gray: a

Pictorial History of the Cadet Uniforms of the Virginia Agricultural and Mechanical College

and the Virginia Polytechnic Institute. Richmond, Va.: William Byrd, 1992. Print.

This book is all about the uniforms that the cadets wear and how they have changed through

the years. It starts out with the opening of V.A.M.C., the original name of Virginia Tech, and

ends with the post war years. While a uniform is a big part of a cadet’s life here at tech and I

can use this information, the book still gives background information on the cadets like

enrollment and housing for the cadets. I can use these quick facts to back up my knowledge

of cadets. Knowledge of not just what the cadets are doing, but of what they are wearing and

what that entails is also very important. When I am observing, I can now see their rank and

class and for each different uniform what they are doing that day.

"Today's Military - A First-class Education Meets Military Discipline." Today's Military -

Inspired to Serve. Web. 01 Apr. 2010.

way I can look and see how different and similar each school is. I can also look at the

difference between schools such as VMI that are military schools and schools such as VA

Tech that just have ROTC programs. Here I can see all of the school and look up all of the

schools as well. I will have the knowledge of what each school does different and what

makes Virginia Tech different. This would help with why cadets going into the corps would

choose Virginia Tech to go to school.

"Virginia Tech Corps of Cadets." Admissions Insights. Web. 01 Apr. 2010.

This is a blog that talks about your options to being a cadet. It talks about how you can join

the corps for leadership skills, but not actually enlist in the military. This is something that I

did not completely know much about. This could provide some insight as to why people join

the Corps of Cadets. I will be able to use how a cadet can either go into the corps for his four

years of college and not join the armed forces afterward or go in and join after as well. This

gives that extra question of why join to not even go into the military. This website says it is

because of leadership skills gained.

"Virginia Tech Corps of Cadets History." Virginia Tech Army ROTC Home Page. Web. 01

Apr. 2010.

This article Virginia Tech Corps of Cadets History obviously gives a brief overview of the

history of the Corps of Cadets. It begins from when Virginia Tech opened when it was a

military school to Tech's help during each war. This is a great piece for me to have because it

is quick to read but gives a lot of information about the corps that I did not know about. I did

not know that our cadet Alumni had received almost the greatest awards of the Medal of

Honor for any school, only being beat out by Annapolis and West Point. I also did not know
 that there were only six military colleges besides those such as West Point and the Naval

Academy. With this resource, I have gained a lot of background information. I would assume

that it is a reliable source seeing as it comes from an educational site and not just a .com.

Interview

Ally Ingegneri

3/31/10

English 1106

Let’s Get Over That Wall

I look at my clock and it is just past 7:45 in the morning on a Saturday. This is not a time

that anyone wants to wake up at on a weekday let alone a weekend. I realize that the noise that I

woke up to was not a bird or something that beautiful signifying spring, but instead, I am

listening to the noise of some freshman cadets clapping and cheering. I try to go to sleep, but

they seem to have caught my interest now, so I get up and look out my window to see a large

group of cadets standing over the wall to the basement outside staircase of Shanks Hall. It

seemed from that picture that they were cheering for nothing. Then I saw it, or rather him. I saw

a young freshman cadet climbing the wall. I thought I was seeing things, but they were really

climbing a brick wall that was about a story high. I couldn’t understand why they would put

themselves through not just climbing the wall, but obviously unable to stay up late and hang out

with friends on a Friday night their freshman year.

I saw a girl down from my hall, looking like she had a rough night or more like good

night, rough morning, who had also been woken up by the corps. The girl, Jessica, then decided

to rant about how hard it was to live so close to the cadets. She told me about how often their
marching and yelling would wake here up in the morning, and how they completely take over all

of the washers and dryers in the Shultz laundry room. The poor girl seemed to feel like she was

living the life that the cadets do. Although that is far from true, I understood how much they

affect your time here on campus. They are everywhere and always seem to be marching or

running off to someplace else. Later that same day, I overheard a girl on the bus only to realize

she was a cadet dressed as a civilian. I heard her talking about how she had to climb the brick

wall that morning and found out that’s not all she had to do. She was running around the

Drillfield and to the Duck Pond and back up to upper quad, which basically means she ran

almost the whole entire span of the campus, and all over again that whole entire morning. It

made me feel a mix of pity and envy. Pity because I knew that this occurrence was something

that she had to deal with almost on a daily basis but in different degrees. Envy because it takes a

strong person to be able to do that, and she was getting to become a strong person.

