News

Notable Veteran Alumni: John M. McHugh

May 20, 2015

John M. McHugh, the 21^st Secretary of the Army, is an alumnus of Syracuse University. You should know his story because it’s a Syracuse University story—one that speaks to our past, our present, and our future.

McHugh is a native Central New Yorker—born in Watertown in 1948 and a graduate of Watertown High School. After high school, McHugh attended Utica College, a satellite campus of Syracuse University at the time, and received a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science in 1970. He later attended the Nelson A. Rockefeller Graduate School of Public Affairs at the State University of New York at Albany, where he received a Master of Public Administration in 1977.

McHugh started out working in city government in Watertown, but quickly engaged himself in political service after graduate school as an aide to State Senator H. Douglas Barclay from 1977 to 1984. After Barclay stepped down from the New York State Senate in 1984, McHugh won Barclay’s seat and represented the 46^th NYS Senate district. After eight successful years in the state senate, McHugh decided to run for New York’s 24^th Congressional District in 1993, ultimately winning the predominately conservative district. McHugh served for nine terms as representative for the 24^th (now 23^rd) congressional district from 1993 to 2009.

As ranking Republican on the House Armed Services Committee, McHugh fought vigorously to protect Fort Drum from budget cuts, support major acquisition projects, and attract new military-related jobs to the district. He served on the House Committee on International Relations and Committee on Oversight and Government Reform; he also chaired the Subcommittee on the Postal Service. In addition, McHugh co-chaired the House Army Caucus, a bipartisan organization that educates other Representatives and their staffs about Army-related issues and programs.

Viewed as a pragmatic, centrist Republican, a 2009 New York Times article stated, “Mr. McHugh … is part of a vanishing breed in the House: centrist Republicans from Northeastern states.” His ability to work across the aisle with Democrats and Republicans garnered great respect from top party members on both sides, including President Barack Obama. Most notably, President Obama nominated McHugh in 2009 to succeed Pete Geren as the Secretary of the Army. As Secretary, McHugh is responsible for the U.S. Army’s annual budget of over $200 billion, the health and welfare of more than 1.1 million active duty, Army National Guard, and Army Reserve soldiers, and nearly half a million civilian employees and contractors.

John M. McHugh is an alumnus of Syracuse University and the Secretary of the Army. You should know his story.

U.S. Secretary of the Army Visits Syracuse University

May 20, 2015

Former Congressman, representing CNY and Northern New York, John M. McHugh discusses veteran and military-connected programs at SU

The Honorable John M. McHugh, Secretary of the U.S. Army and former member of Congress representing Northern and Central New York, visited Syracuse University on Thursday morning, May 21, to learn more about the Institute for Veterans and Military Families (IVMF) and the many veteran and military-connected programs and services offered at Syracuse University.

Secretary McHugh’s visit included a brief stop at the Martin J. Whitman School of Management, where he received an update on SU’s Defense Comptrollership Program (DCP) – a military degree program that represents a unique cooperative endeavor between Syracuse University and the Department of Defense (DoD) – and spoke with Military and DoD Civilian members of the DCP, Class of 2015. More than 1,600 graduates of this program have provided meaningful contributions in demanding management positions.

Secretary McHugh then attended a discussion with the leadership team from the ‎Institute for Veterans and Military Families at Syracuse University (IVMF). The meeting provided an opportunity to brief Secretary McHugh on the IVMF, its programs, research, community engagement and collaborations enacted in service to America’s veterans and military families.

An additional morning session followed at the Office of Veteran and Military Affairs where SU Chancellor Kent Syverud participated in a review of Syracuse University’s efforts to best serve veterans, military-connected students, and military family members who are students or employees at Syracuse University.

“The Secretary’s visit to Syracuse University speaks directly to the work we are doing for those who have served the nation in uniform,” states Vice Chancellor for Veteran and Military Affairs, and IVMF Executive Director Mike Haynie. “Secretary McHugh is well aware of Syracuse University’s historic commitment to veterans, and IVMF’s mission to fully leverage the intellectual, human and social capital of higher education, in service to America’s veterans and their families.”

Secretary McHugh, in anticipation of his visit to Syracuse, shared, “Syracuse University is a leader in offering timely and rigorous programs designed for the military and for our transitioning service members. I am looking forward to learning more about SU’s efforts in this area, as well as gaining a better understanding of the IVMF’s programs and initiatives, and the national impact the institute is having on our nation’s veterans and military families.”

