Military Helps 2 UVSC Students Get Degrees

By Amy K. Stewart Deseret News

OREM — While many graduates are entering the real world burdened by weighty student loans, two Utah Valley State College seniors are finishing school debt-free, thanks to their military involvement.

Fresia Alder, 36, of Ephraim, is graduating with her bachelor’s degree in paralegal studies. She enlisted in the National Guard in 2006.

Her military funding is approximately $6,000 so far from the GI Bill. Added to that is a $20,000 enlistment bonus and a federal tuition waiver for her last two years of school. Being in the National Guard has been a life-changing experience in many different ways, Alder said.

“I joined the military for the educational benefits but the pride and patriotism I feel from my country is 100 times what I felt before,” she said.

Keola Bandmann, 38, of Springville, was training to become a Navy Seal when he developed problems with his hips. He is graduating with a bachelor’s degree in business management thanks to the U.S. Veterans Affairs Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment Program. The VA paid his tuition for all four years of college, including tuition, books, fees and few hundred dollars monthly stipend.

“I couldn’t have gotten a degree without it,” Bandmann said.

Alder’s parents were concerned when their daughter decided to sign up with the Guard. “I’m a girly-girl,” Alder explained. “I’m compassionate and tenderhearted. They were worried about turning me over to a ‘rough life.”‘

Alder headed off to basic training at Fort Jackson in South Carolina in 2006.

Her husband and children were excited for her. Alder has four children ranging in ages from 8 to 15. Her husband, Douglas, is in her National Guard unit.

Tearing up, Alder says her husband has been incredibly supportive throughout her military and academic endeavors. “He has always encouraged me to do what I dream of doing,” she said. “He is always right there for me.”

Age 34 at the time, Alder was worried at first about keeping up with the young recruits in basic training.

“I outran and outdid a lot of the 18-year-old girls,” she said.

In fact, basic training gave Alder so much confidence and motivation, she ran the St. George Marathon last October.

Alder works part-time as a family assistance coordinator on contract in the National Guard armory in Manti. Her National Guard duties require two weeks training during the summer at Camp Williams in Riverton, where she also works one weekend a month as a human resource specialist.

After graduation, Alder plans to apply to Brigham Young University law school.

Bandmann said he always wanted to be a Navy Seal, for the excitement and adventure. After qualifying, he went to Basic Underwater Demolitions (BUDS) and Seal training in San Diego in August 1997.

“It was the most difficult thing I’ve done in my life,” he said.

Bandmann said he slept only two hours total during Hell Week. One endurance exercise was called “surf conditioning” where they lie on the beach and let cold waves wash over them.

“I’ve been told more physical exertion goes into BUDS than any other training in the U.S. military,” he said, adding about 70 percent to 80 percent of the participants drop out.

From there was jump school, then combat medical school, and a month working with paramedics on calls and in the emergency rooms of hospitals in Brooklyn and Queens.

After even more training, Bandmann made it onto a Navy Seal Team platoon. His life was set.

Then one day Bandmann noticed a nagging ache in his hip. Three weeks later he was lifting weights and his hip gave out.

The doctor said the cartilage in his hip was worn out and had torn away from the bone. Part of it could have been genetic but it was also due to the intensity of Bandmann’s training.

“I thought I could work through it like anything else,” Bandmann said.

But it got worse. Doctors informed him he would eventually be crippled unless he cut back on his physical activity.

“It was pretty much over,” Bandmann said. “And there was no Plan B.”

He went back to working concrete, which is what he had been doing before enlisting. But that began causing him the same physical problems.

Bandmann realized there was a Plan B: Going back to school. He enrolled at UVSC in fall 2002. He had two reconstructive surgeries on his hips.

Bandmann and his wife, Valerie, have three children. They run a Hawaiian catering business in Springville. Bandmann said he is thinking about going back to school for a master’s degree in business.

“I’m excited to be graduating,” he said. “I finally have my degree after so many years,” he said.

E-mail: astewart@desnews.com

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