Allen Busby, a criminal justice major, is a soon-to-be a graduate from Southeastern’s Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC). Southeastern currently acts as a satellite campus for the host battalion located at LSU. Busby is one of the few students who is a member and is the first to graduate from Southeastern’s program in several years. Busby has been an active member of this program for four years and has also been active in both the Army and National Guard.

“He’s been a huge benefit,” said Captain Kenneth J. Knaps, an Officer Strength Manager (OSM) of Louisiana’s Army National Guard. “His maturity and his background with active duty Army has been helpful in leading the other students.”

Busby was enlisted in the Army for four years and spent a good amount of time overseas in Iraq as a part of “Operation Iraqi Freedom Three.” He described his time in Iraq as an “eye-opening” experience, and claimed that people in the states have a lot of misconceptions and that they don’t see the good that happens on a daily basis. However, when seeing Hurricane Katrina hit Louisiana in 2005, Busby felt the need to come back home and put his skills to use in the National Guard, while completing his degree. Not being able to get back to the states in time to assist with Katrina, he instead has been part of a unit that has been able to do services such as Hurricane Gustav support, oil spill cleanup and Haiti assistance.

On top of all this, Busby has also been in leadership positions in ROTC as well as having to drive from Hammond to LSU in Baton Rouge every Monday through Friday in order to do physical training (PT), an ROTC requirement, at 6 a.m. Busby described this commitment as something that got him going in the morning.

“It’s been a really positive and rewarding experience for me, granted it’s had some hardship.  Not everyone can get up at 4:15 every morning, drive an hour and do PT and then go to classes on top of that,” said Busby.

Busby also described difficulty in convincing himself to get going some mornings, and cited his peers, his instructors and those counting on him for guidance each day as his motivators.

Post-graduation, Busby plans to take advantage of the ROTC’s Guaranteed Reserve Forces Duty program, by which he will immediately be able to become a 2nd Lieutenant and platoon leader where he will be in charge of approximately 30 soldiers. He plans to be a part of Bogalusa’s engineering battalion and going through more training in order to further his engineering knowledge. Busby praised the military’s scholarship system for its help with these goals.

“Any school the army sends you to, the army pays you to go to. It’s all about the academics,” said Busby.

Students who are also interested in gaining these benefits and getting a step up into a military career should be aware that daily travel to LSU is no longer necessary. Capt. Knaps has been volunteering to put students through PT on Southeastern’s campus on mornings that students also attend classes, not requiring them to attend on days off.

Busby also had advice to give to students who might be considering military service after and during their college education.

“I would tell them to do it, it’s the best decision I ever made.”

Students interested in joining ROTC should contact a recruiting officer on Southeastern’s campus, and be prepared to take a credited ROTC class once a week.