Fast 5 // Q+A

When he turned 17 years old, Private First Class Quinn Mullaney ’23 enlisted in the United States Army Reserve. Now, while he’s finishing out his time at Brooks, he’s also a combat medic. The Bulletin sat down with Mullaney to hear more about his reasons for enlisting in the military, his experiences with military training and his aspirations for the future.

What do you do as a member of the United States Army Reserve? Being in the reserve is similar to being on active duty, but reserve is only two days a month. So, I’m still able to have a normal life, but I spend two days a month drilling and training with my unit at my base in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. I also went to boot camp last summer. I’m in the 454th medical detachment, and it’s part of a field hospital. My unit is in charge of supporting wounded people after surgeries or incidents. If we were to be deployed, the medics — like me — would go out with the infantry.

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When you go to train, what sort of training do you do? It can vary. Sometimes it’s weapons training, vehicle training, medical training. A few months ago, we had a combat situation training: The lights were off and we had our helmets and rifles — we call it the full “battle rattle” — and we had to practice assessing injuries on dummies. My role, if we were actually going into battle, is to get wounded people off the front lines and get them back to the field hospital. So we learn a lot of drags; we learn how to properly load people onto a stretcher and run with them. We train with tourniquets a lot.

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What was your experience at boot camp like? I was in basic training for 10 weeks at Fort Leonard Wood in Missouri. That was boot camp, and it’s what most people think boot camp’s like. That was drill sergeants yelling at you, making you do pushups. When I was in fifth grade, I dressed up as a combat medic for Halloween. So it’s definitely something that I’ve been looking forward to my whole life. There’s a lot of military in my family. My mom’s uncle was a colonel. He had seven kids, and six of them became colonels. It’s definitely a lineage.

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What are your plans for future military service?

Well, I plan to stay in the reserve. And, I’m attending College of the Holy Cross next year, where I’m also planning to enroll in their ROTC program under a simultaneous membership program. Being in both ROTC and the reserve means that when I’m with my reserve unit, I’ll be able to shadow officers instead of doing my normal duties.

IN THE LEHMAN

Celebrating 25 Years

The RLAC has enriched academic and community life at Brooks for more than two decades, and the school now looks forward to the future of meaningful arts.

The Robert Lehman Art Center passed its 25th year of existence in October 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic was at its peak. As a result, the school celebrated the center’s anniversary last year, and now looks forward to the next 25 years of instilling the importance of art at Brooks.

“There’s always been an interest in the arts at Brooks,” says Director of the Robert Lehman Art Center and arts department chair Babs Wheelden. The Robert Lehman Art Center, which is housed inside Henry Luce III Library, includes gallery space, classroom space, storage space and a framing area. She explains that together, those spaces have historically allowed students to get a full picture of the arts, from a historical perspective through more contemporary artists.

Although evolving technology has changed methods of teaching, the center still allows for what Wheelden calls “power exhibitions that are really impactful. I want to make sure that this space isn’t just showing art; that it’s also for teaching about art.” She recalls several recent exhibits in the Lehman gallery that have touched on pressing international and social issues: “It’s cross-curricular,” Wheelden says. “We want students to see the art not just as art, but also as something else — as a source of information.”

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How have you brought these skills back to Brooks? I’ve learned a lot about how to lead a team and how to get along with people. As a dorm prefect in Whitney House, that’s helped me a lot. I’ve been able to resolve situations, conflicts that inevitably come up when you’re living with other people. My training has also taught me to be more confident. And, boarding at Brooks has helped me adjust to living in a barracks with 80 other people. Knowing how to share a living space, and knowing how to communicate and be on that boat together, was really helpful.

Wheelden points to an exhibit by noted photographer Bill Ferris ’60, which ran in the Lehman this spring and in honor of Black History Month. Ferris is the Joel R. Williamson Eminent Professor of History Emeritus at the University of North Carolina. The exhibit included images from his recent book “I Am A Man: Civil Rights Photographs in the American South, 1960–1970.”

“It’s important that all of the exhibitions in the Lehman are mission-aligned,” she says. “That they’re meaningful to every member of the community, whether they actually make it into the gallery or not.”

May Eggleston ’24, who assisted Wheelden with creating and curating the Ferris exhibit, certainly finds meaning in it. She is from Memphis, Tennessee, she explains, and she recognizes the scenes she sees in the photographs of the Deep South. She’s learning, she says, about how certain pieces complement each other to convey different messages or themes. “And,” Eggleston says, “because it’s Black History Month, this has been very interesting. It’s been very valuable for me.”

Ferris took time to make a virtual visit with Brooks students to discuss his work and his path. He engaged with a large group of arts students and faculty over Zoom in the renovated Keating Room for a discussion with topics that ranged from his time at Brooks to his experiences working with other artists.