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Michele joined ROTC her freshman year at KU after winning a four-year scholarship from the Navy.The scholarship gives Michele free tuition, money for books and a monthly living stipend. So Michele does not have to find a job somewhere off of campus. ROTC is her job.
Even though her major is exercise science, which requires 124 credit hours, she'll graduate with 168 credit hours. This is because the Navy ROTC program requires that she take classes as well. Most of those classes like Military History, Leadership and Management, Ship Systems and Weapons Systems, Michele says are easy for her. But some, like Navigation, Engineering Math and Engineering Physics have been extremely time-consuming.
While she does have friends outside of the ROTC program, her closest friends are the ones right there with her as they struggle through complicated physics questions.
One of Michele's advisors and instructors, Lt. Laura Jeffries is an aviator, just like Michele aspires to be.
"It's hard because you're in a man's world." Jeffries says, "But Michele can keep up with the guys and she can run with the guys but in her free time she's just like one of the girls."
This semester, since Michele is 21, she and some of her other friends in ROTC like go to bars together, like Louise's, Quinton's and The Ranch, completely unidentifiable as women of Navy ROTC.
But they know why they're together. With only 10 women in the 73-person Naval battalion, Michele has grown close to the other women.
And, with so few women in the battalion, Michele works to maintain a command presence in front of her fellow female and male ROTC members. She admits it's hard sometimes to
strike a balance between maintaining a command presence and still acting like herself - a smiling, energetic, feminine woman. She says guys will take her more seriously if she doesn't try to be something she isn't.
"I don't pretend to be one of the guys. I'm not going to chop off all my hair and bulk up. They'll see right through that and they won't respect that," she says.
According to one of her superiors, Staff Seargent Marty Mineck, Michele is effective at communicating with both the girls and guys in the battalion. Mineck says that Michele just ignores the
male-female issue; and by relegating it to a non-issue, it becomes a non-issue.
"So then it's not that a girl is asking you to do something, it's a person in the battalion," Sgt. Mineck says.
Wednesdays are Michele's long days. Her alarm goes off at 5:20 a.m. and she arrives on campus at 5:50 a.m., ready for weekly PT (physical training), which usually includes some running and calistenics such as push-ups and sit-ups. Following PT, Michele drives home and gets ready for the rest of her day. Also on Wednesdays, Michele and the other members have to wear their full uniforms on campus.
It's hard trying to still look feminine underneath all the layers of starch and sharp creases. So Michele finds herself putting on more makeup those days.
"Because it's your saving grace," she says.
Her hair is not supposed to touch her collar either. So after her shower, she slicks her hair back into a tight ponytail. Then she wraps a sock (without the toe end) around her ponytail and then wraps her hair around that, creating a tight, perfect bun.
Michele and her Marine ROTC friends at the Marine Corps Ball in Kansas City last November 2004. She wore formal attire because she was a date.
As she explains her hair routine, her friend and former ROTC member, Sean Regehr, lola junior, sits across the table from her.
"It's like a Princess Leia bun," Regehr says.
Like many ROTC members, Michele was recruited in high school. She's wanted to fly since she was seven years old.
"She saw that movie Top Gun with
Tom Cruise and I think she thought 'I'm going to be like those guys,' her dad, Stephen Dierks, says.
"Her whole life, she's had exposure to the Air Force Academy and the lifestyles that come with military careers," her dad says.
Michele grew up with her dad and step-mother in Colorado Springs.
Her dad says that her interest in the military probably has a lot to do with growing up in Colorado Springs with the Air Force Academy located just down the road.
Michele decided she wanted to join the Navy or Air Force when she was in seventh grade. And she never flinched in her decision to pursue it.
"When Michele makes up her mind, changing it would be like trying to stop winter from coming." Dierks says.
And she's proven herself to her teachers and superiors in the Navy.
"Honestly, she's one of the sharpest midshipmen we have," says Chief
Wheeler of the Navy ROTC.
Michele was awarded her KU ROTC Navy scholarship during her senior year of high school. As an applicant, Michele had to complete an interview and an extensive medical exam, which is used to make sure an applicant doesn't have any long-term medical issues that might hinder their abilities. Additionally, Michele had to pass a strict eye exam because she wants to fly. She has 20/20 vision, a requirement for passing.
The week before her first day of college, Michele had to go to Camp Crowder in Neosho, Mo., for KU ROTC orientation. She says she didn't know what to expect. All she had was a list of items to bring, which, among others included ten white T-shirts and a one-piece bathing suit.
She drove with her dad to KU where she would then hop a bus to camp. Her dad says he remembers the drive well because it was an emotional event for him.
"I told her 'Michele, don't quit. They're going to try to break you down and make you feel bad but whatever you do — don't quit. And she didn't," he says.
Camp was hard, Michele admits, because she was worried about school, the ROTC and leaving her dad. When they got to camp, the Navy superiors screamed and yelled at all of them.
The first night, as they were ironing their uniforms, Michele threw up. All she had eaten was water and a peanut MRE (a bagged, air-tight, made-ready-to-eat, dinner).
"They all thought I wanted to quit," she says. The next day she sat out and watched the others do drills and workouts. "And they yelled at me a lot," she says.
But as the group prepared to head off on a march up one of the trails surrounding the camp, the staff seargent approached her and asked if she had made a decision as to whether she wanted to stay.
"I told him I had but I think he thought that meant I was going to quit," Michele says, "But I just started marching with the rest of them."
Lt. J.G. Jim Cataline and Michele pose in their Naval flight suits this summer on the Whidbey Island Naval base.
Michele considers that day a turning point. She says that after that, she worked hard to show the rest of the battalion that she was capable.
"I just thought that if all of these people could get through it, then I could too. And then the yelling didn't bother me anymore," she says.
Every summer, Michele is required to travel to a naval base and train with other ROTC students across the country.
The first trip she took was to San Diego. That summer, the navy highlighted each warfare community in the Navy, educating the ROTC members on their choices for assignments following college graduation. Michele says the time she spent with the Marine community was cool because they formed teams, covered their faces in cami paint, slept on the ground, carried M-16's and played games where they would attack the other teams. But her time with the Marines was also the most challenging.
They had to go on a "hump" where Michele, wearing boots, dressed in full camouflage, carrying a 40-pound pack on her back and an M-16 had to hike up a mountain. Her group hiked at the pace of the tallest person — in the hot summer sun. She says a lot of them fell out of the line. When she finished, her feet were bloody and blistered and her back ached.
"When I got to the top, I just cried," she says "But I didn't want anyone to see my tears."
Her dad recalls that day too because she called him just afterwards.
"She said 'Dad, it was so hard but I just wanted to tell you — I didn't quit!"
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