Secretary McHugh specifically pointed out the impact the Boots to Business program has on those serving in the U.S. Army. Operated by Syracuse University, Boots to Business is an entrepreneurial education and training program offered by the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) as part of the Department of Defense’s Transition Assistance Program (TAP). The Boots to Business program has been delivered at 46 Army bases in five countries and 21 states. More impressive is that 45% of all Boots to Business applicants in 2014 were transitioning service-members (8,230) of the U.S. Army.

Real Dads Wear Orange: From Afghanistan with Love

May 18, 2015

Sergeant Bryane Greene is thousands of miles away deployed in Afghanistan but his heart and soul are back home with his family especially since his oldest child, Harmony, graduated from college this month. The Office of Veteran and Military Affairs at Syracuse University made certain that Sergeant Greene could watch his daughter receive her degree from the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University through an online live stream. It was a moment he will always cherish.

My name is Bryane A. Greene; I was born in Chicago, Illinois and currently reside in California. I have been in the military for over 16 years and with two deployments it has not been easy as a dad. Having a family structure in which everyone supports each other as we do makes times like this easier yet they are still missed. I am currently deployed in Bagram, Afghanistan, finishing up on the second leg of an 18-month tour.

Harmony is the oldest of six and it was an honor to watch her take that walk across the stage and graduate from college. Seeing a young lady with so much desire and heart never give up or give in has been wonderful. Knowing that when times got hard being away from home, to see her go through the growing pains of becoming a woman and knowing how to handle those situations, to get to this day was incredible. At times, she had to work late hours to finish her class work, all the while trying to have a normal college lifestyle, too. Let’s just say that I have watched her not just receive her degree, but I have seen what road she had to take to get there, and it makes me even prouder of her accomplishment. She has the strength beyond measure to achieve whatever she sets out to attain no matter how hard the road is.

I remember when we first took Harmony out to Syracuse, going to her dorm and seeing that our big girl was turning into a young woman right before our very eyes. She made the first step in pursuing her dream, and to see her excitement in just shopping for things for her college room was beautiful. With all that Harmony has experienced at Syracuse, I can confidently say that it was a good fit. She was able to do what she wanted, which was to be on her own and in control of her own success. Yes, missing home was hard at times, but the Syracuse community kept her busy and now, four years later, she has accomplished what she set out to do: earn her degreeand move towards accomplishing the rest of her goals. To Syracuse, I say thank you; for you are regarded by our entire family as a great university. Being from Chicago, Blue and Orange fit right in. So now I have the Blue and Orange of both because “Real Dads Wear Orange.” Go Cuse!

Sergeant Bryane Greene is expected home this fall and he eagerly awaits reuniting with his family.

For more information on the Office of Veteran and Military Affairs, visit https://veterans.syracuse.edu.

Syracuse University 1924 Alumnus to Receive Medal of Honor Posthumously

May 15, 2015

Syracuse University celebrates the recognition of 1924 alumnus, William Shemin, who will receive his long-deserved Medal of Honor–the nation’s highest military decoration for valor—for conspicuous gallantry during World War I on June 2, in a White House ceremony. President Barack Obama will present the medal to Shemin’s daughter, Elsie Shemin-Roth ’51, who was instrumental in ensuring her father’s service and valor were recognized.

Shemin, who was stationed in Syracuse prior to deploying to France, returned to pursue studies at Syracuse University in 1919 and graduated in 1924. During his studies at SU, he was also a member of the Syracuse University football and lacrosse teams. Many of Shemin’s descendants have attended Syracuse University, some of which include his son, Emmanuel “Manny” Shemin ‘52, who served as a University Trustee, his daughters Elsie Shemin Roth ’51 and Ina Shemin-Bass ’53, his granddaughter, Leslie Shemin-Lester ’84, who currently serves on the College of Visual and Performing Arts Deans Advisory Council, and his great-grandson William Cass ’08, who is co-chair of the university’s Metro New York Leadership Council.

To our knowledge, William Shemin is Syracuse University’s first and only graduate to earn the Medal of Honor. Information on his courageous action is available at http://www.army.mil/medalofhonor/shemin/. President Obama’s announcement of William Shemin as the nation’s newest Medal of Honor recipient is posted at https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2015/05/14/president-obama-award-medal-honor. A more in-depth story can be found here.

