3 - 2014

Save these Dates

26 February - 1 March 2015
ALLIES Symposium: Russia in XXI Century
  
16 May 2015
ROTC Commissioning Ceremony 
Goddard Chapel
More Information
"Serving Those Who Serve"

Dean Stavridis on ROTC

Tufts Alumni Calendar

Contacts

Gresh Lattimore, Chair
Advocates for Tufts ROTC

Gina Regonini, Assistant Director
Shared Interest Groups
From the Chair

Fellow Advocates!

 

You would have been proud to be at our Veterans Day Pass the Flag ceremony!  See the following photos to sense the beauty of that day!  (Thank you, Margot Lenhardt!) Greg Arabian, A54, Major, USAF (Retired) was our flag recipient. Both he and our main speaker, Ben Sands, E54, Capt, USMC (Retired), have been longtime supporters of the Advocates. We enriched this November's ceremony (1) with the reading of "I am the flag of the United States of America" by Howard Schnauber during the passing of the flag, (2) by the singing of America the Beautiful by our famed Tufts Jackson Jills (Thanks to Army Cadet Gabrielle Luiselli, who also happens to be a Jackson Jill!), and (3) by the playing of Taps (Thanks to Charley Falletta, AROTC, Harvard, class of 2016). About 60 people attended the following program and luncheon at Ballou Hall. We gratefully thank Army Cadet Edward Lowe and Midshipman Vadim Reytblat, also the master of ceremonies, for their superb planning skills!

Note that going forward in our "Save the Dates" section, we're including important events of our Tufts undergraduate, military-friendly ALLIES (Alliance Linking Leaders in Education and the Services). We support each other's events and they are represented on our Advocates committee.

 

Finally, we feature an interview with the first recipient of our ROTC - Veterans Scholarship, Keith Wasserboehr, a Navy veteran. Thanks to the generosity of so many of you, we are well on our way towards helping our ROTC students and veterans earn their Tufts degrees.  Between gifts and estate pledges, we have raised over $150,000 to date. A significant amount of that provides a real impact for students like Keith. With the year-end approaching, we once again ask for your support in this meaningful effort.  Every gift counts! We are grateful for your consideration.

 

Thanks for your support of the Advocates over the past year! Your suggestions for new initiatives are always welcome. Happy Holidays!

 

Gresh Lattimore, F65, F69, PhD72

CAPT USNR (Ret)

 

Veterans Day Ceremony

Glorious November 11 at Memorial Steps 


Greg Arabian, A54; Major, USAF (Ret) Flag Recipient

Jackson Jills sing America the Beautiful


Salute at Taps


Main Speaker Ben Sands, E54; Capt, USMC (Ret)


Audience responds to Ben Sands


Jackson Jills at reception with Advocates Chair, Gresh Lattimore


Master of Ceremonies, Midshipman Vadim Reytblat, Speaker Ben Sands, Arts & Sciences Dean Jim Glaser

ROTC/Returning Veteran Scholarship Recipient

REAL student Keith Wasserboehr is the inaugural ROTC/Veterans Scholarship recipient

 

Since 1970 Tufts has welcomed students transferring from other educational institutions through its REAL (Resumed Education for Adult Learning) program.  Sometimes these students are also veterans, which makes them eligible for the Tufts ROTC / Veterans Scholarship; an effort launched last summer thanks to the generosity of many of you.

 

Keith Wasserboehr, a REAL student and Navy Veteran, is the inaugural recipient of this award.   Keith volunteered to join the Navy upon graduation from high school in August 2006 because the Navy promised him a chance to become an aviation mechanic.  After initial schooling, he was assigned to a P3 Orion (anti-submarine and maritime surveillance aircraft) squadron at Whidbey Island, Washington.  His squadron subsequently deployed to U.S. bases in Qatar and Bahrain in the Persian Gulf for nearly two years, during which time, Keith married his wife Tanya.  While Keith enjoyed his Navy service, the long separations from Tanya finally convinced him to return to civilian life.  He began taking classes at Middlesex Community College, was accepted into the REAL program at Tufts, and is grateful for the opportunity. 

 

Keith is a psychology major who is now contemplating how to apply his knowledge towards a fulfilling career when he graduates in 2016.   He enjoys working with young children so he has been substituting at an elementary school in Billerica, while also volunteering at the Bedford VA.   His wife Tanya is also pursuing a degree in early childhood education at Middlesex Community College. 

 

Keith's active duty service qualifies him for GI Bill educational benefits, but that only covers about half of his Tufts tuition.  Thanks to funding from the Tufts ROTC/Veterans Scholarship, the Tufts Yellow Ribbon program and other sources, he is able to pursue his educational dreams at Tufts.

