Military officials and ROTC members were tight-lipped Tuesday about action being taken in response to the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City, the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., and the hijacking that resulted in a plane crash in Somerset County.

People in the program are "speechless," said Col. Steven Paladini, commander of the detachment and professor of aerospace studies in the Air Force Aerospace Studies ROTC.

The program is doing nothing out of the ordinary, and has told its cadets to be "more vigilant," he said.

"They (the ROTC students) are not subject to any national call-up unless they volunteer," Paliadini said.

Matt Rosen (junior-political science), a participant in the ROTC-Airforce program at Penn State, said he had not heard anything about mobilizing. He added that student ROTC participants would probably be some of the last to be brought into action because they still have training to complete.

But Rosen does feel affected by the events.

"(The terrorist attacks) are unsettling, it makes you more aware of how dangerous the world is becoming," Rosen said.

The program will not cancel classes and will use class time to help the students deal with their grief, as Penn State President Graham Spanier requested, Paladini said.

Paladini said he hopes students learned that "freedom is not free, this is the Pearl Harbor of their life."

Paul Kotakis, the Cadet Commander spokesperson from Fort Monroe, said at this time it would be impossible to speculate what action would be taken in response to this, especially action from the ROTC programs. Kotakis said the ROTC will probably "continue to do what it always does — train future officers."

There are about 500 students who participate in the ROTC program at Penn State, Paladini said.