Notable Veteran Alumni: Steve Kroft

May 13, 2015

Steve Kroft is an alumnus of Syracuse University, and also a military veteran. You should know his story, because it’s a Syracuse University story—one that speaks to our past, our present, and our future.

Born in Kokomo, Indiana in 1945, Steve Kroft was destined to become a journalist. He attended Syracuse University’s S.I. Newhouse School of Communication, where he received a Bachelor of Science in 1967 and was a member of the Kappa Sigma Fraternity. Like many other young college graduates during the Vietnam War, Kroft was drafted into the U.S. Army and assigned to the 25^th Infantry Division in Cu Chi, a district of Ho Chi Mihn City (formerly Saigon). Once in Vietnam, Kroft’s journalistic abilities were soon recognized by the Army and he became a reporter for the Armed Services Network, reporting on American progress in Vietnam, in addition to covering the 25^th Infantry Division’s invasion of Cambodia. Kroft’s journalistic abilities led him much success in the Army, winning multiple Army journalism awards and a Bronze Star for meritorious achievement in a combat zone.

After his honorable discharge from the Army in 1971, Kroft returned to Syracuse, working as a broadcast journalist for WSYR-TV for three years. He later left Syracuse and studied at Columbia University’s graduate school of journalism, earning his master’s degree in 1975. Kroft then went to Florida, working for the Washington Post in Jacksonville and WPLG-TV in Miami, where his work was noticed by CBS News. While in Miami, Kroft was offered, and later accepted, a correspondent position in CBS News’ Northeast Bureau in 1980. He later joined the Dallas bureau for two years before returning to Miami to cover Latin and South America, during which he famously covered the US invasion of Grenada and the civil war in El Salvador.

CBS News transferred Kroft to their London office, having recognized his knack for telling the most pressing stories of the time. There, he produced one of his most famous segments for 60 Minutes on the assassination of Indira Gandhi, for which he received his first Emmy Award. He later served as the principal correspondent for a CBS News magazine show, West 57^th, until 1989, when he joined the award-winning 60 Minutes as a correspondent. Throughout his tenure on Sixty Minutes, Kroft has received significant critical praise, winning 11 Emmy Awards, five Peabody Awards, and two Columbia University DuPont Awards. His success has taken him from the contaminated fields of Chernobyl, Ukraine to Iraq during the Gulf War, to the violence in Northern Ireland, to the White House with his famous exclusive interview with Bill and Hillary Clinton in 1992, which many say was one of the defining moments of the 1992 presidential election.

Kroft’s success and incredible resume with CBS News has garnered him a great deal of success and recognition. He has received honorary doctoral degrees from Indiana University, Binghamton University, and Long Island University, in addition to having received the University of Albany’s Medallion of the University and Syracuse University’s prestigious George Arents Award, the highest honor Syracuse University bestows upon its alumni.

Kroft remains engaged with Syracuse University, from lectures and talks in the S.I Newhouse School of Communications to serving as a life trustee on the Syracuse University Board of Trustees. Syracuse University continues to hold Steve Kroft in the highest regard as one of its most successful alumni.

Steve Kroft is an alumnus of Syracuse University and a veteran of the U.S. military. You should know his story.

Maxwell MSSc helped me continue a lifetime of service

May 11, 2015

Written by Chris Farlow

The Master of Social Science program was an ideal fit for me personally and professionally. While I was serving on active duty, a traditional full residency graduate program was unmanageable due to frequent deployments and a hectic work schedule that involved unusual shifts and being on-call. The MSSc program at Syracuse offered many of the benefits of a traditional graduate school experience blended with the flexibility of distance learning and, of course, I was able to take off an occasional semester due to a deployment. After I attended the first residency, I established relationships with other students and faculty that I still maintain ten years later, and those interactions made the distance coursework much more rewarding.

As I transitioned from active duty into the reserves, the MSSc was an enormous help to me in being selected to become a U.S. diplomat. Of the 22 people who competed on my interview day with the State Department in 2010, only two of us were selected, and coincidentally (or not?), both of us were military veterans who had attended the Maxwell School. The program still continues to benefit my reserve career, and was a necessary part of being selected to the Foreign Area Officer program, which required an advanced degree in international or regional studies, and my MSSc degree was accredited. I now serve as a reserve defense attaché, representing the U.S. military in U.S. Embassies in Africa and the Middle East.

