Going to the barber is often a frustrating experience for Mike McBride '06, since many barbers are unfamiliar with the kind of haircut he describes: "Is it a high-fade? They don't always know what I need," he said.
But for McBride, the crew cut comes with the gig. The Army Reserve Officers' Training Corps requires that its cadets keep their hair with a "tapered appearance and off the ears, mostly to allow Kevlar and gas masks to fit best," McBride explained. When he joined the ROTC program at Providence College during the second semester of his first year at Brown, he had to have his hair shaved off.
"I didn't like it the first time," he said.
Over the years, however, he has become accustomed to the unique challenges of an Army lifestyle.
"I was always going to do something in public service," he said. "The Army, especially through the ROTC, just combines all the things I like to do: problem solving, physical activity, being active."
Three days a week, McBride wakes up at around 5:50 a.m., puts on his uniform and heads to PC for physical training until 7:30 a.m. Afterwards, he and a few other senior cadets present leadership lectures to younger members until around 9 a.m. Then, McBride returns to campus to attend classes and do homework for most of the daytime. Some afternoons he has other ROTC commitments and typically gets four to six hours of sleep on weekdays.
Anticipating his deployment as a second lieutenant next spring, McBride decided to commit his services to the infantry, one of more than a dozen branches of the U.S. Army. For him, it will serve as a way to take part in some of the most demanding military exercises in the toughest settings - conditions McBride calls "being in the sock." In Iraq, for example, infantry troops may be assigned an eight-hour mission in 140-degree heat carrying 60-pound gear packs, having gone "10, 20, 45 days without showering."
This June, McBride will report to Fort Benning, Ga., to do problem-solving exercises, jump out of planes and subsist on one to two meals a day and a mere one to four hours of sleep each night.
McBride will also learn about military ethics and how to approach questions few other graduating seniors will confront: "How do you search a building? How do you detain prisoners? What do you do if your unit is attacked?"
McBride will put these abilities to use next spring, when he will report to his unit, which could be deployed almost anywhere in the world, but most likely in Iraq or Afghanistan. McBride has used an online Army program to learn Arabic, hoping to know enough to carry on a conversation by the time he is deployed.
"What we can try to do (through current U.S. military actions) is to make a stable and safe country," McBride said. Serving in the infantry is "a way to go there and see a change right away, like after building a school. ... The Army was a way I could make decisions as a 22-year-old right out of college that will change people's lives."
For the 12 months of his assignment, McBride will carry out a range of actions with his platoon. In his words, his unit will "act like a police force, conduct building searches as suggested by civilians or other military officials, build schools, distribute humanitarian rations, escort medical services and fix water pipes," among other things.
McBride concentrated in history at Brown and ran with the track and field team for his first three years at Brown. "I wasn't the best runner, but what kept me there was the camaraderie, and that's in the infantry," he said.
Fellow ROTC cadet Scott Quigley '05 recounted a "military faux pas" when, one evening as he and McBride were driving back to College Hill from a training session, McBride had to make a stop at a Thayer Street store. He walked into the shop and back out a few minutes later, totally unaware that he was still wearing his face paint and fatigues.
"I realized when he came back out that 30 to 40 people had seen him in his military garb," Quigley recalled.
McBride has proven his proficiency at writing operations orders during ROTC exercises administered by Thomas Murphy, one of McBride's captains. "I gave him the most minimal of information and told him to write an order that would take some guys half an hour, but he picked it up right away and spit it back out," Murphy said. "He is a natural leader."
Quigley agreed, "Mike's a leader - that's the first word that comes to mind," he said. "I don't think he has any fears whatsoever."
During a recent ROTC session, McBride learned of an incident in which a colonel led his troops toward a mosque surrounded by rioters. The officer had planned to move in to quell the insurrection but soon realized that the hostility only intensified as his troops moved closer. Thinking quickly on his feet, the officer instructed his soldiers to simply smile and back away.
"As an officer or platoon leader, you have a certain amount of creativity: How are you going to establish security?" McBride said. "My education from Brown gives me a cultural perspective and moral background to prepare me to avert adverse consequences."
"The only thing I'm anxious about is losing a soldier, " McBride said. "I can't imagine writing a letter home to parents."
For the past several summers, McBride has attended camps that help prepare ROTC cadets for the challenges of real army operations, both personal and physical. Last summer, McBride participated in Warrior Forage, a program held in Fort Louis, Wash., that trains ROTC cadets in combat and water survival and patrolling. Later that summer, he flew to Korea for a three-week Cadet Troop Leadership Training course. As a platoon leader, he was responsible for the training, health and welfare of more than 30 fighters and gained skills he plans to use later this year during his final training before deployment.
McBride said many Brown students have misconceptions about the military and warfare. "75 percent of the army is about nation-building, not bombs," he said. "They say that for every one soldier fighting, there are 10 soldiers supporting him," providing medical service, construction, transportation, communication and other assistance.
Being in the military is "not just about sucking it up but also about accomplishing goals," McBride said. "I want to test myself and see how far I can go."
