Lieutenant Colonel John Stark, director of Army Education and Commission for Princeton ROTC, will be deployed to Afghanistan this August.
The deployment was expected, Stark said, noting that the army looks at the length of time since the latest deployment when deciding who to send abroad.
The average time between deployments, Stark explained, is three years.
“I returned from my last deployment in 2007, so it’s my turn to go,” he said.
Knowing he would likely be deployed soon, Stark chose to volunteer for an assignment.
“If I volunteer, I get a better choice of assignments,” he explained. “If I didn’t, I would have a mystery job and I wouldn’t know who I would work for ... It is highly likely that I would have been assigned something anyway, so I took the opportunity to take an assignment that seemed interesting.”
Stark will be working for Commander Mark Martins on an assignment called the “Rule of Law Field Force,” which he found out about through an MPA graduate student at the University.
“He described it to me and I was like, ‘Sign me up,’ ” Stark said.
As part of the ROLFF, Stark will be working on a variety of projects, such as redesigning prisons and securing courtrooms.
During the one-year deployment, Stark will not be based in any one city but will likely move around every few months to wherever help is needed, he said.
At the end of his deployment, Stark will return to the United States and likely be reassigned within 30 days but will not be returning to the University, he explained.
“I’m going to try to go to NATO headquarters, but there’s no guarantees,” Stark added.
Peter Knight will replace Stark as the head of ROTC and will be visiting the University on Monday. He will take over for Stark in late July.
The Princeton ROTC program, which is not endorsed by the University, includes cadets from Princeton, The College of New Jersey, Rider University and Rowan University.
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