One thing I would like to emphasize to veterans is the advantage of a blended program like the MSSc program. If you’re simply pursuing your graduate degree purely by distance learning, you don’t often have the opportunity to socialize and trade ideas with high-caliber graduate students in professions far different than your own. At Syracuse, I remember some of my fellow students were college admissions officers, regional managers of non-profit charities, political strategists, and high School history teachers. They all had different perspectives on international affairs than I did, and I think that they gained perspective through academic exchange with a veteran.

Chris Farlow is currently the Vice Consul of the United States in Almaty, Kazakhstan, and previously served as a diplomat in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso and Washington, D.C. Prior to becoming a diplomat, he served eight years on active duty in the U.S. Air Force as an intelligence officer, including tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. He completed the MSSc program at Syracuse in 2009 and graduated from the University of South Florida in 2000. He continues to serve in the Air Force Reserve, as does his wife, Anne. He is originally from Bishopville, Maryland, and speaks English, French, and Russian.

Transition as a Means to Meaning

May 8, 2015

Two weeks ago, I had the pleasure of speaking at an end-of-year gathering of student veterans here at Syracuse University. The week leading up to this event had included some personally challenging issues for me, and for that reason the task of considering what message of value I might share with these student-veterans took a turn toward something more personal and self-reflective, a contrast to what is my traditional norm and custom (and usual comfort).

In the time since that speech, and given that a great many veterans are graduating from America’s colleges and universities this month, more than a few of the event’s attendees have reached out and encouraged me to share my words from that evening with other veterans. Those words – thoughts and self-reflections on the meaning of my own transition from military life – are (somewhat reluctantly) presented below.

By: Dr. Mike Haynie

Good evening, and thank you all for the opportunity to celebrate with you tonight.

I’ll make one promise right from the outset of my remarks – that is, I promise not to spend too much time behind this podium. Tonight I’ll take a cue from President Roosevelt’s playbook when it comes to giving a speech. Roosevelt said the objective of good public speaking is to “be sincere, be brief, and be seated.” You have my word that I’ll be seated very soon!

As I considered what to say tonight, my initial thought was to speak about the much discussed topic of navigating the different pathways of transition from military to civilian life, as if I know something about what that means for all of you.

This is a topic I’m asked to speak about often. However, truth be told, in front of this group – in front of family – I’d feel like a phony having that conversation. I say that because any words and thoughts I’d ascribe to that issue, would imply that I know something about what that journey looks like, and how you all should proceed.

Truth be told, if I can share my own vulnerabilities, I’ll say honestly and candidly – in a way that’s NO different from many of my fellow veterans in this room – that I’m still on that journey myself.

I say that because what’s most ironic about my post-service journey, particularly given my current role at Syracuse University as Vice Chancellor for Military and Veteran Affairs, is that when I came to SU in 2006 – after 14 years of active duty military service – I was honestly and truly running away from my military-self. For my own reasons, that maybe I’ll share on another day, I was done.

I’ve said before that I decided to leave the military because I wanted to be a college professor, which on the surface is a true statement. However more deeply, I was motivated to chase something that I had once found, and then lost. Put differently, more and more I found myself grieving for what I was, before the military made me something different. Not worse, in many ways better, but certainly different than the very carefree ‘kid’ I was on the day I was commissioned.

That might be a sentiment that resonates with some of you in this room.

You see, for many people the natural process of growing-up – perceiving and internalizing a sense of responsibility and accountability for yourself and others – is something that happens gradually and incrementally over time. But it didn’t happen that way for me, just like it didn’t happen that way for many of you.

They put 2^nd lieutenant rank on my shoulders when I graduated from college, and I assume at that same event someone probably gave a speech about how and why this transition from cadet to officer will change my perspective on life. I say that I assume, because I’m sure I wasn’t listening.

Truth be told, some 5 or 6 years into my military career, in my mind I was still that same college kid. I didn’t take too much, too seriously. I had no idea what I wanted to ‘be’ when I grew up, because I didn’t really understand what ‘grown-up’ meant.

Don’t get me wrong, I was proud of my service, and worked hard to do the best job I could, with whatever task the military handed me. However I didn’t take the military, as seriously as the military took itself. And then, one day, all that changed.

