MAE 2009 Volume: 4 Issue: 5 (September/October)
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Surely as well as anyone else, Dr. Robert S. Drake understands not only the value of education to a post-military life and career, but also the obstacles that enlisted servicemembers in particular sometimes face in making the most of their benefits.
Today, Drake is the program manager of the Army/American Council on Education Registry Transcript System (AARTS) Operations Center, which in 2008 processed over 240,000 transcripts of soldiers’ military training and experience for use by colleges and universities in awarding transfer credits. When he first entered the Army, though, Drake was a ninth-grade dropout assigned as a cook.
“After being honorably discharged in 1971 and [working] five jobs in 10 months, I enlisted in the Air Force with a direct duty assignment as a cook,” Drake said. “[But] I soon switched fields to safety technology and was able to start my college career in 1972.”
After earning two associate degrees, including one in safety technology from the Community College of the Air Force, Drake went on to earn a bachelor’s in business management and a master’s in management. After his retirement from the Air Force in 1990, Drake used the last of his Vietnam War-era GI Bill benefits to earn a Ph.D. in curriculum and instruction in 2002.
Upon retirement as an education/training officer with the rank of captain, Drake spent about 12 years as an education services specialist, including serving as regional director of education at the 89th Regional Readiness Command in Wichita, Kan. He also worked for a time at the Army Education Center at Camp Stanley, Korea, before joining the AARTS Operations Center as center manager in 2007, advancing to program manager not long after.
Drake said what he loves about his current job is helping soldiers do exactly what he did, fulfilling their dreams and career goals by using military education benefits.
“While the education services specialist at Camp Stanley, I had two separate soldiers come into my office for counseling on two separate occasions,” Drake said. “I asked each of them what their education level was. They both lowered their heads—totally different counseling sessions—and said they had a high school GED. I said, ‘I do too!’ I asked them both what their MOS [military occupation specialty] or job skill was and they both lowered their heads and said they were Army cooks. Of course I said, ‘So was I!’ They raised their heads, looked up at my ‘I love me wall’ with all my diplomas, and they both smiled, knowing that anything is possible.”
In operation since 1987, the AARTS Operations Center has been working hard to improve services and capabilities. Whereas only enlisted soldiers could originally get AARTS transcripts, today soldiers of all ranks can use the service, which the center is working hard to make as electronic as possible, to speed the transfer of records. That in turn should allow colleges and universities to more easily and quickly evaluate recommended credits.
Feedback from soldiers for the most part concerns corrections to basic facts like date of birth and rank, but Drake noted that many servicemembers ask why they didn’t get recommended credit for some particular school or MOS. Typically, the reasons vary. Courses that seem the same at two different schools, for instance, may in fact not be, according to the evaluation by the American Council on Education, Drake said. But communications from servicemembers aren’t just complaints or corrections.
“The best part of the job for all of the staff at the AARTS Operations Center is when we get the frequent calls and e-mails from soldiers who want to thank us for fixing their transcript or simply for getting it to their school so they were able to get the credit they deserved.” As with many Defense Department operations and facilities, the Base Closure and Realignment Commission is forcing change on the AARTS Operations Center, which by September 2010 will move operations to Fort Knox, Ky. But Drake noted that he and the operations center expect to carry on as usual, with AARTS’ electronic home remaining the same at http://aarts.army.mil.
Nominate yourself or someone you know as the subject of a future Education Service Today feature by contacting Ted McKenna at tedm@kmimediagroup.