Washington Week: Student Voices (O)

Binghamton U. students to serve militaries across the globe
By Robert Hadad-Zlokower
Pipe Dream (SUNY-Binghamton)
05/13/2007

(U-WIRE) BINGHAMTON, N.Y. — For three Binghamton University students, it's time to close the textbooks and pick up a rifle. After this semester, Jonathan Roselle, Woochan Lim and Ben Spier will be leaving the Southern Tier to fight the armed forces in three different corners of the globe.

Roselle, a 22-year-old graduating senior from Greene, N.Y., will be commissioned into U.S. Army. After working with Binghamton University's Reserve Officer Training Corps and receiving encouragement from his already enlisted brother-in-law, Roselle, an English creative writing major, decided he wanted to take the next step and join the army. But Roselle's reasons also stem from his love for the United States.

"I consider myself to be patriotic," he said. "I love this country — I want to fight for it. ... We have a lot of freedoms that other people don't. One of the reasons why we preserve those freedoms is due to the men and women who give their lives in combat for us in all the armed forces."

At a ceremony Sunday, Roselle's parents will pin gold bars onto his uniform. He will then turn and salute a non-commissioned officer, which he has chosen to be his older brother. Roselle, who aspires to be a writer or a teacher, will then officially be commissioned as a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army. After a year of training, Roselle will be stationed in Germany as a platoon leader. From there, he says he will be "deployed to Iraq or wherever we are at the time — probably Iraq."

The day after Roselle gets sworn in, Lim, a 19-year-old freshman from Gwangju City, South Korea, will board a plane bound for Korea, where service in the the Republic of Korea army is compulsory.

Before starting, he will go to the Lim shrine, the grave site of his ancestors in Bosung, South Korea. He visits the ancestors whenever a big event occurs in his life.

"I bow to them," he said. "I put some wine as a part of saying hello, that I'm here." "I will talk to them in my mind [and] tell them that I'm doing good. And ask them to please take care of my family that I'm leaving."

Beginning June 11, Lim, a management major, will be a private in the quartermaster corps. After 10 weeks of basic training and consolidated army logistics school, Lim will likely be stationed in Seoul, South Korea. He will serve for two years and then return to Binghamton as a sophomore.

"I'm really excited to go to the army. I'll be a true man afterwards," he said. "I'm growing up. My parents told me they're growing up, too."

After college, Lim, the son of a Korean electronic company CEO, hopes to earn a law degree or an MBA.

In August, Spier, a 21-year-old graduating senior from Cedarhurst, N.Y., is moving to Israel where army service for citizens is also mandatory. Spier, who was president of BTV this year, will either serve in a combat unit or in the public relations unit of the Israel Defense Force. He is not sure what career he will pursue after his year-and-a-half service.

Spier has mixed feelings about joining the army. He likes that, as a member of a defense force, he will never be too far from friends and family. But he's also aware of the dangers associated with his new position.

"My heart goes out to the kidnapped soldiers," he said. Spier plans to move to Israel while serving and views the move as an opportunity. "Moving to Israel is like dying and going to heaven," he said.

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