SAME OLD SONG Make it 24 losses to Florida in a row. Special teams woes doomed Vandy on Saturday. See page 6 for more. MONDAY OCTOBER 15, 2012 VOL. 124, ISS. 44 WWW.INSIDEVANDY.COM ALWAYS A MARINE, NOW A COMMODORE Vanderbilt senior Patrick Brownfi eld served three tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan as a U.S. Marine. To borrow from another branch of the military, you could say he’s done more before graduation than most people do their whole lives. By CONNOR KRIST until our unit got our fi rst casualty that (we realized) News reporter this is real life. This isn’t Call of Duty, it’s not Battlefi eld.” -------------------- On the front lines of the war, Brownfi eld had to grow up quickly. He was quickly made a team leader, and by Most 18-year-olds graduate high school to take the his third tour he had been promoted to section leader, momentous personal step of leaving their family and making him responsible for the lives of between 13 and homes behind to go off to college. 15 other Marines. But some, like Vanderbilt senior Patrick Brownfi eld, “For me, I had the responsibility of kids’ lives,” choose to take an even bigger, more harrowing step and Brownfi eld said. “And I was still a kid myself.” enlist in the U.S. military, putting their lives on the line Brownfi eld had been initially driven to serve by his to fi ght for their country. patriotism and was always motivated in part by his From 2007-2010, Brownfi eld served three 7-month desire to protect his country, but as time went on, he tours of duty as an infantry assaultman in the war-torn found himself motivated by a different force. Middle East — two in Iraq and one in Afghanistan. “I thought, ‘I’m doing this for the guy next to me,’” There, he was immersed in an extremely stressful, Brownfi eld said. “It literally is a band of brothers. That’s relentlessly dangerous environment. your biggest motivation, getting the guy next to you “Imagine an 18-year-old kid walking 12 miles in back home safely.” 120-degree heat, carrying 80 pounds of gear, with the Brownfi eld, thanks to the constant vigilance of him constant thought in his head, ‘When am I going to step and his troop, did make it back safely. He enrolled in on an IED?’ or, ‘When is a sniper going to shoot me?’” Vanderbilt and began taking classes on the G.I. Bill, but Brownfi eld said. “You have to stay in that mindset. If his transition from a military to a civilian lifestyle was at any given time you let your guard down, that’s when neither quick nor easy. the bad stuff happens. We have a saying in the Marines: “It was defi nitely a hard transition,” Brownfi eld said. Complacency kills.” “When you come back from these deployments, you get Born into a military family, Brownfi eld always knew what’s called combat stress. The small things that hap- he wanted to serve his country. pen piss you off.” “I’ve always had that patriotism, that sense of duty,” Brownfi eld also found his personality, shaped by he said. years of life-and-death situations, had changed. The turning point for him to join the Marines came “I’m more to-the-point,” he said. “I guess you can on Sept. 11, 2001. A freshman in high school at the time, take the man out of the Marines, but you can’t take the Brownfi eld vividly remembers the news coverage of the Marines out of the man.” terrorist attack on the Twin Towers and the anger that Brownfi eld has now learned to relax and is enjoying boiled inside him. some of the benefi ts of civilian life. “I remember being so pissed off, I wanted to go right “What I missed most (while I was serving) was prob- then and there,” Brownfi eld said. “I wanted to go into ably being able to stop doing everything and just relax, the Marine Corps because I wanted the quickest way without a care in the world,” he said. to Afghanistan. I wanted to get my boots on the ground In comparison to active duty, Brownfi eld’s course- and start fi ghting.” work was hardly the same level of challenge; he burned One of the fi rst things Brownfi eld did after he turned through his curriculum in two years and is on pace to 18 was contact a recruiter, and he soon found himself graduate this May alongside many students four years deployed to Iraq, living among the populace and par- his junior. ticipating in counter-insurgency activity. Asked if he regretted any part of his military experi- “For the fi rst four or fi ve months it was completely ence, Brownfi eld didn’t hesitate. surreal,” he said. “You got such a high, such a rush off “If I had to do it all over again, I’d do the exact same