Student drops his books to take up arms for his country
National Guardsmen Aaron Van Rees let out a sigh as he got off the phone with his mom. She had been crying; she wasn’t happy with his decision. He sat there, bewildered, for a long moment and looked around at his half empty apartment. Now in addition to the long list of paperwork and the packing that he has to do before leaving Lawrence, he has to worry about worried parents.
Van Rees, Iowa sophomore, infantry squad leader in the Kansas Army National Guard, 2-137th Infantry Brigade, voluntarily dropped his courses for the spring semester to join South Carolina’s 218th Combat Brigade for deployment on warning orders to Afghanistan. Van Rees, along with five others from the Kansas, will join 1800 other Guardsmen in their deployment, South Carolina’s largest National Guard call out since World War II. They will spend three months in pre-deployment training; they will then spend roughly a year in Afghanistan.
“It’s hard to be in the right mindset for this with my family so worried,” Van Rees said. “I’m fully confidant in my training and the guys I’m going with, but I’m aware of what things can happen.”
Sgt. 1st Class Paul Purdham, Kansas Army National Guard, 2-237th Infantry Brigade, said the Guard asks for volunteers before assigning deployment. Purdham said this call out supports Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan.
“If they don’t get enough volunteers, they tell you you’re going,” Sgt. 1st Class Purdham said. “People aren’t shooting you as much over there (in Afghanistan), that’s how they get volunteers.”
The pressure from President Bush to send 20,000 more troops to Iraq may lead to more incentive to volunteer. Purdham said many Guardsmen who have the choice would rather volunteer to deploy now rather than wait for orders. This way they can have a choice in where they go instead of being deployed as “a truck driver in a convoy in Iraq.”
Marla Herron, associate university registrar, said Van Rees is the only student she knows of that’s going to war this semester. She said students are not required to tell the University they are being deployed when they withdrawal from their classes, so KU has no record of how many students leave for military purposes. Herron said she does remember an increase in the numbers of applications going through her office in 2003, when the war began.
Van Rees said part of the reason he chose to volunteer now was to avoid being deployed mid semester.
Purdham said military personnel have the option of taking online courses rather than being traditional students. This way they can complete their degrees regardless of where and when they are deployed.