In 1983, Major Lovings enlisted in the US Marine Corps. Two years later, he transferred from the USMCR to the Army ROTC at UCLA. In 1987, he received his commission as an Army Reserve Officer. Major Lovings's academic education is quite interesting. He obtained a Bachelor's degree in Political Science from California State University Northridge and subsequently, a Master's degree in Forensic Science from National University, San Diego. Currently as a recruiting operations officer, Major Lovings faces many challenges associated with his job in an age when the military has stiff competition from the civilian job market.
The first challenge he has to address is changing the incorrect perception many people have. The ROTC program and the Army in general, need to overcome the negative impressions that the overall population has about them. Most of these poor perspectives derive from common misconceptions passed through family members, friends, society, and for course, the media. A ROTC instructor at SDSU, Sergeant First Class (SFC) Rene Romero, put his two-cents worth in on this topic. He states that generally, many people are not advocates for the military and mistakenly think that the "military breeds killers, rapists, and gay bashers". Major Lovings realizes that the most effective solution to this challenge is to promote a message of the true nature of the ROTC program. This promotion can be accomplished through the internet, radio, television, and other forms of the media. Information booths established on campuses are quite effective because they can attract students (going to and from their classes) to the ROTC program. SFC Romero made an interesting point about peoples' perception about the presence of Army ROTC on campuses. He asserted that people tend to think that the Army ROTC program at various campuses act more as recruiting ploys rather than college courses; however, multi media exposure can help to negate this misperception and educate the student population. Both Major Lovings and SFC Romero emphasize that although the solution will address this specific challenge, other issues such as the high cost of advertising is a challenge in and of itself.
