YET ANOTHER ONE…
Whether it’s showing up back from Afghanistan to help with summer training, acting as consultants from combat zones, or just telling stories at the reunions, the support and interest we get from our alumni is amazing.
You know you’re part of a special organization when people who have been there and done that in training and in combat come back and tell you how valuable their B-12 experience was.
We hope you’ll check out all the testimonials on the site, but here’s the latest one, from an alumnus who graduated just last year:
On April 11th, 2009 I became a Pershing Rifleman, and it was the proudest day of my life.
Since then I’ve commissioned, and graduated from Boston University (cum laude), Infantry Basic Officer Leadership Course, Air Assault School, Ranger School, and the Reconnaissance and Surveillance Leaders Course. That day I was handed my blue cord is still, without a doubt, the proudest day of my life.
Achieving great reward requires great sacrifice. Candidate Term during my second semester freshman year pushed me mentally and physically. At first you feel as if you have an insurmountable amount of tasks to complete; on top of that small thing called school. As you progress through Candidate Term, you become a master of time management. Not a second of a day is wasted. Your efficiency becomes habit, and your habits become character traits.
Those character traits are invaluable. The time management, technical skills, confidence, and poise that you acquire throughout Candidate Term will be indispensable in every endeavor you undertake. Like the time I sat on a mountain in Dahlonega, Georgia in February while it was snowing sideways; I couldn’t help but chuckle to myself. I’d done this before – as a PR candidate on a similarly remote mountain somewhere in the Northeast.
Or when on a patrol in Florida, the Ranger Instructor asked me after traveling over 3 kilometers already, how much farther we had to go? I told him 275 meters and he looked at his GPS, looked at me, and simply said, “damn, Ranger,” and walked away. I had been there before too – on a patrol with Pershing Rifles members questioning my every move and preparing me for the stress of an environment like Ranger School.
Or the time I was sitting in a giant hole I had dug and camouflaged for myself and my teammates, taking notes on the most minute details of enemy activity during RSLC. I had been there too – covertly taking detailed notes on the activity of Pershing Rifles members as a candidate, to allow me to complete my tasks.
I challenge you to find another organization that has recent alumni more accomplished in their line of work than this organization. B-12 Pershing Rifles is an organization that you want to join. And we want you to join, if you’re up for the challenge.
2LT Broderick served as B-12’s Commanding Officer and the Charles River Battalion’s Cadet Battalion Commander before graduating from BU and commissioning as an infantry officer in 2012. He is currently stationed at Fort Bragg, NC.