Chad Ostrander

Chad Ostrander, left top row, a U assistant professor of geology, deployed with the Marines in Operation Enduring Freedom. He served with an Air Force unit pictured here at Al Udeid Air Force Base in Doha, Qatar in 2010.

“I was born in southern Oregon, in a high-desert town just north of the California border called Klamath Falls. My maternal grandpa was the father figure in my life growing up, and he was an Air Force veteran. His duty station at the time of his retirement was Kingsley Field, a small base in that town where he would plant his post-military roots. Military service was always ingrained in me as a sort of rite of passage. Generations before me on maternal and paternal sides had served their country.

I was in eighth grade when I watched the towers fall on Sept. 11. My whole high school career in Klamath Falls I saw men leave for service in Iraq and Afghanistan. Some didn’t come back. College was never an option for me at that time; I grew up really, really poor. Even the local community college was a financial impossibility. The day after I graduated, I moved to southern Arizona to work as a pipe-layer for a sewer- and water-line construction company.

After my job as a pipe-layer and a stint as an old-West reenactor in Tombstone, I moved back to Oregon in the summer of 2007 to work as a dock hand at Crater Lake National Park. It was from here that I decided to join the military. I called the local Marine recruiter during “the surge,” when all military branches were ballooning in size to support the two wars.

I liked that the Marines didn’t promise me anything. You could have gotten tens of thousands of dollars in signing bonuses to join the Air Force, Army or Navy. When I joined the Marines they gave me a free one-way ticket to Marine Corps Recruit Depot, San Diego. I was stationed in Barstow, Calif. for my entire 5-year enlistment. In the summer of 2010, I was offered an Individual Augment billet through Marine Forces Central, to deploy to Al Udeid Air Base in Doha, Qatar. That was very important to me. I would have felt my service was missing a critical component if I didn’t deploy overseas at a time of war.

I cherish my time in the Marines. One of my best life decisions was to join the Corps. But one of my best life decisions was also to exit the Corps. I wanted to use the Post-9/11 GI Bill to do something that seemed impossible just a few years before: go to college. During the final year of my enlistment, I started reading books about science. I started with Carl Sagan’s Cosmos, and eventually made my way, painstakingly, through Charles Darwin’s Origin of Species. I was fascinated with the origin and evolution of life on Earth. In 2012, I enrolled at Arizona State University as an astrobiology major.

The Marines taught me to be comfortable with the uncomfortable. Don’t be adverse to adversity. Nothing is handed to you in this life. The only thing you should ever ask for is an opportunity. If you want something, go get it.”

—Chad Ostrander, an assistant professor of geology and geophysics, U.S. Marine Corps veteran

Ostrander served in the U.S. Marine Corps from 2007 to 2012. He reached the rank of sergeant and was deployed to Qatar in 2010. He and his wife live in Salt Lake City with their son and daughter, ages 5 and 8. As an assistant professor at the University of Utah in the Department of Geology & Geophysics, his research examines stable isotopes to shed light on how Earth’s atmosphere and oceans were oxygenated 2.2 billion years ago.

 

Brandon Mowes

Mowes, on the field, receiving his award at the U vs BYU game, Nov. 9, 2024

The 2024 Student Veteran of the Year was awarded to Brandon Mowes at the yearly Veterans Day Commemoration event on Nov. 15.

Mowes utilizes his nine years of United States Navy experience as his catalyst to strive for academic excellence and is someone who exudes qualities of servant leadership.

While in the Navy, Mowes was attached to the Nuclear Power Training Command in Charleston, SC where he endured a fast-paced and challenging nuclear training course consisting of calculus and physics. While not an implicit responsibility of being the class leader, he made it his goal to ensure everyone in his section had the best opportunity to succeed in the program. This goal resulted in Mowes spending substantial time helping other students find ways to better understand the material. His selflessness continued throughout each training program, leading to many students reaching their goals. This act of servant leadership did not go unnoticed.

Following his training, Mowes was offered a position to remain at the training site as an instructor. Jumping at the opportunity, he became an instructor for two years. He instructed approximately 320 sailors in general chemistry and radiological controls, with about 60 being further instructed on in-depth theory and practical application in these controls. The in-depth training portion included standing watch on the systems associated with a working nuclear reactor that was built in 1979 by monitoring, sampling, and correcting chemistry and responding to “incidents” that occur throughout the engine room. Through this experience, he absolutely fell in love with the science behind the reactors and knew this was the field he wanted to pursue.

In 2020, as classes and offices reopened after the pandemic, Brandon discovered the Veterans Support Center, VSC, and inquired about an open work-study position.

“Working at the VSC started to make me feel like I was still contributing to something important by helping all of our military-connected students on campus through support in the VSC and at various events. Seeing the effect that we have on these students at some of their most stressful times is beyond words,” he said.

Brandon graduated with his Bachelor of Science in Chemistry in 2023 with plans to continue at the U for his graduate degree. During the fall semester of that year, he was accepted into the Nuclear Engineering Ph.D. Program as a Research Fellow where he is conducting research on the forensic use of isotopes found in nuclear material in antiproliferation efforts to eventually reduce the security threat that nuclear materials pose to the world, minimizing the effort needed from our armed forces.

As Brandon continues his Ph.D. program, he remains a member of the VSC team as their office assistant. Between helping students in the office, advancing academically, or seeing him during Veterans Week activities behind his “combat camera”, his impact to the military-connected student community and the University of Utah is priceless.