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Home » About Norwich » SGS Today »
News Article
Jerome Devitt loads a mortar shell while visiting the United States Military Academy artillery range [photo courtesy of Tod Rathbone].
Residency road warriors
by Amy Roach Partridge, correspondent
© Aug. 14, 2009 Norwich University Office of Communications
It may seem harder to make friends in an online classroom than on a university campus, but don't tell that to Jerome Devitt, William O'Brien and Tod Rathbone.
The three Master of Arts in Military History (MMH) students forged a friendship in cyberspace that began during their first week of class and culminated in a two-week military history road trip — a trip O'Brien jokingly dubbed "The Greater Northeast U.S. Battlefield and Monuments Tour."
These included sites around Boston and the Springfield Armory in Massachusetts, Saratoga, Fort Ticonderoga and West Point in New York, Gettysburg in Pennsylvania, Maryland's Antietam National Battlefield, and on to Washington DC.
All three felt a sense of kinship upon meeting online long before the trip.
"We found out pretty quickly that we had a shared camaraderie in how we thought, and a mutual respect for each others' ideas," said Rathbone, a 46-year-old advertising executive in Los Angeles, Calif.
"We started corresponding, at first, about the class, but it evolved into a friendship very quickly. Though it's a virtual environment, you spend so much time together that it's like interacting in a real classroom," added 33-year-old O'Brien, a retired infantry officer and stay-at-home dad in Leavenworth, Kans.
Devitt also credits the classroom management of Professor John Broom, who arranged students into groups he thought would work well together.
The friends bonded over studies, but a shared sense of turbulence in their respective private lives cemented the relationship. During the 18 months they pursued their degrees, O'Brien was on active duty in Iraq, Rathbone was enduring a rough divorce and Devitt, a 31-year-old educator at a boarding school in Dublin, Ireland, was caring for a young daughter while his wife studied for medical board exams.
"We were all saying to each other, 'I don't know how I'm going to get through this,' and we used each other as support to hang on," said Rathbone.
Once they did "get through it," the Residency Week requirement provided the perfect scenario for their trip, which was spurred by Devitt's desire to make the most of his transatlantic journey.
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“Both on the trip and throughout our courses, Will was always a reminder that military history is about men and women dying for the cause. It's not just a subject that you are studying.”
— Tod Rathbone |
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"If I was going to travel 3,000 miles, I wanted to get the best value from the trip and so I decided to visit as many of the Northeast's battlefields as possible," he said.
After O'Brien and Rathbone decided to join Devitt, the trio quickly adapted what Devitt called an "organic decision-making process" for determining what sites to visit. This largely itinerary-free trip led to some of the most memorable stops, including a visit to the United States Military Academy at West Point where, through a friend of O'Brien's, the group was able to fire mortar shells on the artillery range.
They also stopped spontaneously at Springfield Armory on Armory Day where they got to watch Civil War re-enactments, revolutionary cannon displays and classes on the development of the rifle.
The trip provided a few sobering moments, especially for O'Brien — the only traveler with military experience. While touring West Point's cemetery, they happened upon the gravesite of one of O'Brien's Army pals. They also stopped at Arlington National Cemetery to visit comrades of his who died in a helicopter crash during battle.
"Both on the trip and throughout our courses, Will was always a reminder that military history is about men and women dying for the cause. It's not just a subject that you are studying," said Rathbone.
Will's military experience, combined with the group's studies at Norwich, made their battlefield visits a much richer experience.
"Because I had that 'boots on the ground' experience, I was able to explain to Jerome and Tod the impact of terrain and tactics on a battle's outcome," said O'Brien.
"Will's description of what he'd have done with his unit at Little Round Top in Gettysburg was particularly enlightening," Devitt added.
The three scholars agreed that finally meeting each other and other classmates during Residency Week was the key to the experience.
"It was great to attend lectures and spend evenings discussing history in the college pub with the students from the cohort," said Devitt.
"Solidifying the friendship with Jerome and Tod was the best," O'Brien added. "We will be friends forever."
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