“Things are happening at a scale which I could not imagine,” said Andriy Zelinskyy, S.J., during a short visit from the front lines of the war in Ukraine. 

Father Zelinskyy made a 28-hour last-minute trip from Kyiv to the Bronx at the invitation of Fordham’s Army ROTC/Military Science Program and the Center on Religion and Culture after the campus Jesuit community helped make the connection. He was told by his commander last Tuesday that he had been granted a four-day leave.

After spending part of the day with cadets from eight colleges and universities who participate in the ROTC program at Fordham, the chaplain spoke to a crowd of more than 200 in the Keating Hall auditorium on March 2. LTC Paul Tanghe, director of the ROTC program and professor of military science, led a one-on-one discussion with the chaplain followed by questions from the audience.

“The greatest surprise for me is that a human being in the 21st century can be so cruel,” he said. “There is no reason for all this violence.” While he believes there is good in everyone, Zelinskyy said acts committed by Russian troops are empirical evidence of the damage caused by a corrupt society where people are so “unfree.”

The atrocities he has witnessed he only alluded to, but he said it is clear to him that Russian soldiers have been so indoctrinated they don’t know how to be human. He cited as an example the bombing of a theater clearly marked as having children inside. “That pilot knew what he was doing. There was no danger. There was no one standing over his shoulder (making him drop the bomb).”

Father Zelinskyy said that while we think of the war as a year old, he has served as a combat chaplain for nine years—since Russia’s invasion of Crimea in 2014, serving unarmed alongside soldiers on the front lines. A chaplain for 17 years in all, he served most of that time as a volunteer while advocating for Parliament to structure a formal role for chaplains in the armed forces. It did so in 2021.

He calls the role of combat chaplain “humble, but a very rich and effective ministry.” He said, “Chaplains have to find a way to share feelings with the soldiers and find sense even in the suffering. Friendship is one of the best ways. For me personally, the greatest reward is when you feel that you can unite people and reinforce them.”

An audience member asked what the rest of us can do to help.

“Don’t give up on the truth. Don’t give up on justice, on what’s really good. Don’t stop contemplating the beauty of the human heart. Stay human. That’s our responsibility,” Father Zelinskyy concluded.

The  “Chaplain in Combat” audience included a contingent of 20 U.S. Army chaplains as well as a New York Army National Guard chaplain. Members of the Jesuit community, Fordham Ukrainian Society students, and Fordham College at Rose Hill Dean Maura Mast also attended.

“Fordham is the flagship of the military-connected community in New York City,” said Tanghe. This event was part of a yearlong celebration of the University’s 175-year military legacy.

“I learned discipline, and I’ve been able to mature a lot more and make better decisions in my life,” said Garcia, who has served as an active-duty Marine for about a decade. “The military shaped me into a better man.”

Garcia now aspires to become a lieutenant colonel in the Marine Corps. When he retires from the Marines, he said, he plans on returning to civilian life—with the help of his new Fordham degree. This August, he will graduate from the School of Professional and Continuing Studies with his bachelor’s degree in information technology and systems.  

A NYC Native Who Grew Up in the Dominican Republic

Garcia was born and raised in Brooklyn. As a child, he always saluted police officers in the street. He considered them heroes and dreamed of becoming a police officer or a member of the U.S. military, he said. But when his father was unexpectedly deported to the Dominican Republic, 10-year-old Garcia put his dreams aside. 

“I left behind good friends, and life in the DR was not what I was expecting, especially coming from New York,” said Garcia, who lived in the DR until finishing high school. “It was challenging, but it prepared me for life ahead and made me a tougher person overall.”

After high school graduation, he returned to New York City to attend the Globe Institute of Technology and play collegiate-level baseball. But he said it wasn’t easy to balance sports, school, and a full-time job. He dropped out of school before graduating and joined the Marine Corps in 2012.

Garcia also worked as a Marine recruiter in Brooklyn. One of his favorite memories as a recruiter was participating with his fellow Marines in the Tunnel to Towers Race in New York City, an annual run that honors the final route of a fallen firefighter on 9/11.

“It not only represents the Marine Corps, but also New York and the United States,” Garcia said. “Being together and having all the civilians cheering us on was very powerful. I still have my running badge number with me.”

