My twin sister, Lacy Dodd '99, and I had looked for college money and found it with the U.S.
Army. So we arrived at Notre Dame in 1995 as students and cadets in its Army Reserve Officers'
Training Corps (ROTC) program.
I was not looking forward to being in the Army, but my dream to go to Notre Dame was
stronger than my aversion to being in the Army for four years after graduation. For any other
school, no. For Notre Dame, yes.
I grew up in an Irish Catholic family and loved Notre Dame. My father, Bill Dodd '62,
along with my older siblings, Alycia Tullos '87, Lindsay Gannon '88 (and her husband, Bill
Gannon '88) and Laurin Dodd '89, were all ND graduates. My father was also a distinguished
graduate of its Army ROTC program. He had volunteered without asking for any sort of
financial assistance. Perhaps the inspiration was his father, who had served as a doctor during
World War II. My father served in the infantry for two years before Vietnam. With a Wharton
MBA, he became an entrepreneur, and business was good when my older siblings headed to
college. But Lacy and I needed scholarships, and we both decided to take the ROTC offers.
My parents and grandparents were proud of our decision and kept referring to our "going
into the service." What were they talking about? We were going to have to be in the Army.
After four years of ROTC, including a boot camp the summer after junior year, I knew
what they were talking about. We were about to become part of something special, the U.S.
military. It was "the service."
The days of presidents' children serving in our military seem to be gone. Lacy and I
recently saw a sticker on a street corner that read: "Why aren't those Bush twins in Iraq?" We
laughed and then looked at each other with pride that the twins in our family had somehow
chosen to serve in our military.
As part of Notre Dame ROTC, Lacy and I began our transformation from children to
responsible citizens with a sense of patriotism we had not before known. By graduation in 1999,
we would be given the enormous responsibility of being commissioned as officers. This would
be the greatest honor and would be a title we had to earn, as we learned to embody the values of
leadership, duty, respect, selfless service, honor, integrity, and physical and moral courage
(LDRSHIP). We learned that the hardest things in life can be the most rewarding.
I remember participating in an outdoor ROTC training exercise in the middle of what
seemed to be a South Bend blizzard. As a freshman cadet, somehow I missed the instruction to
wear "polypro" (long underwear) underneath my uniform. I never made that mistake again. I was
freezing, and it was hellish lying in the snow behind a tree "in position." When I looked up,
everything around me was white . . . and then I saw the Golden Dome beaming. In suffering, I
found heaven and grace.
A leap of faith
ND's ROTC offers summer slots for interested cadets to go to such schools as the U.S.
Army Airborne School. At the time, I did not see the value in such training. After graduation and
while on active duty, I saw the value and joined a pre-Ranger physical fitness program and
signed up for Airborne School. I was in the best physical shape of my life. With parachute, I
jumped out of a plane five times. I remember my first jump vividly. In the plane, everyone was
silent, praying. The jumpmaster said, "There's no such thing as an airborne atheist!" When I
jumped out and heard the beautiful snap of my parachute opening, I yelled into the sky, "Thank
you, God!"
I was stationed in Germany, where I started out as an Air Defense Artillery (ADA) officer
and became a public affairs officer. I had the privilege of being a platoon leader in ADA and was
able to work in my favorite field of public affairs. As an American studies major with classes in
journalism and photography, I found this job a perfect fit. Lacy, also assigned to Germany,
worked as a logistics officer. We both knew that we were given work and responsibility beyond
our years and experience, and that this was a tremendous opportunity.
Lacy and I were able to experience the world, visiting more than 20 countries. The
military was a place where we were able to work with Americans of all faiths and of all walks of
life -- and a place where we worked with people from all over the world.
September 11, 2001, was the end of the "peacetime Army" we knew. Terrorists had
declared war on our country. I prayed for peace. In General Douglas MacArthur's words, "The
soldier above all other people prays for peace, for he must suffer and bear the deepest wounds
and scars of war."
In January 2003, my unit deployed to Israel to assist with our patriot missiles in the event
Saddam Hussein fired scuds on Israel, as he had in the first Gulf war. Thankfully, that did not
happen. Meanwhile, my boyfriend, Jake Miller, an Army Chinook helicopter pilot, flew across
the Iraq border carrying infantry soldiers the night before the ground war started. He stayed in
Iraq for nearly a year.
Mother to then 3-year-old daughter, Mary-Logan, Lacy also deployed to Iraq for several
months in 2003.
In 2005, Jake returned to Iraq again for another year-long tour, this time as my husband
and father to our then 5-month-old daughter, Kathryn.
Out of choice, Lacy and I both served a little more time than our four-year commitment.
What we had once dreaded became a commitment hard to leave. Though we did not feel the
calling to be career officers, it helped to know we would bring our military experiences to "the
civilian world." We soon found that in the workplace, military service is considered a
distinguishing background and is often viewed like having another degree. Lacy is now a
manager in corporate America, and I am a professional photographer.
If making the ROTC decision today, I would choose to do it regardless of scholarship
money. What I got out of that decision is something truly invaluable and hard to describe to
people who have not served or do not know someone close to them who has served. My service
built me as a person, as a citizen of our country, and as an ambassador for our country to nations
all over the world. I would not trade my service for anything.
Wartime loss
When Jake arrived home from Iraq in 2006, he had completed his commitment and could
choose to leave the Army. But something had happened that would forever impact our lives.
On May 25, 2006, Doug DiCenzo, Jake's best friend and West Point roommate, was
killed in Baghdad by terrorists who used a roadside bomb. Doug was husband to Nicole and
father to Dak. Picture the perfect son of our country, and that is who we lost.
Jake's sense of duty was now greater than ever. He decided to make the Army a career.
He would pick up the flag where his best buddy left off and serve as long as he could.
Currently, the Army is having Jake get his MBA at Stanford before returning to West
Point to teach leadership to cadets.
I know Jake could do anything he wanted. I am proud of his decision and have chosen to
be married to it. Our military, our country and our world need leaders like Jake in our Army.
I am forever grateful to Notre Dame and its ROTC program. Because of it, I will always
ask myself "What can I do for my country?" I will always have in my heart "God, Country,
Notre Dame."
Amanda (Dodd) Miller can be reached at miller.amanda@alumni.nd.edu
Photo of Amanda, left, and Lacy Dodd by Bill Dodd '62
(July 2008)
