By Tracy Ellingsen
311th Sustainment Command (Expeditionary) Public Affairs Office
KUWAIT -- For the last year, most of her time has been spent driving one of the Army's largest trucks on the roads of Kuwait and Iraq. But in August, Pfc. Lauri Blair will be taking on a whole new challenge.
Blair, a driver with the 546th Transportation Company, will begin classes at Hampton College in Hampton, Va., under the Army's Green to Gold program. In four years she will emerge with a degree and a commission as a second lieutenant. But this month, the 23-year-old Houston native found out that she won't have to pay her tuition and fees. Any of it. After a lengthy application process Blair has been awarded a four-year $80,000 scholarship that will cover her expenses.
"The Green to Gold Scholarship is for active duty enlisted Soldiers who want to go to college, get their degree, and become an officer," said Lt. Col. Shane Ousey, a former ROTC instructor who provides briefings at Camp Arifjan about the program.
Blair had never heard of the Green to Gold scholarship and stumbled upon it while surfing the internet while in Kuwait.
"When I saw the opportunity I was like 'I need my degree yesterday.' This is the best thing ever. I didn't have two reasons not to do it," she said. "I wanted to get my education as fast as possible."
Blair's company has taken her off the roads as she awaits her release from active duty so she can begin classes in Virginia.
"I still have time left on my contract," said Blair, who has been in the Army just 18 months.
"She had to get a waiver because of her time in service," said Ousey. The Green to Gold scholarship is usually reserved for enlisted Soldiers with at least two years of time in the military.
Applying for the scholarship can be a lengthy and complicated process when done in the United States, but applying while deployed adds another level of complexity, said Ousey. "Because of the time difference you have to stay up to the middle of the night to make a phone call."
In order to qualify, Soldiers must be medically checked by a physician. That may be an easy requirement for an applicant back at a base in the United States, but for a trucker who is constantly on the road, the task proved to be a little more difficult.
"She had a physical in Balad, Iraq, while she was on a mission," said Ousey. "Her chain of command has been really helpful and supportive."
After completing the entire application, Blair waited for the answer. Unlike an applicant at home, she had plenty to keep her busy.
"We're on the road, then we're back for a couple days, then we're on the road again," she said. Blair spends her days at the helm of one of the Army's biggest vehicles. The Heavy Equipment Transport Systems, which are known by the acronym HET, weigh 41,000 pounds and are capable of towing up to 70 tons when outfitted with the HET semi-trailer.
While on a mission in Iraq, Blair's convoy commander told her she needed to call back to the company headquarters in Kuwait right away. She immediately thought something bad had happened and was worried. But when she got on the radio, it was all good news.
"I didn't believe it. I was in shock," she said about the reaction she had when the commander told her she got the scholarship. "I'm overly excited."
Ousey, who works in the Army Central Future Operations Cell, is almost as excited about the scholarship as Blair, even though he gives her all the credit.
"She did all the work," he said. "She is the first one to get a scholarship since I've been here."
Ousey holds the Green to Gold briefings every four to six weeks in coordination with the Camp Arifjan Education Center. Before being assigned to Army Central 10 months ago, he taught ROTC for two years at University of South Carolina and was himself a Green to Gold participant at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs.
"Officers who teach ROTC tend to get really attached to it," said Ousey, who considers the Green to Gold program "a great way to help junior Soldiers."
Blair hopes to improve her own leadership skills while a cadet at Hampton.
"I think it's going to be a challenge," she said. "I am ready for a bigger challenge."
Blair plans on majoring in Financial Management at Hampton, which is a historically black college with a strong ROTC program, she said. "It's one of the top ranked schools for everything I wanted."
After her four years of college are over, 2nd Lt. Blair will return to active duty where she says she will continue her education, both in and out of the class room.
"A lot of people that are at tops of companies and stuff got their leadership training right here in the military," she said. "I want to be a general some day."
