SU’s military reservist placed on alert after terrorist attacks

With the recent terrorist attacks, the United States Armed Forces have been placed on serious alert.
Reserve members of all military branches have been called and are ready to report to their bases. This includes students who are reservists at Southern University.
Many SU students are either reserves in the Army National Guard, active soldiers returning to school on the GI Bill, or contracted members of the Army Reserve Officers Training Corps (ROTC) awaiting commission.
Over one-third of students in the SU Army ROTC alone are reserve or active soldiers.
“My sister is taking this hard; in the last year I haven’t been home very much,” Dwayne Anthony Celestine said.
Celestine, a 20-year-old sophomore and a member of the A Company 2/256th Mechanized Infantry of the National Guard, was called September 11, shortly after the disaster and has been on alert since.
He also a second year member of the Army ROTC, or MSII.
The Breaux Bridge native spilt the last year between school at Southern and training in Fort Benning, Ga.
Affectionately known around campus as “Sarg,” he joined the National Guard May 2000 for a scholarship and a chance to pursue a military career.
Before the recent tragedy, Celestine’s unit, the 256th Brigade, was to go on a nine-month peacekeeping mission to Kosovo, Bosnia.
He asked his friends not to be scared from him, but to worry about the nation and the victims of the tragedy.
Celestine believes that he is a solider in God’s army and is an active member of the Knights of St. Peter Claver and an altar server at St. Francis Assisi Catholic Church in his hometown.
“God only gives us as much as we can handle,” said Celestine.