FOR RELEASE: Wednesday, October 17, 2007
Master's Student Served with Counterintelligence Force in Africa
Justin Burch had been back home in Missouri from basic training just a couple of weeks when terrorists flew airplanes into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. The young Marine got a phone call telling him to pack his bags and get to Kansas City. He thought he was going to be deployed in the U.S. fight against terrorism.
It turned out that Burch didn't go overseas that day in 2001, but in 2005 he was sent to the Horn of Africa to assist in counterterrorism efforts there. He spent most of the 2005-2006 school year in Africa, the year he would have graduated from college at Missouri Southern State University in Joplin.
Burch did return home to finish his bachelor's degree in health and wellness promotion at Missouri Southern and then came to the University of Arkansas, where he is now a master's student in exercise science in the College of Education and Health Professions. He's a graduate assistant assigned to supervise interns at the Rogers Adult Wellness Center, a fitness facility for people 50 and older. He provides orientation for new members, gives exercise prescriptions and teaches classes on the components of fitness.
It changed my outlook. I put my life on hold for a year, went from being a college student to having other people's lives in my hands overnight. - Justin Burch
Burch, who is originally from Joplin, joined the Marine Reserves on a delayed entry plan while still in high school. His tour of duty in Africa was part of Operation Enduring Freedom, a small-scale counterterrorism effort that involved 1,500 troops responsible for operations in 12 countries in the region. They protected diplomats on missions and gathered intelligence from local villages.
The region is primarily run by warlords, and the potential for terrorist cells setting up there is strong, Burch said.
"Most of the time it was fairly safe, but it depended on your job," he said. "You didn't know what job you would be doing the next day. You might be doing a support job, which meant spending the day in an office, or you might be out in the field for two to three days at a time.
"There was never a sense of being at ease or relaxed. When you were working in operations, you were on call 24 hours."
The American troops were part of a joint task force that included personnel from many other countries. They undertook humanitarian missions with the goal of teaching the younger generations of Africans that the West is not bad.
"Terrorists might offer them guns and the means to feed their families, so we felt, if we could help them, they might think twice about that," Burch said. "We built schools and dug wells. They need irrigation systems, and that's a matter of life and death."
Television reports can't adequately portray the terrible living conditions for people watching to really understand, Burch said.
"They have to worry every day about how to stay alive for reasons we don't think of," he said. "They have to walk 3 to 4 miles a day for water. We take a lot of things for granted, things we never have to think about."
Coming home after his tour wasn't easy for Burch. He felt restless because he didn't have a job and couldn't start back to school in mid-semester.
"I was used to having something to do all the time, going 90 to nothing," he said. "I tried to fall back into the routine quickly, started looking for a job and got registered for summer classes."
He also had trouble adjusting from the state of mind that living and working in a strife-torn region can produce.
"I think I became desensitized in a way because you have to be that way on duty," he said. "It changed my outlook. I put my life on hold for a year, went from being a college student to having other people's lives in my hands overnight.
"I hear people complaining about things, but I think now there's nothing that could come up that I couldn't get through."
He set a framed picture of two Somali boys on a ledge next to his front door, and it reminds him of what life is like in Africa.
"I'm more appreciative now," Burch said. "No matter what I've got going on, other people have worse problems. I'm also really thankful for my friends and family."
Inza Fort, professor of kinesiology, is Burch's faculty advisor.
"Justin is a very serious and focused student," she said. "He has set and achieved high standards for himself. In class, we kid him about his love of mangoes, which he usually brings for his supper. He said he came to appreciate them while he was in Africa."
Ro DiBrezzo, University Professor of kinesiology, supervises Burch in her role as director of the college's Human Performance Laboratory.
"I recruit students to work with me in the lab for the most part based on their academic credentials, and Justin is no exception," DiBrezzo said. "He is bright, articulate and hard-working, a real gem indeed. I'm truly excited to have him on my team."
Burch plans to graduate in May 2009 and wants to pursue a doctorate. He would like to teach on the college level and is eyeing Colorado as a place to settle someday.
"It's a great place to snowboard," he said.
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Contact:
Heidi Stambuck, director of communications
College of Education and Health Professions
(479) 575-3138, stambuck@uark.edu