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Deaf man battling to join US Army
Source: Agencies |
August 22, 2011, Monday
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KEITH Nolan spent a decade applying repeatedly to US Army's Reserve Officers' Training Corps program before the deaf man's tenacity paid off and a commander finally let him audit the classes.
Nolan became a top performer in the ROTC program's Bravo Company at California State University at Northridge, and his instructors were so impressed they let him wear a uniform. He was distraught when he turned it back in and said goodbye to the other cadets in May. He could advance no further under the military's current policy that requires cadets pass a hearing test to be commissioned by the Army.
It was a stinging moment that burned in the soul of the bespectacled 29-year-old teacher, who is determined to break that barrier and achieve his lifetime dream of working in military intelligence.
"All I really want to do is join the Army," said Nolan, a confident, clean-cut man with a boyish face who signed to an interpreter in an interview at the university's ROTC office. He was flanked by posters with inspirational messages urging people to join. "I want to do my duty, serve my country and experience that camaraderie, and I can't, owed to the fact that I'm deaf."
Soldiers with disabilities have been returning to active duty in increasing numbers due largely to the fact that medical advances today are ensuring more people survive serious war injuries. All branches of the US armed forces over the past decade have started offering the opportunity for seriously wounded or disabled service members to remain on active duty by finding them jobs they can perform.
Nolan became a top performer in the ROTC program's Bravo Company at California State University at Northridge, and his instructors were so impressed they let him wear a uniform. He was distraught when he turned it back in and said goodbye to the other cadets in May. He could advance no further under the military's current policy that requires cadets pass a hearing test to be commissioned by the Army.
It was a stinging moment that burned in the soul of the bespectacled 29-year-old teacher, who is determined to break that barrier and achieve his lifetime dream of working in military intelligence.
"All I really want to do is join the Army," said Nolan, a confident, clean-cut man with a boyish face who signed to an interpreter in an interview at the university's ROTC office. He was flanked by posters with inspirational messages urging people to join. "I want to do my duty, serve my country and experience that camaraderie, and I can't, owed to the fact that I'm deaf."
Soldiers with disabilities have been returning to active duty in increasing numbers due largely to the fact that medical advances today are ensuring more people survive serious war injuries. All branches of the US armed forces over the past decade have started offering the opportunity for seriously wounded or disabled service members to remain on active duty by finding them jobs they can perform.
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