An Officer in Training and Aspiring Cybersecurity Specialist

For many years, Garcia has served as an enlisted Marine, with the goal of becoming an officer. But in order to become an officer, he needed to earn a college degree. In 2019, he was selected to join the Marine Enlisted Commissioning Education Program (MECEP), which allows select active-duty Marines to serve in the military while attending a four-year college full time. 

“This program allows me to pursue my education, to better myself, and ultimately, to become an officer and serve in the fleet Marine force, where I can better serve my military branch and become a leader among the enlisted ranks,” he said. 

In 2020, Garcia enrolled at Fordham and its Navy ROTC program. Over the past two years, he said he has learned to think outside of the box and gained valuable networking experiences. His uncle who works in IT inspired him to study information technology and systems. Now he hopes to also earn a master’s degree in cybersecurity and specialize in that field in the Marines. 

Upon graduation, Garcia will become an officer in the Marine Corps. He said he hopes to spend at least another decade in the Marines and then retire from the military. What awaits him is life as a civilian—and the ability to give back to his community full time. 

“I struggled as a kid, seeing my dad get deported. So when I think about my kids and others who may be struggling and unable to see a way out, I want to give them hope,” said Garcia, now a 32-year-old father who lives on Long Island with his wife and their three children. “I reach out to young individuals I recruited and see how they’re doing; I try to show them different programs they can participate in or push them to further their education.” 

‘What It Means to Succeed’: A Mentor for Young Marines 

Kevin Dewaine Leonard, a retired master sergeant who was stationed with Garcia in New York from 2015 to 2019, described Garcia as a family-oriented man. (Their families are close, and their children have trick-or-treated together during Halloween.) That same dedication toward his family has extended to his brothers and sisters in the Marines, said Leonard. 

Garcia took young Marines under his wing, especially teenagers who were living away from home for the first time, said Leonard. There were other higher-ups around, but it was Garcia who took the initiative to organize physical training sessions for the young Marines, work out with them, and get them in shape. 

“We never had a situation where a Marine failed a PT test or didn’t meet their development milestones because Garcia constantly had his hands on the pulse with those guys. And his training was effective. When the unit got called up to deploy in 2018, we didn’t have any Marines who weren’t in shape or ready for the task at hand. Sergeant Garcia made sure that those Marines were ready,” Leonard said. 

“Garcia was willing to work and to show those Marines exactly what they needed to be successful and to advance within the Marine Corps,” Leonard said. “He showed the Marine Corps what it means to succeed.” 

“To our soon-to-be officers, congratulations,” said Jack Keane, GABELLI ’66, a national security and foreign policy expert and Fordham trustee fellow who was the ceremony’s featured guest speaker. Later, he added: “The oath which you are about to take is a sacred trust between you and the American people.”

“We who take it, embrace it, and take it very seriously. I expect you to do the same,” said Keane, who administered the oath of office to the cadets. In his address, he outlined several security threats that he said will continue to challenge the military worldwide, ranging from a resurgent Russia to a belligerent and nuclear-armed North Korea.

Twenty-two cadets became second lieutenants at the May 17 commissioning ceremony, held in the University Church on the Rose Hill campus the day before Fordham’s 174th Annual Commencement. Another cadet was commissioned on May 20. Nine members of Fordham’s Class of 2019 were among the cadets, who attended a number of New York-area universities.

In his address, Keane told the cadets they are entering not just a job or a career but something “more akin to a vocation” because of the sacrifices and discipline it demands.

Keane noted that he began his own military career as a cadet in the Fordham ROTC program. Following his commissioning, he was assigned to an infantry paratroop unit at Fort Bragg, North Carolina.

It was intimidating. “They were our very best. I did not know if I could measure up,” he said. “The noncommissioned officers, though subordinate to me, were also my teachers. Outside of our beloved Jesuits, they were the most professional and different group of men I ever encountered—smart, confident, totally dedicated, and completely selfless.”

They cared little about his background, he said. “What they wanted to know was, who was I? Was I willing to work hard to learn the necessary skills, did I really care, would my troops truly come first? In other words, they were … more interested in my heart than anything else.”

“I tried awfully hard to earn their respect and trust,” he said. “I eventually became one of them. I lived a life of shared experiences that enriched my life and my family’s beyond expectations.”

A career infantry paratrooper, Keane was a platoon leader and company commander in Vietnam, where he was decorated for valor. He commanded the 101st Airborne Division and the 18th Airborne Corps, the Army’s largest war-fighting organization, and served as the Army’s acting chief of staff and vice chief of staff before retiring from the Army in 2003. He spoke about the Russia threat before the Committee on Foreign Affairs on May 1, one of many times he has provided expert testimony before Congress.

