Cadet Song was supervising the training process while taking note about the rappelling class content.

By: Shan Li

Depei Song, University of Oregon Reserve Officers’ Training Corps Military Science IV year, dressed as an Ancient Chinese politician Hongzhang Li who set up the first Naval Fleet during Halloween Costume Contest held by ROTC. Cadet Song won the second place in this funny Halloween Costume Contest because of his special costume. “Spending time in ROTC is enjoyable but difficult,” he said. Cadet Song is an Asian-American born in Beijing currently studying international Study in graduate school University of Oregon while training in ROTC three time per week. This is Cadet Song’s last year in ROTC, his main job as senior MSIV is making the training plan and supervising the training process. “My wife complains all the time because I simulated giving an order in ROTC when I was home,” Cadet Song said. As a senior MSIV, his duty is supervising and ordering to freshman MSIV. But Cadet Song is uncomfortable giving an order in front of native speakers because of his Chinese accent and undemonstrative personality. But Cadet Song as an Asian soldier in ROTC still has a good relationship with other cadets because he never feels the discrimination happened to him. Everyone is friendly and kind when he has trouble with language and culture.

Before joining the ROTC, Cadet Song never considered serving in ROTC during his college life. At 23, he had no idea what to do after earning a degree from the University of Syracuse. So, he decided to back to China with his girlfriend to make a decision for the next step. During the one-year gap, Cadet Song met his best friend Moyan Dong serving for the ROTC. He told a lot of stories to Cadet Song about the ROTC that made Cadet Song look forward to being part of it. But Cadet Song’s family still had a lot of concerns and prejudices because they saw plenty of negative news about discrimination in U.S. military specifically targeted to the Asian community and other minorities. Even though there was unsupportive sound, he still followed his heart to hand in the application for ROTC without any hesitation. For Cadet Song, choosing ROTC is the best decision he ever made in his life because he found his interest and passion. Earning respect from his family, friends, and comrades in ROTC made him proud of what he did.

Cadet Song is going to graduate in 2018 spring. After graduating from UO, Cadet Song will continue serving for U.S. military as signaller which deals with the military communication. He really enjoys the cordial and various atmosphere in the military. “I will 100% support Depei’s decision and accompany with him all the time no matter what happened,” Cadet Song’s wife said.