Conning an Aircraft Carrier. A Storm-Drenched Training Exercise. Graduating ROTC Students Reflect on Last Four Years
They say their training has prepared them for what lies ahead
Francis McCabe (Pardee’25) (from left), Peter Barto (Pardee’25), and Kyron Kern (CAS’25) say ROTC has given them experiences unknown to their BU peers.
Conning an Aircraft Carrier. A Storm-Drenched Training Exercise. Graduating ROTC Students Reflect on Last Four Years
They say their training has prepared them for what lies ahead
Taking the car for a spin is a rite of passage for most youth. Peter Barto one-upped that last summer when he took a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier for a spin in the Philippine Sea.
That serious responsibility was part of his training in BU’s Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC). Barto (Pardee’25), who will be commissioned as an ensign in the US Navy the day after BU’s Commencement May 18, took the conn of the carrier while a supply ship sailed alongside to refuel it. “In the split second that I took to check an instrument, the carrier started drifting towards the supply ship, and I fumbled giving an important order to correct its course,” the international relations major recalls. “With the captain of the ship over my one shoulder and the executive officer over the other, I needed to forget my mistake, maintain my composure, and focus on not causing a collision with several thousand sailors on board.”Â
Trials are the rites of ROTC. Kyron Kern (CAS’25) recalls an experience alien to most political science majors, a 12-mile jog/hike in pouring rain while lugging 45 pounds in his rucksack. Kern, who will be commissioned an Army second lieutenant after graduation, carries a reminder of that training exercise at Joint Base Cape Cod, untucking his shirt to show a faded scar from where his wet belt sliced him. However, that day with other cadets also triggers fond memories: “When things suck like that, you really rely on each other to lift each other’s spirits. It ended up being one of the most bonding, memorable experiences for my class.”
Clearly, the 16 ROTC students graduating from BU this month go through a program that’s not for everyone: waking hours before sunrise for training, learning proficiency with firearms, keeping calm at critical moments—like steering a carrier. They’re also graduating with solemn duties into a troubled world: wars in Ukraine and Gaza, the threat of a potential invasion of Taiwan by China, tensions between nuclear rivals India and Pakistan, and US allies recalculating America’s commitment to them.
Kern will be off to helicopter flight training at Alabama’s Fort Novosel; Barto will serve as a surface warfare officer on a destroyer based in San Diego; and Francis McCabe (Pardee’25) will be a second lieutenant in the Air Force, helping recruit and guide high school students for ROTC. The three reflected on what ROTC has taught them about facing that future.
These interviews have been edited for clarity and brevity.
Q&A
with Kyron Kern, Peter Barto, and Francis McCabe
BU Today: What did you learn in your four years with ROTC that you wouldn’t have learned otherwise?
Barto: I was surprised and pleased to learn more about the interpersonal side of things through ROTC. You think about learning these tangible [military] skills, but you don’t realize just the situations that you face and people that you meet that you wouldn’t have met in a regular class—having difficult conversations with people. A great example is two weeks ago: I was in a battalion leadership position, in charge of 75-ish midshipmen [from area universities]. There was a fierce divide between the river—MIT and Harvard midshipmen a certain way, and the BU, BC midshipmen treating the program a certain way—not respecting each other’s differences, in race, politics, issues of believing that certain schools are better or worse than others.
I had to pull together a group of 75 college students, get up in front of them and basically lead an hour-long lecture on the issues and how we were going to remedy it. You’re thrust into an executive-level position dealing with command, climate, and culture as a 22-year-old. It’s a microcosm of the United States: the military is striving to be exceptional, but you’re going to face the same problems that broader society faces. The stakes are higher for a military organization when it comes to those issues. So at the first sign of any differences, you have to nip it in the bud. When I talk about courage, you have to be the one to have that extremely difficult conversation with 75 people, preach to them about the importance of the unity and success of our battalion together.
It’s like the aircraft carrier. I’d never been on an aircraft carrier, much less driven an aircraft carrier. So I didn’t know any of the skills when I got up there, but what I knew was how to be calm under pressure, how to be confident, decisive. ROTC lends itself to that follow-on training.
Kern: I had the opportunity to attend the US Army Air Assault School. I learned “sling load operations”: you see giant water buffaloes or artillery cannons and how you’re able to sling them onto a helicopter. The culmination of that training was rappelling out of a helicopter, which is a pretty unique experience. I’m a political science major, and I’m able to do this crazy stuff.
Another excellent opportunity—Peter had the same one—we had the opportunity to intern with the Defense Threat Reduction Agency at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, Calif., working on nuclear security. But we also had an opportunity to play a lot of beach volleyball and golf, too. We’re developing war games that operational leaders could play to learn about nuclear weapons. We were there with West Point cadets, Naval Academy midshipmen, and cadets and midshipmen from colleges all across the country. Very exciting. You’re able to put together a comprehensive war game to train senior officers. We had people from the State Department that teach at the Naval Postgraduate School. We had a representative from the CIA come and talk with us for a little bit.
