“It’s pretty bad that my Internet is better here in Baghdad than yours is in 108 Bessey Hall,” he joked.

The event was part of a Veterans Day ceremony held by the MSU Air Force ROTC. Beginning at the Alumni Memorial Chapel, the group marched to the Administration Building before talking with Zanotti, an MSU ROTC graduate who’s serving his fifth month of a sixth-month tour in Iraq.

Lt. Col. Michael Connelly, the detachment commander for the Air Force ROTC programs at MSU, Central Michigan University and Western Michigan University, has served multiple tours in Afghanistan, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. Connelly said Veterans Day is an opportunity for veterans to be recognized for the work they do by the citizens they defend.

“We’re actually working to improve the world’s peace and we kind of get lost in the political aspect of anti-war and all that other stuff,” Connelly said.

“We’re peacemakers, too, just in a different way.”

Katie Broyles, an MSU senior and cadet wing commander for MSU Air Force ROTC, said she knew she needed to do something to serve the country after Sept. 11. That feeling resulted in her enrolling in the MSU ROTC program six years later.

“I felt that I needed to do something, after seeing the (Twin Towers) fall and the plane crash into the building,” Broyles said. “I knew that I wanted to do everything in my power to prevent something like that from happening to a family member, a friend or anyone for that matter.”

Broyles said her dad is a veteran of the Army and her grandfather is a Navy veteran. She decided to join the Air Force because of the branch’s dominance in the skies, clearing out areas for the Army and Marines to move in.

When she graduates in May, Broyles most likely will be separated from the group of ROTC students she’s gotten to know since her freshman year.

“That camaraderie that’s among us, just in our detachment, is incredible,” Broyles said. “I’m excited to see what it will be like on active duty.”

Zanotti fielded questions from more than 10 ROTC members — talking about everything from his work as a civil engineer to the differences between the Taco Bell menus in the U.S. and Iraq.

When it comes down to it, it’s the little things in life that Zanotti said he took for granted back home in Michigan, like going out for dinner and hanging out on his couch on a Saturday afternoon.

“It was so dusty the first four months I was here that I just wanted to see a blue sky,” Zanotti said.

Working six days a week, Zanotti said he doesn’t have much free time, but when he does, he uses it to go fishing, explore old palaces in the area once used by Saddam Hussein, and, when he can, keep true to his Spartan roots.

“I’ve been staying up until 3 a.m. Saturday nights to see MSU play (football),” Zanotti said.