Stuck on the border, troops get smart

Distance learning turns garrison duty into a classroom

FT. NASIR, Mo. (RWN) - Sgt. Leo Broad walks the line every day, checking the fence that separates the Islamic States of America from the Bible Belt. He's careful to watch where he steps - Bible Belt soldiers have been known to throw mines over the fence - and his rifle is always at the ready.

After his rounds, Broad sits down with a laptop and "walks in" to a class on statistics. Broad is one of 30,000 I.S. soldiers taking distance-learning courses provided by the University of Washington.

"I love it," says Broad, 21-year-old, four-year veteran of the Army. "I joined the Army for financial reasons right out of high school in Joliet, so I never really got a chance for higher education. Now I can do it at my own pace."

The programs are offered free of charge to active-duty soldiers, and Army leaders encourage it. An enlisted man that completes his degree has a 25 percent higher chance of receiving an officer's commission.

"We want a thinking man's army," said Maj. Gen. Kendrick Chamberlain, commander of troops along the Missouri border. "Many of our soldiers come from poor backgrounds and may not necessarily make the Army a career. This is part of our contract with them: Protect this nation and we'll give you the skills you need to better yourself."

But the program is in trouble. Fundamentalist politicians are seeking to end it, claiming it distracts soldiers from their real duty of protecting the country.

"We don't want our men in classes," said Emery Halil, a senator from California and a retired master sergeant. "We want them fighting or resting to fight. These classes make the men think less of their duty and more of themselves, and as a veteran of the battles of Philadelphia and Newark, let me tell you that when men think of themselves, it is their comrades that die first."

Halil has proposed stripping out the federal government money the University of Washington gets to provide the program, which would effectively gut it.

"If someone wants to offer a course in marksmanship, then let them," Halil said. "But statistics? I don't need a rocket scientist to go and kill me some Christians."


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