Students who have enlisted and graduated from Basic Combat Training in the United States Army can be called upon to serve as soldiers in whatever country they are needed.

Every year, college students enroll in the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps looking to learn the military and leadership skills for United States Military enlistment.

Logan Collison, a student attending UW Oshkosh, was a member of ROTC and was looking to pursue a military career.

After his enlistment to the United States military and his graduation from Basic Training, he went on to begin his second year of schooling.

Collison shortly found out that he would be removed from school and deployed to Afghanistan.

Collison says that the transition from school to deployment happened very quickly for him, and the mental struggle was tough.

“It was a quick shift and pretty hard on me mentally and emotionally,” he said of the adjustment.

Collison says his deployment set his schooling and academics back a lot.

After being gone for around 400 days, Collison says he was looking forward to continuing his schooling, regardless of the difficult transition.

“The first week was a pretty rough transition. It took a lot of mental power and focus to not feel overwhelmed,” he said.

After a bit of stress to adjust to the new school year, Collison finds himself doing better and feeling happier now that he is back with his friends and back to learning.