 

If Keith's story speaks to you, please consider donating to our ROTC - Veterans Scholarship effort so that we may help more of our student -veterans earn their degrees from Tufts.

 

Donate to the Tufts ROTC/Veterans Scholarship Fund.  To ensure your gift is properly allocated, please select either "School of Arts & Sciences" or "Engineering," select "Other," and type in "ROTC/Veterans Scholarship."

 

ROTC Student Profiles
 

Gabrielle Luiselli, Cadet, Future Surgeon, Singer and

Musician

Gabrielle Luiselli was a competitive figure skater for 15 years before enrolling at Tufts.    "Tufts was decision time for me", she recalls.  Either she would devote herself completely to her sport and defer college until her mid-twenties, or she would pursue her dream of becoming a surgeon and enjoy a full college experience.  She chose the latter and has no regrets.

 

With several generations of soldiers and sailors in her family including a two-star general, Gabrielle naturally inclined toward ROTC.  She joined in her freshman year and has found life as an Army cadet all she hoped for, and more.  "The Army offers some of the finest surgical training in the world," says Gabrielle, who has worked in the office of her uncle, an orthopedic surgeon, but is also studying neuroscience.  "And all the physical training fills the gap that I really miss from my skating; it keeps me in shape."

 

Gabrielle is a member of the Jackson Jills, one of Tufts' oldest a cappella singing groups.  The year she tried out for this 15-member group, she was one of only three students selected out of the 70-plus who tried out.  She remembers her tryout vividly: "The Jills had to conduct the tryouts all night long for two nights in a row.  My tryout came at 3:00 a.m.  I was so tired and nervous I don't know how I was ever able to sound like myself."   The Jills have performed all over New England and traveled to San Francisco during this past spring break.

 

Thanks to Gabrielle's encouragement, the Jackson Jills attended the Veterans Day Ceremonies sponsored by the Tufts ROTC students and the Advocates for Tufts ROTC.  As special guests at the Flag Ceremony, they sang a beautiful and inspiring rendition of America the Beautiful.  We hope the presence of the Jills at this event will become an annual tradition.

 

Gabrielle, a sophomore who hails from Carlisle, MA, is planning on majoring in biopsychology with a minor in music.  In addition to singing, she is also a talented musician, playing the flute in the Tufts Symphony Orchestra and the Tufts Flute Ensemble.  She is a member of Kappa Alpha Theta Sorority.

Midshipman Vadim Reytblat Takes the Lead at Veterans Day Ceremony

 

The flawless execution of the flag ceremony on Veterans Day and the inspiring ceremony that followed created a truly memorable experience.  This was due in large part to the leadership and guidance of Master of Ceremonies Vadim Reytblat, E15.

 

Vadim, a senior Mechanical Engineering major from Los Angeles, came to Tufts on a four-year ROTC scholarship.  He knew he wanted to join the military, and even briefly considered joining the Marines after high school "but my mother put her foot down about that idea", he says.

 

Vadim is the Company Executive Officer for the MIT Company, one of two companies that make up the Old Ironsides Battalion composed of Tufts, MIT and Harvard midshipmen.  The commanding officers of the ROTC units select a handful of the top performing students to hold these leadership positions. 

 

Soccer plays an important role in Vadim's life.  He is goalkeeper for the Tufts club soccer team, which finished its season with a 7-1-0 record and qualified for Regional Playoffs. There, they made it to the final round and earned a trip to the Club Soccer National Championships.   Although they were stopped in post season, the team can take pride in being one of the top 24 teams of their class in the nation. 

 

Knowing that getting through the freshman year can be difficult for an engineering student with a demanding course load, Vadim is an active member of the newly formed Tufts Engineering Mentors.  He is also working to help set up a TEDx (Technology, Entertainment, and Design) chapter at Tufts, which would feature Tufts-affiliated speakers and bring together faculty, students, staff and alumni.

 

Vadim sees the Fletcher Fellows and other military officers studying at Fletcher as a tremendous resource, and hopes to help organize some informal working lunches next semester with the Tufts ROTC cadets and midshipmen.

 

Next year Vadim will be heading to Pensacola, Florida for training in Information Warfare, which was his top choice.  As he describes his new assignment, "It's a combination of crypto and signals intelligence."

 

Where Are They Now?

MAJ Brendan Cullinan, US Army, A99 - AROTC.  Deputy Chief for Transformation at the Pentagon, a group which plans for the future needs of Army aviation.  He has had four deployments to both Iraq and Afghanistan.  Brendan and his wife Rebecca (Scott), also A99, have 4 children and live in the Washington DC area.

If you have any information on other ROTC alumni, please contact Gina Regonini in the Office of Alumni Relations (gina.regonini@tufts.edu).
William Daley, Editor
Office of Alumni Relations / 80 George Street / Medford, Massachusetts 02155