“Interested in the ROTC? Check this box.”

It’s on every single college application out there. For some new students, that box means giving up some random free time usually spent watching television and getting a scholarship for tuition in return. All of that changed when the war in Iraq began in March of 2003.

“My experience here has been far from good, awful, in fact,” said Sgt. Anthony Deal, a former ISU student, in a recent letter to his aunt that she provided to the Daily.

Deal, a soldier in the Army Reserve, has been deployed for a year, spending much of that time in Iraq.

“I have looked at every possible aspect of whether or not I should stay in the Army. For every negative reason there is a positive one,” Deal wrote. “This past year has been the worst year of my life. Everything that I planned has failed.”

He said in the letter he’s felt a mixture of emotions from his experience in Iraq, including rage, compassion and love.

“I am confused. So I am faced with questions. Where is my life going? What direction should I take? Should I stay in the [A]rmy? To all these questions I have the same answer. I don’t know,” he wrote.

He isn’t the only soldier overseas who seems to be questioning whether to leave the Army. According to a recent internal Army National Guard Bureau survey, Guard soldiers who are ending long overseas deployments may start leaving the military at a faster rate. The survey suggests the rate could jump from 16 percent per year — the figure at the end of 2003 — to 20 or 22 percent per year.

According to the National Guard Web site, www.arng.army.mil, a mass exodus is not expected — Department of Defense officials say the figures might not be totally reliable. The Army is still working to address retention rates, however.

At least five soldiers have been deployed from Iowa State in the past two months.

Army Capt. Daniel Runyon, adjunct instructor of military science and tactics, put the numbers in a historical perspective.

“After every conflict, whether it be World War I, World War II or Vietnam, this has happened. It’s nothing surprising,” Runyon said.

Even though soldier morale overseas may be down, the ISU Army ROTC program is still thriving. With 200 people, the program is larger than in recent years and is still growing, Runyon said. He said he sees no more or less demand on his students because of the conflict overseas. However, because of the current situation in Iraq, reasons for joining the ROTC have changed, he said. In the past, the ROTC has been a way to pay for college, but now, it has become a means to help the United States.

“The vision is not looking at ROTC as finance. [Sept. 11] affected the people I see at a pretty critical time,” Runyon said. “Now a significant number say, ‘I want to give back to my country,’ ‘It has opened my eyes to a different world outside the U.S.,’ and ‘The U.S. is such a great country and I want to defend it.'”

ROTC students on campus said they made good decisions in joining. Leia Guccione, senior in mechanical engineering, said she has wanted to be in the Navy since eighth grade. After considering the U.S. Naval Academy, she received a scholarship for the ROTC program at Iowa State and joined the Navy ROTC. In the four years Guccione has been part of ROTC, she has also seen the program change.

“We do more risk management and have more training that is sensitive to terrorism and conflicts in the Middle East,” Guccione said. “[The conflicts overseas] have reaffirmed my decision to join the program, in particular, the events of 9/11.”

Kimberly Amunson, freshman in industrial engineering, agreed.

“[ROTC] is a good opportunity to serve my country and use my education to help the country,” Amunson said.

She said she joined the Air Force ROTC program at the beginning of this year because she admires her father, an enlisted Air Force soldier.

While students are focusing on being patriotic in the ROTC program, Deal is still overseas, wondering if he made the right decision.

“I have been gone a year. I have missed one-25th of my life. This deployment has hurt my friends and family. I have been hurt, physically, mentally and emotionally. Will the hurt stop once I get home?” Deal’s letter says.