All of the freshman cadets had to do PT like this all the time which is probably why I

notice most of them passed out during classes. A lot of the teachers have become used to and

accepting with the fact that most of their freshman cadets were going to be asleep within five or

so minutes of their class. Some people admire the cadets while others find them annoying. I seem

to be in the middle of the two. Sometimes when I hear them or see them I think they are doing

great justice to all those who might or are serving. At other times, though, I feel disgusted by

them. There are times that I have overheard people disrespecting the grunts or the military, the

ones who enlist right after high school, the marines and soldiers like my brother. They talk about

how they will be highly-ranked officers when they graduate school and come into the military,

and not have to worry about getting shot at in some town in Afghanistan or Iraq. They do not

realize that if it were not for those grunts that are getting shot at overseas that they would not
even have their cozy office rooms. Its times like these that I question the freshman cadets’

maturity and reason for joining. I assume that it takes time for some to realize that appreciation is

something that should always be there.

Even though some may say things like this I cannot clump them altogether in the same

category. They should be commended for what they are doing, but that still leaves the debate of

why these freshmen would do this to themselves and take away that enjoyment of a normal

freshman year. My friend R.H., a former cadet, and I were sitting out front of Torgeson hall. He

talked to me about how weird it was to be able to talk in upper quad. He pointed over to the

yellow poles in the sidewalk and explained to me that once he passed that point that he was no

longer able to talk on upper quad. I sat there thinking I do not think I could ever just go from

talking with my friends to completely silent just because I passed a yellow pole. All of the

freshman had to follow this rule, and not only that rule. Interrupting my thought, he blurted out,

“You think that’s bad. The first couple months here, I wasn’t allowed to even listen to music.”

He was told that music was a privilege and was something that was to be earned. That wasn’t all

he was put through either. He started to laugh as he explained how one time he came into his

room only to find that his bunkmate and his chairs had been strategically stacked on one another

in the middle of the room all topped off by the recycling bin.

He mentioned that his grades were slipping even with the mandatory quiet/study hours.

He said all he would ever want to do was sleep, which is something you cannot do during these

mandatory hours, so he would do it during his classes. I guess he just couldn’t keep up with

everything and that is why he quit, but I know they were all bad times for him. He told me that

Halloween was a huge highlight for him. The tables were turned for the freshmen and

upperclassmen. The upperclassmen went around trick-or-treating to the freshmen dorm rooms
and to be able to get candy the freshmen got to boss around the upperclassmen for once, the only

downside being the cost of the many bags of candy the freshmen had to buy. The tone of his

voice while he talked seemed almost bittersweet. Like he missed the corps, but yet was happy to

be out of there.

We sat there for awhile as I took notice to the amount of cadets that walked by, checking

to see which ones would stop talking and which ones would carry on their conversations. I also

noticed how many cadets all walked together. They each had little groups of around like ten

people. I guess R.H. noticed my staring because he interjected that on the weekends your group

and you had to eat dinner together. It seemed odd to me, but I assume it is just for creating that

bond between you and the rest of the cadets you would be relying on to save your life maybe if

they had already all been enlisted and overseas. I guess everything they do here at Virginia Tech

is sort of like simulations of what is to come in combat and military life. They are all being

pushed into a different kind of world, which if they are those people who are going into the

military, they will need to be well prepared for.

That brings me to the fact that there are two kinds of cadets. Ones that join to go into the

military after college and those who join to just get the leadership skills and possible

scholarships it may provide. When I see them around campus, it isn’t like I can look and tell

which cadet is here for which reason. I take that as a good sign, though. As if all of them are

putting in that military effort. I never see a cadet slacking at all around campus. I go to the gym

every day, and every day I see at least two or three cadets, which is surprising because I go at

different times each day. It must be wearing them out too because they scarf down their food at

Shultz. Not to say that Shultz is bad or has disgusting food, but it’s no West End. I have realized

though that they have become accustomed to the food though. Each day I hear a new cadet
explaining to some poor girl he has taken to lunch there or one of his buddies what is good to eat

at Shultz and what you need to avoid. They are always reassuring the people with the whole, “oh,

it’s really not that bad” spiel.

All of these things combined are what a cadet goes through on a daily basis. That is about

ten times more than most of us civilians ever do in a day’s time. They may not all have the best

intentions, but it takes a lot to put up with that. They may not be able to handle it so they’ll quit,

or they just want the benefits of leadership. From what they go through in this first year

especially, I have heard, is what shapes them into soldiers. A drum major once told me, while I

was waiting for my laundry, just shocked me by how he made fun of and bullied these freshman

Highty Tighties(the cadet band), that with all the yelling and making fun of them, they are being

put in a high stress state. He continued to say that if they are not in a high stressed state that they

will be unable to function at all and learn what they need to so that they may make it through the

next years of their college career and after. In that moment, I realized why they were doing what

they were doing. It all led to that. For the military, this is a longer range for weeding out the

weaklings, so they make it rough the first year to make the process quicker. For the cadets, they

go through this so that they may be that Army strong or part of the few and the proud. They were

here to be all that they could be and even if they weren’t going to join afterward, they were still

becoming strong.