It was a day and an experience that even now, I remember so clearly, so emotionally – and selfishly, a day and an experience that I remember with deep regret, for reasons that make me feel intensely guilty.

It was the summer of 2001, and I had recently arrived at the U.S. Air Force Academy to begin an assignment as member of the USAFA faculty. My boss had assigned me to teach introduction to accounting, which could only be described as pure torture. However, true to form I was determined that I was going to have some fun with this, even in spite of the fact that I learned very quickly that even ‘fun’ at the Academy has a way of going bad very quickly. So, in the face of overt disdain, ridicule, contempt directed at me by some of my fellow instructors, I proceeded to design an entire semester of accounting lessons around the exploits of Bart, Lisa, Homer, and the rest of the Simpson family. The cadets loved it, but my boss, not so much. It was perfect.

My class started at 0730 each morning. Just a few weeks into the fall semester of 2001, I was in the office early to put the finishing touches on the daily balance sheet for the Springfield Quikimart – when out of the corner of my eye I caught the news playing on the TV. A civilian airliner had impacted the World Trade Center.

Word came very quickly to us that this wasn’t an accident, and I rushed down to my classroom to be with my students. I arrived to find 40 scared, angry, and confused cadets. In a way uncharacteristic for a ‘Haynie classroom,’ nobody was speaking – it was dead quiet. We sat together in silence, watching the TV, and then watching as a second plane hit the second tower. One cadet finally broke the quiet, and she said, “Captain Haynie, this is going to change everything, isn’t it?”

Without really processing what she had said, I responded “for all of you…forever.”

For me, that’s when it happened. That’s the first time I actually remember feeling like an adult. At that moment I recall perceiving, for the first time, social and psychological ‘distance’ between myself, and the 21 year-old kids I was teaching.

Importantly however, in that distance, I also found profound personal meaning – and I realized that like for them, everything would change for me as well.

I say that – and share this story tonight – because for me, it was at that moment when my transition journey began. To be clear, it would be 5 more years before I actually took off the uniform. But without a doubt, my transition started that day, in that room. It started with those kids looking at me for answers, because it was at that point that I knew what form my life’s work would take. I was going to be a teacher.

The simple point I’m trying to make – and that I’d hope you reflect on as you consider where your post-military service journey will take you – is that we’re all transitioning all the time. Life is all about the transition – from somewhere, to someone…from today, to tomorrow. That said, I think many of us spend too much time and energy getting hung-up on the notion of ‘navigating’ the transition – particularly the transition from military-to-civilian life – as if the ‘transition’ itself is an end-state to be accomplished, rather than the means to something greater and more meaningful.

What I’m suggesting is that successfully navigating’s life’s transitions – particularly the transition from military to civilian life – actually has very little to do with mapping out the ‘right’ path: who you work for today, or tomorrow…where you’ll live…what school you’ll attend…or even whether you’re still wearing a uniform. Instead what I’ve learned, not always so gracefully, is that the most successful transitions are the ones where we act based on answers to ‘why’ questions, as opposed to ‘how’ questions; that is, we’re better served when we frame life’s transitions NOT as designing a process exercise to get us from A to B, but instead as a means to ask and answer the question, does getting to B even matter? Why?

In conclusion, my wish for all of you is that you don’t avoid opportunities for transition, but instead – borrowing words and sentiment from John F. Kennedy – that you enthusiastically embrace change and transition as the “law of life,” and come to understand why “those who look only to the past or present, are certain to miss the future.” Moreover, my hope for all of you is that you spend a bit less time and energy on obsessing about what is the ‘right’ pathway along your post-service journey, so that you have a chance to actually live meaning-filled lives along the way.

You have certainly earned that opportunity. Thank you and good night.

Notable Veteran Alumni: Joseph “Beau” Biden III

May 7, 2015

Joseph “Beau” Biden III is an alumnus of Syracuse University, and also a military veteran. You should know his story, because it’s a Syracuse University story—one that speaks to our past, our present, and our future.

Biden III, the eldest son of former Senator and current Vice President Joe Biden, was born and raised in Wilmington, Delaware. Following his father’s footsteps, Beau attended his father’s high school alma mater, Archmere Academy, was a member of the same fraternity, Psi Upsilon, at the University of Pennsylvania, and continued to Syracuse University College of Law.

