NORTHFIELD, Vt. (AP) – On her first day back at Norwich University last fall sophomore Jacqueline Lore was startled out of bed by the blast of the 5:50 a.m. school cannon.

For an instant she thought she was back in Iraq where she drove a truck as a mobilized Marine reservist during the opening months of the American invasion and occupation.

“Almost every convoy I was on there were shots fired at us,” said Lore, 22, of Howey-In-The-Hills, Fla.

Norwich senior Stephen Kulawiak of Stanhope, N.J., spent three months as a Marine infantryman in the Iraqi city of An Nasiryah in the early months of the war. During that time he said he went on about 70, three- to four-hour combat patrols on foot in an area that has been nicknamed “Ambush Alley.”

“There are shots going off all the time,” Kulawiak said. “When you are over there you have to be focused the whole time. Not only do you hold your life in the balance, if you screw up, someone else’s life might be in the balance.”

Kulawiak and Lore are the first two of what Norwich officials expect will be dozens of students who had to leave school for active duty in Iraq and then return to pick up where they left off.

Both have feared for their lives and fired their weapons in battle. Both said they were fortunate that neither lost any fellow Marines to combat.

“It changes everyone in some little way,” Kulawiak said.

They are bringing those changes with them back to Norwich.

“We have a number of students who have been through basic training or boot camp at some time during their Norwich experience,” said Norwich Commandant of Cadets Michael Kelley. “There is a maturity that comes from that experience that is amplified by those who have done that and a deployment. Maturity beyond their years is an understatement.”

Norwich, founded in 1819, is the nation’s oldest private military college. About 1,000 students are members of the school’s military arm, the Corps of Cadets. There are about 400 civilian students who live at the Northfield campus and another 400 commuter students.

Every year Norwich graduates dozens of students who are then commissioned as officers in the armed forces.

Unlike the service academies like West Point whose students won’t be sent overseas during their college years, scores of Norwich students are members of the National Guard or reserves, subject to activation and overseas deployment at any time.

Between November and last month, 24 Norwich students were among the 1,100 Vermont National Guardsmen and women called to active duty for service in Iraq or neighboring countries. Another half dozen students left as part of separate call ups.

“We had freshmen through seniors, corps as well as civilian students. One of the civilian students is the husband of a staff member in student life,” Kelley said.

Norwich students who are called up midsemester can work out with their professors about how to finish their studies. In some cases, they can receive full credit by doing independent study or finishing the semester when they return.

If a student has to leave school, Norwich will give the student a full refund for the semester’s charges, Kelley said.

The cost can be significant. Kelley said that, for example, if Norwich has to refund 24 students $10,000 each it could place a burden on the school.

“We discussed this with (Norwich) President (Richard) Schneider,” Kelley said. “We were unanimous. We wanted to do what was right by the students. If our roots are as citizen soldiers, why wouldn’t we recognize their sacrifice?”

And when the students come back Kelley knows they will pass on what they have learned.

Kulawiak was the first Norwich student called to active duty for the war in Iraq who has made it back to school. He was just about at spring break two years ago when his reserve unit was activated. He arrived in Iraq in early April and stayed until the end of July.

Now other students ask him what it was like.

“Combat cannot be explained to someone who hasn’t been there,” he said. Still, he answers the questions.

“Most Norwich students are going to be future officers,” Kulawiak said. “The more information they have (the better) if it helps them even a little bit, I can feel good about it.”

Both Lore and Kulawiak said it was hard to readjust to life in the United States after being in Iraq.

“When I first came home I wanted to be surrounded by Marines,” Lore said.

“You go from every day waking up with 10 guys and one mission,” Kulawiak said. “Then you come back to normal life. It isn’t always easy for your family.”

Lore, a criminal justice major, injured her knee in Iraq when a portion of the load on her truck broke free. She’s unsure if she will be medically eligible for an officer’s commission after graduation. If she is unable to be commissioned, said she’d like to work for the Drug Enforcement Administration.

In any event, she’s glad to be back at Norwich.

“I appreciate my chance to have an education a lot more,” Lore said. “It made me glad to go to class. I enjoy it a lot more.”

The students Lore arrived with are now seniors.

“Definitely, coming back here I was a little nervous,” Lore said. “Most of the sophomores call me Mom.’ Those two years of experience in life give me an edge,” she said.

But she feels different, too. “A lot of times you look back and say was I that immature?”‘ she said.

Kulawiak, also a criminal justice major, expects to graduate in May and be commissioned a 2nd lieutenant in the Marines. He’s applied the focus he learned on the streets of Nasiryah to his studies. Since he returned in the fall of 2003 he has seen his grade point average go up at least a point and a half each semester.

Kulawiak who hopes to make a career out of the Marines. When he is commissioned he will already be wearing a combat action ribbon.

“Someone with that type of experience would be invaluable,” said Lt. Darlan Harris, a spokesman for the Marine training base at Quantico, Va.

Harris said that junior officer courses were being sprinkled with young Marines who already had combat experience. “It definitely brings those lessons home. It is useful to the Marine Corps,” she said.

Lore’s younger sister, Coral, followed her to Norwich after a year of college elsewhere. Now Coral Lore has followed Jacqueline Lore’s footsteps to Iraq.

Coral Lore is a member of the Vermont National Guard and, like her older sister, was activated after her freshman year. Coral Lore is now serving in Iraq with the headquarters of the 42nd Infantry Division.

After being commissioned, Kulawiak will spend at least a year in advanced training before he will be ready for combat again. He knows he could end up in Iraq again.

“I don’t look forward to combat,” he said. “It’s part of the job. I know it’s there. It’s part of the contract to be in the military.”

AP-ES-02-12-05 1749EST