Munro ’21: Pressure Makes Diamonds

By Molly Rolon, Associate Editor

Cadet Eric Munro ’21 isn’t a legacy. The electrical engineering major didn’t grow up hearing VMI barracks stories or watching the Keydets in Foster Stadium.

He knew one person in his hometown of Waynesboro, Virginia—Curtis Barker ’93, Ed.D.—who attended VMI. Barker, his dual enrollment physics professor, would occasionally mention VMI. When Munro was a high school sophomore, a rat from the Class of 2018 visited during her winter furlough. She talked to students about the Rat Line and her day-to-day experiences.

What she had to say resonated with Munro. He stayed after class to talk to her. He also began asking Barker about his experiences at VMI and soon decided he wanted to attend the Institute. To become a cadet, he realized he needed to take school more seriously and improve his grades. Munro—the oldest of five children and first in his immediate family to attend college—also needed to figure out a way to finance college. He learned about Air Force ROTC scholarships and applied for and received one. He interviewed for the Institute Honors program during an open house and was awarded a scholarship and a spot in the program.

The day his acceptance letter arrived, his parents opened the mail, and his mom began to cry. (Munro, who was watching TV, said he was “oblivious.”) That evening, his parents took him out to dinner. They presented the acceptance letter to him at the restaurant. He was “on cloud nine ... absolutely elated.”

Once he matriculated and was in the Rat Line, Munro realized he did not know exactly what being a rat entailed and that VMI was an incredibly high-stress environment. Before a drill competition, Seamus O’Connell ’19, his master sergeant, told the company, “Pressure makes diamonds.”

“There is never really a day that goes by that you’re not subject to some form of stress, some form of pressure, some set of expectations that you feel as though you have to live up to,” Munro said. “VMI as a whole has been one long, uninterrupted sequence of pressure from a variety of different parties. What’s been kind of pulling me by the collar of my shirt through all this is that phrase, ‘pressure makes diamonds.’”

Upperclass cadets were instrumental in helping him navigate VMI’s demands. Nicholas Wainright ’20, his S2 representative, ran a friendly GPA competition between rooms. He would—out of his own pocket—buy pizza for the room with the highest average GPA. This impressed then-rat Munro: Here was an upperclassman who cared enough to talk to rats and spend his own money. Through this, he learned, “It’s possible to be cordial with people, be friendly—but be viciously competitive.”

Edward Olbyrch ’18, an electrical engineering major and 1st Class private from his dykes’ class, believed the Rat Line stopped at the door of the academic buildings. He’d come to the rat study areas and talk to rats and would do tutoring sessions and give advice, Munro remembered. He’d bring in other 1st Class cadets “to talk to us lowly rats” about internships and their experience in the major. “He was a true academic mentor,” Munro said.

Munro’s education and experiences at VMI are funded partially through Air Force ROTC and partially through the Institute Honors program.

The Institute Honors program is not widely talked about in barracks, Munro said. Cadets who are selected for the program, called Institute Scholars, influence the Corps heavily. He knows many Institute Scholars who are cadets in charge of clubs or who hold leadership positions within the Corps, and the financial support they receive through the Institute Honors program is critical. “They’re able to spread so much leadership, they’re able to spread a good example to other cadets,” he said, noting that he doesn’t know “a single Institute Scholar who isn’t just an outstanding person.”

The Institute Honors program is supported by private donors, many of them alumni. Each spring, the VMI Foundation asks cadets to write thank you letters to their benefactors. “The letter I write to my donors is not just something on my to-do list,” Munro said. “It’s legitimately a heartfelt letter of appreciation.”

He writes how he’s doing in school, how his courses are going, about internships, summer training, how ROTC is going because “I think that these alumni supporters want to hear what the cadets that they’re supporting are doing.” When writing his benefactors, he also wants to communicate “just what their support results in.”

“There’s a lot of gratitude from the cadets for the support,” Munro said. “But I think the real reason [alumni] do this is because, even though they’re not here anymore, even though that they don’t have a direct role in what goes on in barracks, they know that with their support, they can still ensure that there’s a lot of good going on behind those walls.”

Munro will commission in the U.S. Air Force Reserve in May 2021 as a cyberspace effects operations officer. He will be working full time as a computer security engineer for Kyrus Technology.

Cadet Eric Munro ’21 of Waynesboro, Virginia, is an electrical engineering major and the S2 captain. His education is funded through the Col. William H. Dabney USMC Class of 1961 Merit Scholarship.—Photo by Micalyn Miller, VMI Alumni Agencies.