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I'm Keith Antonia the Director of Cadet Admissions here
My job is to find high school students and college transfer students
who are interested in participating in a world-class leadership development and
education program
while they're getting their Bachelor's Degrees my staff and I receive
applications for admission to the university and evaluate those
and determine whether or not you're accepted for admission to the university
and participate as a cadet in the Corps of Cadets by way of further introduction
I'm a 1981 graduate of the University of Connecticut
I majored in general business administration and I'm a product of the
Army ROTC program there
so on the day I graduated from UCONN I went straight into the Army as a
Lieutenant
what I intended to do was to serve for three years
as a soldier in the army and then get out of the army and go do something else
with my life
and I wanted to serve for three years because I felt that I owed
a debt of service to servicemen and women came before me who either fought in our
nation's wars
or served in the peacetime military to preserve and protect my freedom
my liberty, my way of life so I said okay I want to serve three in and get out but
I ended up staying in the Army for twenty years instead of three years
so what happened what made me change my mind?
first of all the army gave me the job that I wanted to do as an officer
I wanted to be an infantry officer and they made me an infantry officer
and then second they sent me where I wanted to go I wanted to go to Fort Bragg North
Carolina to the 82nd Airborne Division
Becuase I wanted to be a paratrooper platoon leader so they sent me there
and as soon as I got there I took command of my 40-man rifle platoon and
started jumping out of airplanes and stuff in the middle of the night with my guys
in the early nineteen eighties when I was a Lieutenant the Army sent our battalion to
Grenada
to help remove the cubans off the island of Grenada and establish a democratic form
of government after a bloody communist coup
they also sent our battalion over to the Siani in Egypt
to go help keep peace between the Egyptians and the Israelis for several months
and i got married a year into the army had my first born son two years into the
army
and so when my three year service obligation came up I wasn't even thinking about
getting out
I was having a blast most of the time sometimes it kind of stunk being too cold too
hot too tired too hungry too wet
too physically exhausted but overall it was a very satisfying and
gratifying job so I decided to stay I spent the rest of my career then
all in Airborne and Ranger units so I have two tours with the 82nd Airborne
Division at Fort Bragg
I have two tours and eight years working special operations with the 75th Ranger
Regiment
in 1989 I jumped into Panama with the First Ranger Battalion
to help seize Torrijos Tocumen international airfield grab General Noriega there
the president of the country and bring him back here to face money laundering drug
charges
I also have two tours training Army Ranger Students
One tour in the Benning phase of Army Ranger School and my last job in the army was
the commander of the mountain phase of
Ranger School which is just a few miles north here of our campus
now I tell you a little bit about my background and experience
So that you know that I've got some credibility when I talk to you about the
programs and the opportunities that are available for you as students at North
Georgia as cadets in the Corps of Cadets
but also as Lieutenants in the United States Army after you graduate from
college