The Daily Toreador - Student Newspaper of Texas Tech

Issue date: 3/28/08 Section: News

Media Credit: Courtesy photo

A year out of high school, with a steady job under his belt and no intention of joining the military, Richard Rodriguez thought he had life planned out.

Having a keen interest in computers, he just had taken a job as a flash animator with a computer company in Houston.

"I was 19 years old, sitting at a desk, and I knew that I was going to be doing that for the rest of my life," Rodriguez said. "I could literally feel my butt getting bigger."

Rodriguez said his plans changed after the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001. He said he told his boss he was joining the army, and he left Houston that day to go back to his hometown, Borger, to talk to a recruiter.

"That recruiter was the same recruiter that tried to get me to join the military in high school," he said. "I was the most prejudiced about joining the Army when I was in high school."

After the terrorist attacks, Rodriguez said he knew he did not want to stay at home and let the problems come to him.

"Nothing like that had ever happened before in the U.S., at least during my lifetime," he said, "and because it was such a big deal, I figured there was probably going to be a big conflict."

After going through about 30 weeks of training, Rodriguez was stationed in Fort Louis, Wash., as a communications sergeant, he said. Though he was deployed to many places, the decision that influenced his college career came when he was in Thailand.

"I was sitting in a tent, hooking up wires," he said, "when my captain came up to me and flat out told me that I needed to go to college. He asked me where I wanted to go and even paid for my application fee."

Rodriguez said he applied for the Green to Gold program, a scholarship program for enlisted soldiers who want to attend college and become a commissioned officer, according to the Go Army Web site.

Rodriguez, now a junior computer science major in the Army ROTC program at Texas Tech, said he knows joining the army was the best decision he ever has made.

"Most people think they won't go to college if they join the army," he said, "but I wouldn't have gone to college, if I hadn't joined the army."

Kindra Myers, a Tech alumna, said for the three years she has known Rodriguez, he always has enjoyed being around people.

"He's pretty involved with the ROTC program," Myers said. "It's definitely something he enjoys doing."

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