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34 IRISH AMERICAN NEWS June 2008TheIrish RoverBy James McClureA Few is All We NeedNot far from the campus of theUniversity of Notre Dame shortlyafter the football team’s annual springintrasquad game, a team known forwearing different shades of blue andgreen is gathered at a banquet to reflecton the year past and look ahead to therough schedule for the year ahead.As always, they have a special brandof support that comes from traditionand a dedication to be the best. Andperhaps more than in the past there isan increased skepticism over whetherthey will “March on to Victory.” Winor lose, the stakes will be deadly, evenfor those on the sidelines.For these Fighting Irish at “WarriorNight” are not wearers of goldhelmets but camouflage ones, andbearers of the gold and scarlet flagof the United States Marines.At 23, Midshipman First ClassCasie Sweeney, United States MarineCorps Reserve, seems to be the longestof tooth and have the easiest of smilesamong the mostly younger college-agewomen and men who make up the MarineOption contingent of the Battalionof Midshipmen of the Naval ReserveOfficers Training Corps at Notre Dame,which has long prided itself as an alternativeprovider of officers to the Navyand Marine Corps beyond the serviceacademies and other officer programs.“I like to look after the younger Midshipmenand help them make their waythrough the NROTC program,” saysSweeney, whose maturity may be partof the reason she seems about the sameage as the two female Marine majorsthat flank her at the banquet table at theApril Warrior Night event.Sweeney has a quick and somewhatshy smile, made more evidentby the fact that she was at the tip ofthe sword of a sense of humor thatseems to permeate most Notre Damemidshipmen, as the brunette receivedcountless barbs from the student andofficer banquet speakers for being on“The Five Year Plan.”A Few Good WomenWomen have attended the universitysince the early 1970s, and have alwaysbeen among the highest achieverswith test scores well exceeding muchof their male counterparts. FemaleMarine Options are a relatively recentdevelopment and have to pass not onlythe rigid standards of the NROTCprogram (by one measure the nationalcompetition for limited scholarshipsvs. ample congressional appointmentsto the Naval Academy makes winninga scholarship harder), but also buckthe odds of beating out a large pool offemale applicants for Notre Dame.Sweeney, who sits in her battle camouflagewith shoulder slightly hunchedforward in combination with her shysmile, is no slouch academically itturns out—the fifth year was necessarynot to compensate for poorgrades but to accommodatethe huge course load of beinga dual degree student.After a final slew of finalsshe graduated May 17thwith degrees in Civil Engineeringand Studio Art.“I was fortunate to be talentedat Math and Scienceand it’s something I enjoydoing,” says Sweeney, whohas traveled a far longerroad to being a graduate ofNotre Dame and a SecondLieutenant in the MarineCorps. “The most I evertook in a semester was 22hours, but this final semesterwas pretty easy, just19.” A usual course load isbetween 12 and 15 hours.“Art is something I enjoydoing for fun.”Accomplished yet modest,Sweeney is aware thatthere is something specialabout her, a passion for serviceto country and others.“I know I’m put on Earthto serve, that’s part of being raisedin the Catholic Church, and I’msurprised that more of the women Igrew up with in California don’t feelthat calling.”Like many Marine Options Sweeneycame to the NROTC program (she wasa Navy Option at first) from a multidimensionalbackground. The 5 foot 11inch Californian lettered in high schoolas a power forward in basketball andin track and field as a shot putter anddiscus thrower, also finding time forparticipating in softball and a stint aspresident of her local Kiwanis Key Clubchapter. She also worked part-time inher teens as a waitress and volunteer.All in the Irish FamilyA High School junior in Oceanside,California near San Diego when theterrorists struck at the Pentagon andWorld Trade Center, Sweeney saysshe had already made up her mind toserve her country but wasn’t sure inwhat capacity. “My dad didn’t pushme to follow in his footsteps but Ialready knew before Sept. 11th that Iwanted to serve and was called to it.”Called to Notre Dame? Along withmany military moves as the daughterof a Marine “Let’s see… SouthBend, Quantico, California, Hawaii,California, Rhode Island, and thenCalifornia… that feels like homenow,” Sweeney recalls, life under theGolden Dome has always been specialfor her. “I was born in South Bendbecause my dad was the Marine OfficerInstructor at Notre Dame in themid 80s, and I’m not making this up…my first words as a baby were ‘GoldenMidshipman Casie Sweeney during OfficerCandidate School, 2007Dome,‘ she adds with an embarrassedgrin and a roll of her eyes.Her father, John L. Sweeney, Jr., retiredafter 30 years in 2005 as a MarineColonel, with service in the First GulfWar and as Casie waited for his returnfrom the initial 