“It’s a sobering experience,” the fisheries and wildlife senior said. “I really can’t explain it.”

Locher, who had thought about joining the military since he was 14 years old, said Sept. 11 solidified his decision, and he enlisted in the Marine Corps the summer after he finished high school in 2002.

After serving four years as a combat engineer in Iraq, Locher came back to the U.S., received his associate’s degree from a community college and began attending MSU in fall 2009.

“I have a different outlook on life now,” he said. “I know what I want to do and I know what I have to do to get it.”
Locher’s career of choice is to become a ranger at a national park and he picked MSU for its fisheries and wildlife program.

Locher, who is the president of the Spartan Armed Forces Council and MSU chapter of the Student Veterans of America, said the clubs give him an opportunity to be with people he relates to.

“I wouldn’t call it a comfort zone, but it’s nice to be with people of a similar background,” he said. “Our youngest student (veteran) is 22, a lot of us are in our mid- to late-20s and some of us are in our early 30s.”

Locher’s mother and Monroe, Mich., resident Teresa Locher said watching her son enlist was frightening initially, but she had known of their son’s interest in the military for years.

“This was something that (he) wanted to do with his whole heart, and we just supported it the best we could,” she said.

Teresa Locher said her son wasn’t necessarily immature before the Marine Corps, but she watched him enlist as a boy and return as a grown man.

“He always tried hard, but now he gives more than 100 percent in whatever he does,” she said.

Dave Locher, who worked with construction, explosives, heavy machinery as well as cross training as a radio operator and machine gunner in Iraq, said the discipline he learned in the Marine Corps makes sitting down to do homework much easier.

“The military forces you to grow up, so we have the maturity level that some kid fresh out of high school doesn’t have,” he said. “You just have different mindsets on life.”

Veronica Quesnell, a fisheries and wildlife junior who served in the army for six years, is on the executive board for the clubs and said Locher’s experience in the Marine Corps transferred to his involvement in the student-run groups.

“It comes kind of easy to us because we’ve been through other circumstances and situations, so we’re more prepared to assume leadership positions when we get out of the military,” she said.

The veteran-centered clubs are focused on volunteering in the community, in addition to supporting students who have served. Quesnell said service-oriented projects allow her and the other veterans to maintain some of the same values they had when they were active in the military.

“A lot of us joined the military out of a sense of duty and that’s part of what we’re doing with these clubs,” she said. “We’re still trying to give something back to our country and to our community.”

Locher and Quesnell said the adjustment to civilian and student life was tough, but they bring their life experiences back to campus and draw from them.

“Sometimes it’s hard to relate and it’s not just because of being a veteran,” Quesnell said. “Some of us have seen the ugliest things in the world you can see, and some of us have seen the greatest things and the most saddest things.”

Now when he watches the news and sees military coverage, Locher said his great respect has morphed into camaraderie, but he still has mixed feelings.

“I look at it and say, ‘Are those my guys?’” he said. “Part of me wishes I was still in, but I did my four years and I’m trying to move on with my life.”