By Mary Barczak
Staff writer
For 20-year-old Cadet Dainese Roberts, getting to keep her cell phone with her during the Leader’s Training Course is not an essential, but a convenience.
“We really don’t have much time to even use them during training at all,” the Co. A 1/46th Inf. Cadet said. “I did not think that I would be allowed to keep my cell phone when I got here.”
Roberts, who attends Wofford College in Spartanburg, S.C., said she understands why LTC officials have enforced having no cell phones in the barracks in past years.
“I would’ve given them the respect and not used mine, though,” said Roberts, who hails from McCormick, S.C. “We are here to train.”
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| Elias Guerra, University of Texas Brownsville, 20, makes a personal call Sunday night during personal time. Cadets have some time in the evenings to call home to family, with the allowance of cell phones keeping in touch is much easier. Photo by Ryan Stone |
This is the second year the Cadets in Co. A will be allowed to keep their cell phones with them in the barracks during LTC.
However, the Cadets are only allowed to use their phones during personal time at night before lights out.
Lt. Col. Dan Mishket, company tactical officer for Co. A, said if this was basic training then the Cadets’ phones would have been confiscated, but because the Army is trying to get these students to join, the students were granted an exception.
“It is a big emotional event on both sides, for the parents and the Cadets,” he said. “When they feel lonely, being able to talk to their family and friends helps to build them back up again, so they are given personal time every night to talk.”Cadet Ben Light from Moline, Iowa, said staying in touch with his family while he’s at LTC is important to him.
“If we weren’t allowed to keep our phones I would still do it (find a way to talk to them), but it would just be a little different,” he said.
Light, who attends Illinois State University, said this has been a totally new experience for him and he wants to share it with his family.
Mishket said he allowed Cadets to keep their cell phones with them in the barracks to use during personal time last year and it worked out well.
The LTC policy states that Cadets can have cell phones; however how the company chooses to enforce and restrict the policy is a different story.
Mishket said he enforces a set of restrictions to go along with this privilege.
“They can’t use it (their phone) when they get up in morning or take it to training with them,” he said.
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| Connie Campos from Hofstra University talks to her Mom on Sunday night. Cadets are given a little bit of time to call home and keep family up to date. Photo by Ryan Stone |
Cadet Meghan Davey, who attends MIT, has a Verizon Wireless BlackBerry Curve which has Internet access.
She said the reason she has Internet capability on her phone is because she was required to have it for school.
“I am a nursing major and we are required to have the Internet so that we can look up medications and nursing diagnoses during clinicals,” said Davey, who hails from Westwood, Mass.
She also said she has used her phone to check her Facebook once since she’s been at LTC and to e-mail a couple of her cadre from back home, friends, and her boyfriend.
Davey, of Alpha Co., said she also is waiting for her boyfriend to send her some paper and envelopes so she can start writing to him and some of her friends once she gets their addresses.
Alpha Co. Cadet Samantha Waggoner, who attends Norwich University in Vermont, has an iPhone, but she said she has not had time to use it.
“I just have it for travel purposes,” said Waggoner, who is from San Diego, Calif. “I assumed when I got here that I would not be able to use it.”
Mishket said they can’t restrict the Cadets’ Internet usage, but he hopes Cadets will use it in an efficient way to stay connected with the outside world.
“We don’t have laptops here to allow them to access their e-mails,” he said. “Years ago some may have decided to write letters home with their personal time, but if they have access then hey, great, it will help them to keep in touch with what’s going on with the rest of the world.”
Cadet Roberts said she hasn’t really had time to call her family while she’s been here, but it’s still nice to have that option. She said her family and friends understand she is busy so they don’t expect her to call all the time.
“Everyone knows I’m here,” she said. “My family knows I’m here to train.”