getting into a fi refi ght or catching bad guys. It wasn’t thing.” VOICEVIEW MAKES Man breaks sound SHAUN WHITE CHARGES COURSE EVALS PUBLIC barrier falling CONTINUE Vanderbilt Student Government announced yes- NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — A Nashville judge has con- terday the release of a new on-campus course evalu- tinued public intoxication and vandalism charges against ation service, VoiceView. VoiceView is a collaborative from space two-time Olympic gold medalist snowboarder Shaun initiative between VSG and the Offi ce of the Provost that White. AP — Austrian daredevil Felix has been four years in the making. Offi cers responded to the Loews Vanderbilt Hotel at 2 Baumgartner became the fi rst Students will fi nally have a a.m. on Sept. 16 after a drunken man identifi ed as the skydiver to break the speed Vanderbilt-specifi c course 26-year-old White pulled a fi re alarm, forcing the hotel to of sound in a 24-mile-high jump evaluation service that compiles the evacuate all guests. from a balloon on Sunday, reaching opinions of their peers. Students will then be White tried to leave the hotel in a cab before being 833.9 mph in a free fall that lasted more able to access the data and use them as they are stopped by a hotel guest who told the driver police had than 9 minutes. scheduling their schedules. Feedback is been called. According to police, White kicked at the man Landing on his feet in the New Mexico desert, anonymous and refl ects both the coursework and the before running away. The man chased him and they col- the man known as “Fearless Felix” lifted his professor’s impact on it. lided when White turned around. A police photo of White arms in victory to the cheers of jubilant onlook- VoiceView expands upon the collected evaluations already showed him with a black eye. ers and friends. conducted on campus by making the White later posted an apology on his Facebook page, “When I was standing there on top of the world, information more readily available and accessible. The saying he was truly sorry for what he called his “poor you become so humble, you do not think about breaking intent of the service is to ensure that the student’s voice is not behavior.” records anymore, you do not think about gaining scientifi c only listened to but also utilized to enhance the experience of White won a gold medal in Turin at the 2006 Olympics data,” he said after the jump. “The only thing you want is to their peers. and in 2010 at the Vancouver Games. He’s also a multimil- come back alive.” Administrators involved in the implementation of VoiceView lionaire with a clothing line and signature video game. “Sometimes we have to get really high to see how small include Provost Richard McCarty and Vice Provost for Faculty White expanded his brand last year with a company we are,” an exuberant Baumgartner told reporters outside & International Affairs Tim McNamara. VoiceView went live selling skateboards, BMX bikes and other equipment. mission control after safely landing. this morning. The case against him was reset for Nov. 20. 2 MONDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2012 THE VANDERBILT HUSTLER u WWW.INSIDEVANDY.COM QUOTE OF THE DAY “We want to give the students the best dose of reality possible. It is the full experience. All fi nances are their responsibility.” campus JACK DAVIS, Director of Student Centers Re(novated) Rand provides new home for PLAN YOUR WEEK MONDAY Vanderbilt Recovery Support (VRS) Open House 6:30-7:30 p.m. Carmichael Towers West 109 See what opportunities are available for students in re- covery from alcohol and other drug use. Dinner provided by Mellow Mushroom. (Regular student support meeting to follow.) ‘After Stonewall’ fi lm screening and discus- sion 7-9pm. Wilson Hall 126 Foregrounding LGBT rights history and activism from the 1969 Stonewall Riots through 1999. Rated PG-13; 88 minutes. When the renovated Rand space opened last week, it not only added additional seating space and new din- TUESDAY ing options, but also the fi rst storefront for a student-run business: the bicycle rental company re(cycle). ‘Cambodia’ fi lm screening By MADDIE HUGHES and have people hang out, and if they want to rent a bike, that’s awesome,” 7:30-9:30pm. News staff reporter says Ungashick. “At the end of the day, this is a student-run business, so we Sarratt Cinema -------------------- want to make it as fun as possible.” A documentary about the notorious detention center in “We want it to be fun and practical,” said re(cycle) President John Ratliff.