Duke center Marshall Plumlee was sworn into the U.S. Army before practice Friday afternoon, and will effectively join the army as an officer upon his graduation from Duke in 2016.
The Duke Chronicle reports, Plumlee was a student in the universities ROTC program during the 2012-2013 academic year, and was said to have partaken in “really intense military study”, by David Behm, recruiting and operations for the Duke Department of Military Sciences.
Plumlee’s interest in becoming an officer is said to have been sparked by a 2012 team trip to Fort Bragg, in which Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski had the team take part in physical conditioning alongside holding an open practice for the troops of Bragg.
A special waiver was granted for Plumlee to be accepted into service as him being 7 ft. tall technically makes him too tall to enlist as the average citizen would.
The 2013-2014 served as time away from the Duke ROTC program for Plumlee, who dedicated that academic year to improving his basketball skills to better contribute to his team.
Averaging 9 min., 2.5 ppg, and 2.4 rpg, via espn, Marshall is choosing to go against the grain of the family profession and not join his two older brothers, Mason and Miles in the NBA.
When Plumlee graduates he will begin his required 8 years of service for his country.
Salute.
