While their Brown classmates were taking the SATs or looking forward to their senior proms, Martin Bell '10, Eric Rodriguez '08 and Joe Revis '08 were serving in Iraq. All three students joined the U.S. military after high school, spending several years in the armed services before arriving in Providence to begin their studies at Brown.
Though the University has no military training program on campus - Brown's Reserve Officer Training Corps program ended in 1969 - experience in national armed forces is not entirely uncommon among Brunonians. International students from Singapore or Israel, for example, have often completed their countries' military service requirements before coming to Brown.
Still, few arrive on College Hill fresh from active combat duty.
"Everybody wants to hear that Iraq is a bad place, that there's a lot of shit going on. And that's true," said Eric Rodriguez '08, who served in the U.S. Army during the 2003 invasion of Iraq. "I don't want to focus on that. ... I want to focus on the good that came out of my experience."
After enlisting and going through training, Rodriguez was not deployed. Instead, he returned home where he worked in miscellaneous jobs.
"I wasn't supposed to go," he said of his tour in Iraq. But when one soldier didn't show up, he said, "I was next on the list." Though he had the option of deferring, he volunteered to serve.
A native of Southern California, Rodriguez said he grew up in an unstable family situation and "experienced times of homelessness." The stark contrast of discipline and stability offered by the military appealed to him.
By contrast, Martin Bell '10, who served as an intelligence specialist for the U.S. Navy in Iraq and Afghanistan, said he was encouraged to join the military in part by his family's long tradition of military service.
"I've had someone (in my family) in the Navy since the Revolutionary War," Bell said.
In his liberal New Mexico community, Bell said joining the military was "a shocking thing."
Joe Revis '08, who served in the Army infantry in Afghanistan and Iraq and can still be called to active duty, said he saw the conflict in Iraq as a "humanitarian" mission.
"That's our job - to protect people who can't protect themselves," he said.
Bell agreed that American soldiers can have a positive impact on the lives of Iraqi people. Because of the prevalence of violent secular conflicts, "a lot of people (in Iraq) feel safer when American soldiers are around," he said.
Rodriguez said his division brought medical care to the Iraqi people. "We would come into a town, blockade it ... (after a) translator announces that we're offering medical, dental services, stay for two hours, then leave," he said.
Beyond the humanitarian element of the three men's service, the prospect of serious physical harm was always present for each of them. Bell is now a disabled veteran. In Afghanistan, his Humvee was hit by an improvised explosive device. Recovering in the hospital after this incident, he caught a virus that has caused recurring coronary swelling.
Rodriguez recalled the importance of looking out for fellow soldiers in and out of combat. "Watch your buddy's back and your buddy watches your back," Rodriguez said.
Bell agreed. "You're not fighting for your country, you're fighting for the guy behind you," he said.
In addition to physical risk, the soldiers endured grueling conditions.
"The hottest day we recorded was 117 degrees," Revis said. "So hot you couldn't touch your weapons without gloves on."
Even amid the danger and physical demands, Bell and Rodriguez recalled memorable interactions with Iraqi citizens. Meeting a young Iraqi girl named Mar'wa - a paraplegic due to mortar round injuries that landed her in a hospital - left a strong impression on Rodriguez.
"(She) looked identical to my niece," he said. "That made the war connect with me in a completely different way."
One bright memory for Bell was bringing power to a northern Iraqi village that had never had electricity. In the schoolhouse, he remembered, locals expressed fascination with the light switch, "flipping it on, flipping it off, " he said.
Bell said his best memory may have been watching Iraqis line up to vote for the first time in 2005. Despite the "threat of bodily harm or even death" incurred by voting, whole families put on their best clothing and turned out at the polls, he said.
"(It) makes you appreciate just the basics of the liberties that we have here," he said.
Despite their intense personal involvement in the war, Bell said he and his fellow servicemen engaged in debates over the same political issues that civilian Americans discuss at home - namely, the reasons for going to war in Iraq in the first place, or "the 'why' factor," he said.
"We had good debates," Bell said. Still, he added, "people who were liberal and in the military tend to be quieter."
On Brown's campus, these former servicemen said they find themselves surrounded by debate over the Iraq war.
"I was a little nervous about saying I was a war veteran," Bell said. "(But) I have not met a single person who has made a derogatory comment."
Bell, a self-identified Democrat, said that in light of the harsh criticisms levied against the war and sometimes those who serve in it, critics should "give them a break."
"Be a little bit more objective when you're talking about the people serving there," Bell said. Assuming that "everyone in the military is 'gung-ho' about Bush" is a common misperception, he added.
Now settled into life at Brown, all three men said their military service affected both their choice of studies and extracurricular pursuits at the University. Rodriguez now works at the Swearer Center and volunteers with Go Kids and Operation Happy Birthday. Revis plans to study either philosophy or economics, seeking to learn about what drives people - an interest that was heightened by his war experience.
Bell hopes to study either political science or international relations. "Once you've seen the carnage of war," he said he realized that "it must be the foremost effort of every government to solve things diplomatically."