2003 campaign to driveSaddam Hussein and his sons frompower. As a midshipman she knew thefeelings of a dependent child waitingfor the safe return of a parent, andnow as a newly minted officer she willknow perhaps more than others theobligations and dangers to come.Like her father, Sweeney hopesto specialize as a combat engineer,a much needed military occupationin the reconstruction-under-fire thatexists in some parts of Afghanistanand Iraq. “A combat engineer buildsthings, reconstructs things and getsto blow things up,” explains Sweeney,whose final officer assignment willcome after 6 months of initial lieutenanttraining at The Basic Schoolin Quantico, Virginia, about an hoursouth of Washington, D.C.Honor, Courage,CommitmentAll Marines are trained as riflemenregardless of specialty. What was oncea matter of honor and tradition is nowa practical necessity in a world of terroristwarfare where the support unitsare as much in danger as those on thefront lines. That danger became evenmore painfully apparent in late 2006when 34-year old Major Megan Mc-Clung became the first female Marineofficer to die in the line of duty. Theveteran of two Iraq tours was a publicaffairs officer escortingjournalists when a roadsidebomb blew up thetruck she was riding inwhile in Ramadi, Iraq.“I know the dangers ofbeing killed that we allface and the possibility,unwanted as it is, thatwe may have to kill toprotect ourselves or others.But someone has toprotect the innocent andthe weak,” says Sweeneywith a seriousness thatcomes from a focusedlife. “That’s why I joined.That’s what I believe in.”She attributes part ofher zeal for serving othersto values learned as theyoungest in her family, a25 year old brother and allthe family were broughtup serving and caringfor her oldest sister, whohas cerebral palsy. “I’mpretty close to my family,”notes Sweeney who saysshe’d really like to get herfirst platoon near her parents who currentlyreside near the Marines’ CampPendleton. With roots that includegreat grandparents that emigrated fromIreland, Sweeney also has many cousinsand family members in Chicago. “Aftergraduation I’ll take a month or so ofleave to visit family in Chicago andthen spend the final weeks with my parentsin Oceanside before reporting toQuantico in June,” she said in the weekjust before receiving her Notre Damedegrees and military commission.Sweeney’s last trip to Quantico waslast summer where she is pictured heregraduating from the final pre-commissioningtest, a six week long endurancetest of leadership, military skill andphysical fitness. Known as “Bulldog,” itis shorter than standard Officer CandidateSchool training sessions, acknowledgingthat much of the training alreadytook place in the coursework, drills, fieldexercises and time spent in active dutytraining in previous years.For her and other marine midshipmenthe obstacles courses, enduranceruns, and tests of proficiency in theM-16 rifle were no less strenuousphysically or mentally than non-ROTC candidates. Bulldog trains,screens and evaluates candidates fortheir future role as officers in the fieldleading others. According to the MarineCorps Officer Candidate SchoolMission Statement: “The mission ofOfficer Candidates School is to educate,train, evaluate and screen officercandidates to ensure they possessthe moral, intellectual and physicalqualities for commissioning, and theleadership potential to serve successfullyas company grade officers in theOperating Forces.”“My only fear of OCS was notbeing able to finish physically due toinjury, but ultimately failure was notan option for me,” says Sweeney, whosays about halfway through the muggyVirginia summer she knew for certain“I was not going to fail, die or quit!”Fighting IrishTalent and DriveThe Marine responsible forSweeney and all other Marine midshipmenat Notre Dame is Tulanegraduate Major Ty Theriot, the MarineOfficer Instructor whose wife isa Major in the Marine Corps Reserve.“When I think of Casie Sweeney andher time here under the Golden Dometwo words come to mind—talentedand driven,” he says with the pridenow of a brother officer. “Successfullytackling two majors within a fiveyear period, Civil Engineering andArt—talent and drive says it all.”The same spirit drove her throughthe arduous educational demands atNotre Dame, but for this Fighting Irishwomanthat second major of Studio Artrepresented a different and more enduringSpirit. “I do painting, some mightcall it abstract, but what I try to depictis the innate beauty in nature and theworld around, us, evidence that for methere is a God that created it all.”While running around the roadsof Notre Dame in fatigues, combatboots and a Marines t-shirt that says“God, Country, Notre Dame” on theback, Sweeney and her Notre DameMarine shipmates prepared for afuture that she now faces head on,aware of the dangers down the roadand the promise… and honor… inserving to minimize them.Jim McClure is a graduate of theUniversity of Notre Dame and servedwith the United States Naval andMarine Corps Reserve as a MarineOption Midshipman from 1978 to 1981.IrishRoverJim@aol.com