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THE VIEW FROM HERE
Band of brothers at UCF rallies around frat pal bound for Gulf
By Aline Mendelsohn | Sentinel Staff Writer
Posted March 31, 2003
"The View From Here" is a slice of local life by Sentinel reporters. Today, feature writer Aline Mendelsohn contributes.
A spray-painted banner flutters outside the Beta Theta Pi fraternity house at the University of Central Florida.
Carlos Rosales, make us proud, the sign reads. We won't forget you.
Rosales' fraternity brothers call him C-Lo, or 'Los, or "Peanut," because of his diminutive height of 5 feet, 4 inches.
Now, when the brothers see the faces of POWs flicker on CNN, they think about Rosales, who was deployed last month.
"It's hard to picture that Carlos could be one of them," says Mike Broska, a sophomore and Beta Theta Pi president. "It is during times like this that we actually see what a brotherhood is about."
Fraternities elicit images of privileged males dressed in Abercrombie khakis and backward baseball caps, chugging beers. You don't think of fraternity brothers as soldiers in combat, risking their lives to serve the country.
But the Beta brothers call themselves more blue-collar than blue blood. Though they joke about bodily functions and love to party, they resent the term "frat boys."
"We're fraternity men, gentlemen of honor," insists 18-year-old freshman Brian Cantrell.
Though not all of them support the war, they all support the troops.
Rosales, a business major from New Jersey, considers the military his calling.
Rosales joined the Army after high school and later enrolled at UCF. At 28, he is the oldest member of the fraternity, unusual but not unheard of.
As a member of the Reserve, he accepted his assignment as an honor. But even before Rosales told his parents, he broke the news to fellow Beta members.
At a weekly chapter meeting last month, he stood before the brothers and informed them that he was leaving for Georgia in 72 hours.
"What we do in life," Rosales told them, "echoes for an eternity."
The brothers sat in stunned silence.
Most of them would never admit it -- men don't cry, right? But David Ehrlich, 21, concedes that some of them shed tears, fought lumps in their throats.
When the shock wore off, they asked him tough questions: Are you scared? How would you feel about taking an enemy's life?
A few brothers, half-kiddingly, suggested Rosales "shoot himself" to get out of serving.
Rosales would have none of it.
"He's got a fire in him," says Alden Kwong, 21.
Before Rosales left, Kwong gave him a Beta Theta Pi knife, for good luck.
Rosales is still in Georgia, but expects to be shipped to the Middle East any day now.
Earlier this week, he e-mailed his Beta brothers:
Just dropping a qwik line to let you know the status of the roller coaster. Right now it's at a standstill but only 4 the moment. Just waiting 4 the roller coaster to start moving again. Take care & knock out those upcoming finals.
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