Being an officer in the military can be a challenge. Maintaining skills and proficiencies in Civil Engineering while being newly in charge of the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps at Tech can be a balancing act comparable to few.”If you don’t use it, you lose it,” Major Bret Martin said in reference to his engineering degrees. “Yea, it’s a challenge, but I enjoy it.”
With engineering degrees from University of Missouri at Rolla and University of Washington mixed in with formal military education from the Army Corps of Engineers, Martin has a very technically diverse background. Martin also has his professional engineering license from Washington State: viewing problem solving as a key component in the leadership of the ROTC program.
“With low intensity combat, we’re now closer to civil affairs,” Martin said. “We’re putting neighborhoods and towns back on their feet more than anything else.
Martin values community participation both overseas and at home. Martin hopes to be a large part of is the Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics department at Tech with more involvement especially from the ROTC standpoint.
“I’d like to really dig into the STEM community. We’re not very integrated over there right now. In the Cookeville community we are, with the Golden Eagle Fun Run and Boys State, but that’s not enough,” Martin said.
Martin hopes that the integration of the STEM community and ROTC in the next two years will bring something tangible to the faces of the new STEM majors.
