Eli Connor is a sophomore student-athlete at New England College who is a member of the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) program for the Army National Guard. Connor has a full schedule as a member of NEC’s field hockey team who also takes ten courses at two different universities.
Connors military and college career are not typical, they said.
“Most people have a different experience than me. Most people will join straight out of high school, like they’ll go to basic training and they’ll kind of work their way up that way. Whereas I wanted to go to college, so I’m kind of doing it a little differently. I still drill every month for one weekend but I’m also taking classes in college about like military ethics and troop leading procedures and basically just how to lead people in the army so then, when I graduate, I can become a commissioned officer, and I will be a platoon leader instead,” Connor said.
Connor has had the same boot camp and military induction experience as most who are enlisted. They learn the basics about battle, how to handle weapons, and other corporal skills of the Army. As a member of the National Guard they are released to citizen life and report to the National Guard for drill weekends one weekend per month and for field training once in the Fall, once in the Winter, and once in the Spring. Connor said the skills they’ve learned in the military are invaluable.
“War is a very chaotic place to be so you need to stay calm and make sure you’re pushing your soldiers where you need to be so that nobody, loses their life.”
Connor finds the ethical considerations of military action to be particularly interesting.
“Military wise an interesting topic would probably be like law of war and military ethics of what you can and can’t do in a war zone and what you can and can’t do with prisoners of war, that sort of stuff, just like, human rights,” they said.
Connor is very involved in field hockey, the military, and education and said all three areas are pushing them to grow. They are thankful for the variety of experiences and opportunities and the support they’ve received.
“Everyone around me being supportive of what I’m doing has definitely been helpful,” Connor said.
