Trading Pens for Guns
By ERIC O and ERIC O | Mar. 8, 2004Richard Brautman knew it was coming for weeks.When the time came, however, he was given 48 hours to pack up his life at UB and prepare to head to the other side of the world.Brautman, a member of the National Guard, was called away from his classes in March 2003 and deployed along with the rest of his unit to bases in Europe and the Middle East.When the United States invaded Iraq in March 2003, it altered the course of many lives, including Brautman's, who was in his first semester of industrial engineering courses at UB after spending two years at Niagara County Community College."It was too much to do in too little time," said Brautman, who fixes aircraft for the 107th Air Refueling Wing of the National Guard at the Niagara Falls Air Force Base.While Brautman cannot disclose exactly where he has been stationed previously, he did say UB was very helpful in making the leaving process as easy as possible so could concentrate on more important things.With the help of a strong support structure that included the Student Response Center, his engineering advisor Jane Sinclair and the Office of Veterans Affairs, Brautman, 23, was able to withdraw from his classes and receive full tuition and fees reimbursement."A lot of students were being called up and the university wanted to make that as seamless as possible," said Sinclair, senior academic advisor in the engineering department.
