>

U.S. Army Spc. Yasser Richard ’13 patrols a remote location on the outskirts of Kabul, Afghanistan, in 2009.

To follow his dream of making the world a better place would require education, and tuition and books cost money. Richard would get help toward his goal from a fellow veteran, retired U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. Mike Waters ’70.

Waters established a scholarship at Oswego to help young veterans just like Richard fulfill their dreams. “When I met Yasser, I was blown away by his story. He is the epitome of the kind of person I wanted to help with this scholarship,” said Waters.

Richard’s family came from Haiti and settled in the Washington Heights area of New York City. In his late teens, he found himself homeless. A visit to the Army recruiting office convinced him to sign up to escape life on the streets.

“My training gave me a sense of purpose that I didn’t have before,” he said. In April 2008 he volunteered for deployment to Afghanistan.

Before he enlisted, Richard said, he had made some destructive choices.

“When I went to Afghanistan and saw my first suicide explosion, all that seemed so pointless,” he said. What’s more, he gained newfound faith. “I entered agnostic. After that [experience] I sought something more spiritual.”

After eight months on gate guard duty at Camp Phoenix, he was assigned to an international security team to provide personal security for generals and other high-ranking officials. It was on one such mission in winter, when he saw a young Afghan girl with no shoes and only a thin layer of clothing.

“I had my helmet, armor and warm clothing underneath,” he said. “But I grew up in Haiti between the ages of 7 and 9, and I remember the poverty like that.

“Although these places were 7,000 miles apart, the conditions were so similar. I thought, if I could ease what was going on here, maybe I could do it in Haiti or other places.”

Lt. Col. Mike Waters ’70, left, helped Spc. Yasser Richard ’13 make his college dreams a reality with a scholarship he established for fellow veterans.

When his platoon sergeant was killed while on a mission that Richard would have been on, Richard was confirmed in his desire to return to the States and make a difference for those in poverty. “I’m alive because of him. To do anything different would be a disgrace to him and to the others killed in combat,” Richard said.

After discharge, he came to Oswego and is majoring in chemistry. He hopes to help the poor of the world through applying food science to alleviate hunger.

In the meantime, he does what he can to reduce hunger by volunteering in a Syracuse soup kitchen each month.

As a non-traditional student, Richard must juggle the demands of school with real-life needs like rent, a car loan, and insurance. He said he is thankful for Waters’ help. “It eases my stress about how I will pay for next year,” he said. “It makes me feel more confident and secure.”He also appreciates that Waters chose to help another veteran with his scholarship. “Veterans look out for each other on the battlefield, and stateside,” Richard said.

“What Mr. Waters did inspires me. I can’t wait until I can contribute to a scholarship and help another veteran.”

He also agrees with Waters about the importance of giving back to the college.

“You grow here, develop your views here, make friends here and figure out what the next stage of your life will be, here,” Richard said. “It’s a special place, and like anything essential in nature, it should be preserved.”

When Mike Waters ’70 was a struggling veteran and a SUNY Oswego student, he always worked a job or two to get by. Now he is offering today’s student-veterans a scholarship aimed at helping them fulfill their collegiate dreams.

Times were so tough in the ’60s, Waters says ruefully, he got his four-year degree on the nine-and-a-half year plan. He graduated from high school in the early 1960s and from Oswego in January 1970.

Mike Waters '70

In between getting that high school diploma and the Oswego sheepskin, he would join the U. S. Air National Guard. He was ready to be deployed to Vietnam, when the orders were canceled. That didn’t stop him from serving several tours in combat zones, however. During his 34-year military career, Lt. Col. Mike Waters would be deployed to Turkey five times.

So when his earlier gift to fund the Zamboni room in the new Campus Center was paid off, and he “had a notion for giving again,” Waters remembered his fellow troops.

“I had the feeling for people that deploy overseas,” he said. “I am aware of the hardships of guys and girls that go into combat.”

So he targeted his giving toward them. The new Lt. Col. Mike Waters, USAF (Ret.) ’70 Scholarship is aimed at helping a student who holds down a part-time or full-time job, with preference given to Central New York residents who are veterans. Additional preference will be given to combat veterans.

Waters is enthusiastic about military service, calling it “the best thing that ever happened to me.”

“The military was great. I traveled to many places and met a lot of fascinating people,” he said. Waters has been to Turkey 13 times — five times for Uncle Sam — including a trip this autumn. He first visited the country Nov. 1, 1992, when he was part of Operation Provide Comfort in Northern Iraq after Operation Desert Storm.

In his travels Waters once encountered an earthquake and also met the U.S. Secretary of Defense and chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

“When you’re doing things you read about on the front page of The New York Times, that’s pretty exciting,” he said.

Now he hopes to make life a little easier for men and women who have served their country well.

— Michele Reed