Biden began his career in public service shortly after graduation from law school. First, he served as a clerk for Judge Steven McAuliffe of the U.S. District Court in New Hampshire. A year later, he joined the U.S. Department of Justice Office of Policy Development as a counselor, where he worked on issues such as the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act and the Violence against Women Act. From 1997 until 2002, Beau served as a federal prosecutor in the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Philadelphia. He later turned to private practice as a partner in the Wilmington-based law firm of Bifferato, Gentilotti, Biden & Black.

Beau Biden 2 While working in the private sector, Biden joined the Delaware Army National Guard in 2003 as a member of the Judge Advocate General (JAG) Corps. Notably, he served as Interim Legal Advisor for the U.S. Department of Justice in post-war Kosovo, assisting in the development of a law enforcement and criminal justice system.

Elected in 2006 as Delaware’s Attorney General, Joseph Beau Biden III took office and served two consecutive terms. In his first term on October 2008, the 261st Signal Brigade was activated for a 12-month deployment supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom in Iraq, during which Beau delegated his Attorney General responsibilities to serve. In November 2011 Beau Biden was promoted to the rank of Major.

Protecting children was among Biden’s highest priorities as attorney general, evident through his creation of a Child Predator Task Force. Beau assisted in making Delaware a national leader in the fight to protect children from predators by successfully pushing for tougher, mandatory prison sentences for child predators and distributors of child pornography. In addition, Beau created the Mortgage Fraud Task Force, designed to protect homeowners from consumer fraud and help stop the rising tide of foreclosures. The Task Force’s work with the Consumer Protection Unit resulted in what is believed to be the largest mortgage rescue fraud indictment in Delaware’s history.

Beau Biden 2 Notably, in 2011, Beau was honored with the Voice of Courage Award from Darkness to Light (D2L), a national nonprofit organization working to empower and teach adults to prevent child sexual abuse; and in 2013, Beau was awarded the LifeLock Ultimate Award for his efforts to fight identity theft, improve online safety and educate children about cybersecurity. Described by many, Beau Biden was a careful, cautious, and deliberate politician, who shunned the limelight to focus on the issues at hand.

Beau Biden passed away May 30th, 2015 and is survived by his wife, Hallie, and two children.

Joseph “Beau” Biden III is an alumnus of Syracuse University and a veteran of the U.S. military. You should know his story.

Major General Peggy Combs to Administer Oath of Office to Army and Air Force ROTC Cadets at May 8 Commissioning Ceremony

May 7, 2015

CNY Native, Alumna of Oriskany High School and Syracuse University, and First Woman to command the U.S. Army Cadet Command, to speak at SU ROTC Commissioning Ceremony

Major General Peggy C. Combs, Commanding General of the U.S. Army Cadet Command and Fort Knox, Kentucky, will deliver the keynote address and administer the oath of office to 20 cadets from the Army and Air Force Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) at the 2015 Commissioning Ceremony on Friday, May 8, 2015. The ceremony will begin at 5 p.m., and be held in Hendricks Chapel on the Syracuse University campus.

Major General Combs is a native of Central New York, having graduated from Oriskany High School in 1981. She received the Bachelor of Science Degree in Biology from Syracuse University in 1985, is a distinguished military graduate of Syracuse University’s ROTC, and was commissioned as a Regular Army Second Lieutenant in the United States Army Chemical Corps.

Major General Combs’s assignments include being the Joint Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Operations Officer for United States Central Command (CENTCOM) during Operation Enduring Freedom, as the Chief of Staff for the Iraq Training and Advisory Mission, United States Forces-Iraq duty at the National Ground Intelligence Center, and Chief of the Full Dimension Protection Division for the US Army Pentagon. She most recently served as the 27th Chief of Chemical and Commandant, US Army Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear School at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri. From 21 May to 27 August 2013, Major General Combs simultaneously served as the Commanding General, US Army Training Center and Fort Jackson, Fort Jackson, South Carolina. On 6 March 2014, Major General Combs assumed command of the US Army Cadet Command and Fort Knox, Kentucky. Visit http://www.cadetcommand.army.mil/commanding-general.aspx for a complete biography.

