Pursuing a degree under fire
By Karen Blakeman
Advertiser Staff Writer
Army Master Sgt. Jay Lewis, a student at Hawai'i Pacific University and a career military man, deployed to Afghanistan in July.
He has at least another four months before he can return home and to HPU's campus, but he's been keeping up with his studies online.
Lewis
"I'm a computer guy," Lewis said during a recent 15-day R&R at home in Mililani with his wife, Yvonne. "I'm a communications sergeant, and it's a good job that also keeps me close to the Internet connection I need for online courses."
Lewis travels a lot. Two months before he left for Afghanistan, he was in South Korea. Before that, he was in Bosnia, and there were shorter trips in between.
He tries not to let all the moving around get in the way of his education. He started taking occasional classes 15 years ago and got serious about it seven years ago. What the Army took away with frequent deployments, it gave back — to some degree — with an Internet connection.
Lewis is stationed at a small forward operating base in eastern Afghanistan, near the Pakistan border.
For reasons he can't explain but suspects have to do with homesick Italian troops, the name of the base is Salerno.
He works at what is basically a computer and communications help desk in an office fashioned out of plywood partitions. It isn't fancy, he said, but it is wired.
"I usually come into work in the early morning and get off in the early evening," he said. "Then I stay a couple extra hours to do homework."
Staying on track for his degree is important, Lewis said. He plans to retire from the Army in May 2006.
He wants to have a computer science degree on his resume when he hits the streets of Honolulu, looking for a job in information technology.
"I think the degree, combined with the experience, will really help," Lewis said.
Many soldiers pursue their college educations while serving, said Sgt. Kendrick Washington, media relations NCO at Schofield. Chaminade University also offers online courses, he said. Nationally, the soldiers have a number of colleges from which to chose.
Lewis said the class he is taking now includes an online discussion group and periodic online quizzes and essay questions. Some of the work is offline, but in computer sciences, he said, most isn't.
"I'm lucky to have an Internet connection," Lewis said. "A lot of soldiers don't. I wouldn't even attempt it if my only connection was through the morale centers. You have to stand in line, and your time is limited to a half-hour or so, so homework might take several trips. I guess it is not impossible, just difficult."
Despite his fortuitous circumstances, Lewis does have interruptions. When a soldier needs help, he said, he drops the homework and helps. When a rocket lands too close to the camp, he goes to the bunker.
Since the artillery headquarters has finished moving its equipment onto the base, insurgents have become less likely to launch rockets, Lewis said. He was on the last day of his recent R&R, and was packing his bags as he spoke. His wife was lending a hand.
"We have the big guns at Salerno," Lewis said. "They don't like the big guns."
Reach Karen Blakeman at kblakeman@honoluluadvertiser.com or 535-2430.
