Cadet balances school, military

[SR-25]

Army ROTC cadet Bruce McPherson’s life is filled with equal parts work and play. The balance has kept him lighthearted and successful.

McPherson, a senior from Buford, received the Legion of Valor Bronze Cross October 13 in Athens. The cross is a scholastic/leadership award given, on average, to fewer than 60 ROTC cadets nationwide.

By Saturday afternoon he was relaxing with friends and preparing to watch the Georgia-Vanderbilt football game after spending the morning fishing.

Sunday it was back to work shoeing horses.

A busy but balanced life always has been the case for McPherson, who at age 14 began an apprenticeship as a farrier — someone who shoes horses — with Steve Schmidt of Dacula.

“He worked so hard he didn’t get a lot of sleep, so he’d fall asleep in the truck,” Schmidt said. “My son and I would pump the brakes and turn the wheel to make his head bob and wake him.”

But he was always a dependable worker, Schmidt said.

The military was not always McPherson’s goal, but once he decided on the Army, it seemed to make sense, said Susan McPherson, Bruce’s mother.

“He was home-schooled most of his life,” she said. “He’d be Robert E. Lee one day and Daniel

Boone the next.”

Since joining ROTC his second semester, McPherson has trained across the United States and overseas.

He has jumped out of airplanes at the Army Airborne school at Ft. Benning and climbed mountains at the Army’s Mountain Warfare School in Jericho, Vt.

He traveled to Ft. Lewis, Wash., for leadership development training his junior year and was tested on the basic abilities of an Army officer.

In August 2005, he worked at the Combat Maneuver Training Center in Hohenfels, Germany as an opposing force member simulating terrorist attacks against troops preparing for deployment.

“I’m proud to know that our military has individuals like him,” Schmidt said.

But even with all his work, friends said McPherson still knows how to have a good time.

Clark Cave, McPherson’s roommate and fellow cadet, recalled being stuck in traffic on a 2004 trip to the Georgia-Florida football game in Jacksonville.

“We were in the back of Bruce’s truck, there was no movement, and Bruce says, ‘you know, let’s start tailgating,’” Cave said. “We had our shirts off, jeans rolled up in the middle of the interstate.”

McPherson’s enjoyment of college life has not dampened his dedication.

Cave, a senior from Salisbury, N.C., said McPherson was an inspiration to the whole team during the Ranger challenge, an annual ROTC endurance and teamwork competition.

“I was close to death, people were falling out from dehydration, passing out, ambulances had to get them,” Cave said. “Bruce led from the front the whole time.”

When asked why he chose to join the Army, McPherson said, “I think of all the people that served before me. I feel like it is my duty as an American.”

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