Faculty and students in the military find support from Ouachita during deployment Ouachita accommodates faculty and students who are called away on military duty. Terry DeWitt, associate professor of biological sciences, will be the next to deploy in the summer of 2009.
[podcast]https://www.obusignal.com/podcasts/dewitt.mp3[/podcast]
DeWitt joined the 90th Sustainment Brigade at Camp Robinson in Little Rock earlier this year as Deputy Commanding Officer. DeWitt said he “understood going in what the unit was going to be doing.”
The deployment will cover the 2009-10 school year.
As director of the athletic training education program and it’s only full-time faculty member, DeWitt is currently searching for an interim director.
“We haven’t found someone yet,” DeWitt said. “It will just be a temporary, one-year position … Ouachita has been extremely hospitable in allowing me to leave.”
Students in the military who find themselves deployed while in school or who served before attending Ouachita are offered help through the Veterans Administration Educational Benefit Program.
“When a student is in the military … they are eligible to apply for educational benefits while in college,” said Bill McCrary, coordinator of academic services. “I assist them to apply for the benefits and certify their enrollment each semester to the VA.”
McCrary is another example of military personnel found at Ouachita. He served 24 years of active duty and was a professor of military science at Ouachita before taking his current job.
To his advantage, DeWitt already has years of experience including a previous deployment. DeWitt was commissioned after he graduated from Ouachita in 1988 and has been in the Army Reserves for 24 years.
“I enjoy the Army Reserves,” DeWitt said. “My family has served in the military and it makes you feel good to know you belong to something bigger than you are.”
His first deployment, from October 2004 to September 2005, gave him a taste of the culture and type of people in Iraq.
“I had a different concept when I left here, I thought everybody over there was evil, but they’re not, they’re a lot like us,” DeWitt said.
While DeWitt will be more adapted to the culture he’ll also be facing the uncertainty of having a new president come into office only months before he is deployed. The one thing that will not change though is what DeWitt needs most.
“The big thing that helps me is having family and a support group,” DeWitt said.
