JTC 26: Trusting Her Gut

All of Brooklynn Michael’s friends tell her she lives a double life. Some days, she dresses up with her sisters at Alpha Delta Pi for a night out. Other days, she’s flying off in a UH-60 Blackhawk as the battalion commander for the Ole Miss Army ROTC Program.  

But she wouldn’t have it any other way.  

When she arrived at the University of Mississippi in 2022, the allied health studies major had no plans to join the Army. She grew up in a military town – Enterprise, Alabama, is neighbor to the home of Army aviation, Fort Rucker – but she didn’t grow up in a military family.  

Instead, Michael chose Ole Miss because she wanted to be somewhere new.  

“Growing up in Alabama, everybody went to ‘Bama or Auburn,” she said. “But it’s hard to change as a person when you’re always around the same people and the same environment. I was worried that I wouldn’t be able to expand my boundaries.  

“Then, I was touring Ole Miss, and I had that very strong gut instinct, just a feeling like this was the path for me. This is where I needed to be.”  

Those feelings are rare, but Michael says she always follows them. When another gut feeling told her to enlist the U.S. Army National Guard, she found herself walking into a recruiter’s office.  

“I don’t want to say it was on a whim – it wasn’t – but I wanted to do something with my life that I could look back on and tell my kids cool stories,” she said. “At first, I thought I could just do it for a few years, drill on weekends and that will be that. 

“I’ve always had the mindset that I’d rather do it and regret it then never do it and spend your whole life wondering what would have happened if I did. So, I did.” 

Instead of regretting it, however, Michael became an Army National Guard medic and found she enjoyed being challenged and learning to lead. When she returned to campus after completing basic and Advanced Individual Training in the summer and fall following her freshman year, she missed the community she had found in the military.  

“My big in ADPi, she said I should give ROTC a shot,” she said. “But I didn’t listen to her. And I remember I was wearing my National Guard T-shirt at the gym and Lt. Col. Urquhart came up to me and said, ‘When are you joining ROTC?’ And I said, ‘I’m not.’ 

“But then I kept seeing him, and finally one day I decided to give it a shot. I thought I’d just go on a run with them one time and see what they were about. And from there, I just fell in love with the program and the community.” 

Lt. Col. Kris Urquhart, assistant professor of military science, said Michael stood out as a student even when he first met her at the gym. 

“I saw a lot of potential in Brooklynn,” Urquhart said. “In my opinion, any normal college student that is working out at 6 a.m. has goals and priorities. When she was working out at the same time as Army ROTC, I knew she most likely had the discipline and drive to be a successful cadet in ROTC.” 

Over the next two years, Michael became an officer in ROTC, went to basic camp at Fort Knox, served as public affairs officer for the Magnolia Battalion and, this spring, became the battalion commander.  

“In two short years as an Army ROTC cadet, she was selected to be the Cadet Battalion commander,” Urquhart said. “This position is usually a cadet that is in their fourth year of the program.  

“Her success has not come without temporary setbacks and minor failures; however, due to Brooklynn's resiliency, she has viewed and used those as opportunities to learn and become the best version of herself. That is what separates her from the other high-performing cadets: she strives for perfection but settles for excellence.” 

How cadets perform at Fort Knox helps determine their military assignments. Michael knew she wouldn’t get to choose, but she also knew exactly what she wanted.  

“As a little girl, we were close to Fort Rucker, so I remember seeing aviators in their flight suits and thinking these are the coolest people in the world,” she said. “When I imagined what a soldier was, what I imagined was them. But I never thought I’d be one of them.”  

After graduation in May, she will join their ranks as an active-duty aviator.  

“I won’t lie; it’s been hard,” she said. “But the good kind of hard, like I can look at myself in the mirror at the end of the day and be proud of what I did today.  

“And my teachers, they’ve prepared me more than I even realized they had, and so now I think I’m really ready to graduate. But the only reason I’m ready to go is because I feel like everything that needed to happen happened. I’m just lucky all the cards fell in the right place.”  

All the while, Michael has still been an active member of her sorority. She still sews and bakes and dresses up when she feels like it.  

“You know, I was a cheerleader in high school,” she said. “I like makeup and my earrings and getting dressed up, but I’m also out shooting and rolling around in the dirt for four or five days.  

"It took a while for me to realize my whole life isn’t just about my job, but my whole life isn’t just that I’m a girl either. I’m both, and I get to be both.  

“I feel like I’m more confident in who I am now because I know I don’t have to pick one or the other.” 

Contrary to what some may say, Michael is not living a double life. She is living the life she chose for herself – and she would not have it any other way.  

“It’s like I finally found what I was put on Earth to do,” she said. “I've got that feeling, that gut feeling, that this is where I’m supposed to be.” 

Top: Brooklynn Michael, an allied health studies senior from Enterprise, Alabama, balanced sorority life with serving as battalion commander for the Ole Miss Army ROTC Program after enlisting in the Army National Guard as a medic, and will commission as an active-duty aviator following graduation in May. Photo by Srijita Chattopadhyay/Ole Miss Digital Imaging Services