Keane said the U.S. faces security challenges “on a scale we have not seen since the end of World War II and the rise of the Soviet Union.” They include China’s efforts to dominate the Indo-Pacific region and supplant the U.S. as the world’s leader; radical Islam; and tensions being inflamed by Iran in the Middle East, in addition to the challenges posed by Russia and North Korea, he said.

In light of these threats, along with past defense budget cuts and the erosion of America’s military dominance, the Trump administration’s defense buildup “is even more critical than the Reagan defense buildup of the 1980s,” he said. “The United States military is a much-needed deterrent to these dangers. Your job will be to prepare yourself, your unit and your troops, to be ready.”

“I am proud you want to serve your country,” he said. “We do not take your commitment lightly.”

Protecting America’s Ideals

Speaking before Keane took the podium, Joseph M. McShane, S.J., president of Fordham, reflected on the ideals in the country’s founding documents, calling them “luminously beautiful” but also “inherently fragile.”

“They must be protected, defended, and nurtured in every generation,” he told the soon-to-be-commissioned cadets. “They have called out to you and they have awakened in you the same bold generosity that has marked the lives of our greatest heroes.”

“I admire your courage. I am grateful for your generosity,” Father McShane said. “I am challenged—as I always am when I am in the presence of heroes—by your selfless love of our nation.”

During the ceremony, Father McShane presented Lt. Col. Samuel Linn, professor of military science at Fordham, with a certificate praising him for his “transformative leadership” of the ROTC program over the past three years. Linn is departing for Fort Campbell, Kentucky, to command an artillery battalion.

Two cadets were presented with awards honoring distinguished military graduates: Declan Wollard, GABELLI ’19, received the President’s Sabre, and Chris Bolton of Columbia University earned the General Jack Keane Award.

Also on May 17, two Fordham students earned commissions in the Navy ROTC program based at SUNY Maritime College in the Bronx, and the University held an inaugural Victory Bell ceremony at the Rose Hill campus to honor the veterans among the Class of 2019.

The New York City Army Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) commissioned 16 cadets as second lieutenants at a swearing-in ceremony on Friday, May 16 at Fordham University Church on the Rose Hill campus. The New York City Navy ROTC commissioned two midshipmen in a separate ceremony at Duane Library.

“Through your willingness to serve our nation, you have taken upon yourselves the important task of protecting and nurturing the ideals upon which America has been built and sustained,” Joseph M. McShane, S.J., president of Fordham, said at the Army ROTC ceremony.

“This is a most important responsibility. I admire your courage. I am grateful for your generosity,” he said. “I am challenged—as I always am when I am in the presence of heroes—by your selfless love of our nation.”

The Army will appoint 16 cadets as second lieutenants at the Fordham University Church, while at the same time two Naval cadets will receive their commissions at the University Commons in Duane Library.

The Army ceremony will include remarks by Joseph M. McShane, S.J., president of Fordham, and Robert W. Rodriguez (FCRH, ’71), principal deputy assistant secretary of the Army. The event will be streamed live. (www.fordham.edu/media)

Several of the new Army officers will go on active duty throughout the United States and Germany; others will serve in the Army Reserve and National Guard in the New York City area, said Jefferey K. Hansen, commander of the Army ROTC’s Ram Battalion.

The guest speaker for the Navy ceremony will be David Sanders, a captain in the Reserve Judge Advocate General (JAG) Corps.

Seniors and Ensigns Carl Comasco and Gerard Dimone will accept their Naval commissions in the surface warfare division and aviation division, respectively, said Capt. James P. Driscoll, commanding officer and professor of naval science at the State University of New York (SUNY) Maritime College.

The Army ROTC program qualifies students for appointment as officers in the U.S. Army, Army Reserve or Army National Guard. Fordham has long been the host institution for the Army ROTC in New York City. Its ROTC battalion, which has been recognized by the Army as being in the top 15 percent of its 272 ROTC units, has produced several notable graduates, including four-star general and former vice chief of staff Gen. Jack M. Keane (FCRH ’66).

The Navy’s ROTC program educates and trains men and women as officers in the Naval Reserve or Marine Corps Reserve. The Navy ROTC unit in New York City is physically located in the Bronx at SUNY Maritime College, but serves Fordham students at all of the University’s campuses.