In November, the Department of Communication held a career fair
on the third floor of Xavier Hall. Approximately 30 students were
in attendance, arriving promptly with notebooks in hand and dressed
to impress, sporting their most professional attire.

At the fair, a panel of six area-corporation executives spoke to
the group of potential employees, sharing their advice and fielding
a variety of questions.

For many students, this brief information session served as a
wake-up call: The days of studying, partying and late-night dining
won’t last much longer.

While these career-minded individuals were sitting comfortably
in Xavier Hall, nibbling on pizza and sipping soda, Saint Louis
University junior Stephen Webber had just learned about his own
future, or at least 18 months of it.

Webber was told to withdraw from classes and cancel the lease on
his apartment. Within weeks, he would have to pack his bags and
prepare for battle–the defense of his country.

On Sept. 11, 2001, the nation watched in shock as two commercial
planes crashed in to the World Trade Center in New York City.
Another crashed into the Pentagon, and a fourth into a field in
Pennsylvania. Americans who had previously thought their country
was immune to terror quickly learned otherwise.

Webber sat in his dorm room, glued to the television screen.

“It never seemed fair to me that I was sitting safely in my dorm
room while people were risking their lives to protect me,” Webber
said.

And while that might have been only a passing thought in the
minds of most college students, Webber couldn’t stop thinking about
it. He decided to act.

During the summer after his freshman year, Webber made a
decision that would impact his life forever. He enlisted in the
United States Marine Corps.

Though Webber, a 3rd Battalion, 24th Regiment Marine, is
prepared for his deployment in January, he doesn’t know where he
will be stationed.

Jeff Pool, a spokesperson with Marine Forces Reserve in New
Orleans, commented on the status of Webber’s regiment:

“They’ll be activated for 12 months…with six months of that
year training on Okinawa. It has not been determined when within
that

one-year period. The 3/24 Marines will deploy to Okinawa or what
they will be doing for the other six months,” Pool said.

According to Stars and Stripes, a U.S. Military publication,
“sending

the reserve units gets them trained and ready, in the event they
are deployed to a real-world mission and frees up active units to
be deployed to those real-world missions.”

Webber has become accustomed to missing his spring semester of
college. Last year he spent three months at boot camp–and
describes the experience as a “living hell.”

“Your head is shaved, words like ‘I,’ ‘me’ and ‘you’ are banned,
and your name becomes a memory,” Webber said in a commentary he
wrote last year about his experiences. “You put on your left sock
when you are told to put on your left sock, shower with two
recruits to a showerhead and often have only two minutes to eat
chow.”

While at boot camp, Webber not only endured brutal conditions
but also battled a life-threatening illness–pneumonia. He endured
a high fever and coughed so hard that his eyes bled. Yet he still
had to train.

“It makes you mentally tougher because you know you can take
whatever they throw at you,” Webber said.

When asked whether he would make the same decision to enlist in
the Marines again, if given the opportunity, Webber paused.

“I wouldn’t say that I wouldn’t do it again, but I also think
about all I’ve given up,” Webber said.

After 18 months of service, when Webber is expected to return
home to Columbia, Mo., and re-enroll at SLU, he knows things will
be different.

“In a way, it makes you lonely because no one else can relate to
it. It’s a primitive existence,” he explains.

But for now, he’ll take advantage of the little things that most
SLU students take for granted–an opportunity to call his mom and
hear her voice; the chance to talk to his younger brother; dinners
at Jesuit Hall. And while other students are spending countless
hours in the library to ensure an impressive transcript, Webber
finds it difficult to concentrate on classes.

“It’s hard to care about school and microeconomic theory when
you could be gone for up to 18 months,” he said.

Webber’s friends are beginning to accept the reality of his
impending departure, a fact that brings the reality of the war in
Iraq very close to home. When senior Jimmy Sarcone commented on his
fraternity brother’s departure, his smile quickly faded.

“People don’t get much better than Stephen Webber,” Sarcone
said.