ROTC didn’t teach me an ounce about flying a helicopter, but it taught me the foundations of how to be a soldier, how to be a follower, how to be a leader.
McCabe: I got a lot of practice in leadership, public speaking, time management, and peer relationship–building that I would not have received as a regular student. I also met some of my greatest friends and mentors through the program. They have absolutely pushed my life in a better direction.
BU Today: How might incoming students decide whether ROTC is right for them or not?
McCabe: You get out of it what you put into it. You’ll stay up late, wake up early for PT [physical training], and do things that your classmates are not doing. If you want an opportunity to live a different lifestyle and the chance for meaningful work, then the military could be for you.
Air Force ROTC doesn’t do as specific training because jobs at your technical school after you commission teach you the required knowledge. There is a general focus on leadership and self-development, from your peers up to the detachment level, whether it’s drill, leadership problem-solving, planning training for younger cadets, or physical fitness. There are opportunities for additional training for interested cadets. I was fortunate to go to Air Assault School, where they teach you how to rappel out of helicopters, which was pretty fun—that’s an Army school, and not required for Air Force cadets.
Barto: For the Navy, if you’re in high school and you’re thinking of ROTC, they give you a taste the summer before [freshman year of college]. Mine was during COVID. We had a two-week quarantine period before the training even started; you were living in these barracks, just not seeing the light of day, just eating meals delivered to you. We lost a lot of people [due] to the mental elements.
To show up on those early mornings, and then still go to that 8 am [class] after you’ve already worked out for an hour, is going to take a concerted effort to buy into [the idea] that you can make it through your day. We lost at least five [BU ROTC students] after our freshman year, either for medical reasons or because the program wasn’t what they thought it was going to be.
The other thing is discerning, if you want to do ROTC, why come to BU? The support that we receive is uniquely done at BU. [BU is a host campus, where ROTC students from other greater Boston universities train and study.] For example, we get a room and board stipend through BU.
President [Melissa] Gilliam is coming to our commissioning.
Kern: A lot of institutions can be really good in one aspect. Maybe they have great academic rigor, but the military side is lacking. BU blends all to create the best possible officer. If you’re serious about ROTC and being a military officer, you should be very serious about BU.
If you’re thinking about joining ROTC, you’re already on the right track. A part of the mission appeals to you. Then you [must] have the discipline and the work ethic, because that’s really all it takes—the commitment to show up as the best person that you can be for the battalion.
If you’re serious about ROTC and being a military officer, you should be very serious about BU.
BU Today: What did you have to give up to do ROTC?
Barto: Things like hanging out with your friends on a Wednesday night, [when] you have to be up at 5 am on Thursdays.
Kern: There’ve been a couple Halloween weekends missed. [But] we’ve done everything that a normal college student could do. I have been in a fraternity; I’ve participated in clubs.
There’s a gravity to what showing up means, and the gravity is that I am undergoing this training to be a better leader when I commission. Being that better leader, it could mean the difference between life and death for someone in the future, for someone that you are leading. If you look at it from that lens, it doesn’t seem like that big a sacrifice.
BU Today: What are your biggest hopes for your military career, and your biggest concerns?
Kern: The world is a very complex environment right now. I find myself checking the news in the morning and being surprised at what I see. Obviously, it’s in the back of my mind.
You’ll hear this phrase a lot with the army: the army is a people business, and my immediate focus is just being the best leader I can be for the soldiers that I interact with. That can look like making the right decisions in a combat environment. It could be checking in on them and their personal lives and if there’s anything that they need. At the end of the day, we won’t have too much to do with the grand decisions. We’ll have a lot to do, however, with the people that we lead and keeping them safe.
Barto: An important point about officership is that you’re the one that can bridge the stratification between your soldiers and sailors. So while they may not have to worry about the news, it’s your job to worry about it and then let them know the relevant, mission-specific things that affect them. That is why we study things like political science and international relations.
Part of accepting a commission is submitting to all that uncertainty. My concern—it doesn’t keep me up at night, but is something to think about—is how am I going to balance that obligation to my sailors and obligation to the Navy with my own interests when I go home at night? How am I going to make time to do the things I like, like running or working out? How am I going to make sure that when I’m deployed for six months to an unknown location, how am I going to manage a relationship with my girlfriend or my family? Working those things out is important, so you’re not left like a chicken with its head cut off.
McCabe: I wanted to do meaningful work that made an impact on other people, whether locally or abroad. I’ve made some lifelong friends, have no college debt, and some skills that will serve me well after the military.
A concern of mine is that we continue our strategic partnerships with our allies worldwide. It’s disheartening to see America’s place eroded somewhat in the world order. I hope that the next few years are as great as the last few at BU have been.
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