Twenty cadets from five local colleges will be commissioned as officers in the Army and Air Force at the 2015 Commissioning Ceremony. Syracuse University is the host institution for Army ROTC and Air Force ROTC. Students from the following institutions may enroll in Army ROTC at Syracuse: Cazenovia College, Colgate University, Hamilton College, Le Moyne College, Morrisville State College, SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry, SUNY Oswego, SUNY Polytechnic Institute, and Utica College. Students from the following institutions may enroll in AFROTC at Syracuse: Cazenovia College, Columbia College, Hamilton College, Le Moyne College, Mohawk Valley Community College, Morrisville State College, Onondaga Community College, SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry, SUNY Oswego, SUNY Polytechnic Institute, SUNY Upstate Medical University, and Utica College.

The Syracuse University Army ROTC unit was established in spring 1919. Following World War II, Syracuse was one of the original 77 universities to house an Air ROTC unit starting in fall 1946. With the establishment of the United States Air Force as a separate service in 1947, it became known as Air Force Reserve Officer Training Corps (AFROTC).

About the Office of Veteran and Military Affairs:

The Office of Veteran and Military Affairs (OVMA) serves as Syracuse University’s single point of entry for all veteran and military related programs and initiatives. Committed to being the “Best Place for Veterans,” OVMA assists university stakeholders to support and empower veteran, military connected, and military family member students and employees who are veterans at Syracuse University.

# # #

Media Contact:

Wayne Westervelt

Director of Communications

Office of Veteran and Military Affairs

(315) 4435690

wwesterv@syr.edu

Scholar Spotlight: Jesse Campion ’15

May 5, 2015

Written by Cindy Moritz for Syracuse University News

As an undergraduate at Temple University, Jesse Campion never thought he would end up in the military. But then 9/11 happened. “That kind of shifted the tide,” he says. After graduating in 2002, he started learning more about the benefits of the military, enlisted, and left for basic training in November 2003.

Q. How did your military service progress?

A. I wanted to learn from the ground up and started out as a vehicle mechanic and paratrooper, stationed with the 82^nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg. I worked my way up to sergeant, and about halfway through my service I was recommended for Officer Candidate School. That began the second chapter of my military career. After OCS, I was commissioned and served as an infantry officer. It culminated with me going to U.S. Army Ranger School in 2007 and eventually leading a platoon into combat in 2008. With Ranger School, that was a special accomplish for me. My grandfather, who was an Army Ranger during World War II, served with 5^th Ranger Battalion and was part of the invasion at D-Day. I grew up being proud of his sacrifices for our country. He was able to make the trip to Fort Benning, Ga., for the graduation and pin the Ranger tab on me. Overall, I honorably discharged as a First Lieutenant in 2009. I served for a total of six years in the military with two deployments in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom—one being a year in Mosul, Iraq.

Q. What came next for you?

A. I decided to go to law school. It had been a dream of my mother’s, but she died of cancer in 2005. I always had a strong interest in going to law school. The GI Bill had been revamped in 2008 to allow for minimal to debt-free education for transitioning veterans. So about a two years after I got out of the service, I took the LSAT and started applying to law schools. Given the opportunities for veterans and national security study, I decided to come to Syracuse University College of Law, where I’m a third-year student. I’m also earning a master’s in public affairs from the Maxwell School and a certificate of advanced study in security studies from the Institute for National Security and Counterterrorism.

Q. How has it been coming back to school after all those years in the military?

A. It’s been a great experience, and has given me so many options. But there have been a lot of trials and tribulations along the way, and it’s certainly been a lot of hard work. I’ve currently done long distance from my wife for the past three years, which has been stressful at times. I’ve been very lucky in that I was selected for a couple of great internships and I’ve found supportive professors and colleagues who believe in me. My wife has been the biggest pillar of support for me during this uncertain journey. The summer after my first year, I worked as a legal intern with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Office of the Chief Counsel. Last summer, I was a legislative fellow in the office of U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand.

In addition, I was fortunate in the support that I got. The nonprofit veterans group Soldier Socks awarded me their 2014-15 academic scholarship. And just recently, I was named a 2015 Presidential Management Fellow. That is a two-year leadership development program that fast-tracks graduate students into leadership development roles in the federal government. Just seven percent of applicants were chosen at finalists this year out of close to 8,000 PMF applicants.

Q. What’s ahead for you after graduation?

A. I am now applying for different positions as a Presidential Management Fellow. I’d like to work in the national security or foreign policy field, and develop as a senior leader in federal government. Ultimately, I would like to learn as much as possible and work my way up into Senior Executive Service and one day, a presidential appointee.

Via Syracuse University News