Photo By Lance Cpl. Colton Brownlee | A Naval ROTC Midshipman breaks the seal to her M50 joint service general purpose mask...... read more read more
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MARINE CORPS BASE CAMP LEJEUNE, N.C. – “I am glad I did it, but I don’t want to do it again,” said Mikayla Patrick, a midshipman with the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, after exiting a gas chamber on Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune, July 25.
Patrick, an upcoming sophomore, along with many other midshipman, ran the Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear Defense Course before entering a gas chamber as a part of the Marine Week of Career Orientation and Training for Midshipmen East, or CORTRAMID East.
“She originally came in as a (normal student),” said Master Sgt. Carlos Aguilar, assistant Marine officer instructor at UNC at Chapel Hill. “She saw a midshipman and asked them what they were doing and what ROTC was. It perked her interest and so she applied for the national scholarship. Because of her merits, like her grade point average and what she does for the battalion back at UNC, she was awarded the scholarship. She is very dedicated and she is going to go far in the Navy.”
Getting the scholarship was essential for Patrick to continue school at UNC at Chapel Hill.
“Without the scholarship, I would not be able to attend UNC at Chapel Hill,” said Patrick. “I worked really hard academically to get this scholarship and it really paid off. Without that scholarship, I wouldn’t be able to be here getting gassed.”
Dedicating college years to the armed forces can be stressful and can have an impact on some of the other aspects of a stereotypical college lifestyle, she said.
“It’s hard to maintain a social life with my peers,” said Patrick. “The Navy has its core values and most 19-year-old kids aren’t really worried about upholding those types of ideals.”
Through the struggle of college alongside ROTC, Patrick accredits her success to her family.
“My family is really supportive to my goals of commissioning in the Navy,” said Patrick. “They answer all my calls and even though they don’t understand everything I am talking about, they support me. I think I would have dropped out of the program last winter and I wouldn’t have applied for the scholarship if I didn’t have their support.”
| Date Taken: | 07.25.2018 |
| Date Posted: | 07.31.2018 13:49 |
| Story ID: | 286492 |
| Location: | US |
| Web Views: | 224 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, UNC student endures gas chamber during Marine Week of CORTRAMID East, by Sgt Nicholas Lubchenko, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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