It\u2019s been almost 20 years since Major Raymond DeGennaro II \u201989 attended Hopkins on a ROTC scholarship, and he\u2019s just now on his first active duty assignment with the U.S. military. Several years of educational deferment and a fire in a military storage room that housed DeGennaro\u2019s records threatened to bounce him off the military\u2019s radar altogether. But he\u2019s quickly making up for lost time.<\/p>\n
Stationed in Afghanistan less than three months, the former biomedical engineering major already has developed a deeper appreciation of the Afghans\u2019 historical struggle, their gains toward a national identity, and their long road ahead to independence.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor hundreds of years, the only time the Afghan people have been united is when they\u2019re being invaded. The concept of national identity is foreign to many Afghans,\u201d says DeGennaro, who wears two hats in Afghanistan: mentor to the Corps Surgeon General\u2019s Office for the 209th Corps of the Afghan National Army and medical operations officer supporting the embedded training teams in the north region of Afghanistan.<\/p>\n
DeGennaro likens his mentoring role to being a teaching assistant, a position he assumed while working toward his PhD in binaural noise reduction through cochlear efferent feedback at the University of Southern California. \u201cSome need remedial instruction, some just need the tools, and some need their energy directed in the right direction,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
What the Afghans don\u2019t need, insists DeGennaro, is advice on how to fight. \u201cThey\u2019ve been fighting since Alexander the Great invaded. What they need help with is running a modern, standing, national military and a strong, noncorrupt government,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
To encourage national unity among Afghan citizens, DeGennaro and his U.S. military colleagues must present themselves as trustworthy, he says. That means not wearing the 40 pounds of protective gear they might otherwise don when working with Afghans at Camp Shaheen\u2014even if it increases their immediate risk of danger.<\/p>\n
With more than a third of his mission behind him, DeGennaro is anticipating relationship building of another sort\u2014back in Illinois with his wife and two young daughters. He plans to return home late this spring to his civilian job as a product developer for a database consulting firm. He looks forward to working from his home office, he says. \u201cI want to keep life simpler, to do more things with my family.\u201d<\/p>\n
But he doesn\u2019t discount the possibility of someday returning to Afghanistan. \u201cThe average counterinsurgency takes 14 years,\u201d he says. \u201cWe\u2019ve only been doing this one the right way for about two.\u201d<\/p>\n