“Everything’s been going so fast that I really haven’t been able to stop to think about that,” Wheeler says.

On June 23, just two weeks after graduation, Rob Wheeler will ship out to Fort Jackson, S.C., for the Army’s Basic Training.

On Sept. 6, he will commence 14 weeks of Officer Candidate School. After New Year’s, Wheeler will take his specialty course.

“And that’ll be the time when it’s either more training or time for deployment,” Wheeler says. “So that’s still about a year off. There’s a lot of training and learning to do.”

And so the ultimate team guy will join the ultimate team. Wheeler concedes a bit of nervousness, especially concerning his parents.

“But I mean,” he says, gazing upon O’Donnell Field as a player for the last time in his career, “it’s something I feel like I should do.”

Wheeler entered Harvard College in September 2001, and like so many other seniors around the nation, saw his world change immediately.

Wheeler says the attacks of September 11 were the “trigger” of his decision, but not necessarily the final motivation.

“Up until last year,” he says, “I still thought I was going to be an I-Banker.”

During the summer, Wheeler worked a desk job as an intern at a corporation, and it “didn’t feel that fulfilling.”

“I’d check out cnn.com and see guys doing something that I felt like was really worthy,” Wheeler says.

For a minute, the amiable grin turns serious. Wheeler looks you directly in the eye.

“I’ve always looked up to the military,” he says. “I supported the war. I support what we’re doing over in the Middle East.”

And yet what Wheeler says next might well garner respect from both sides of the war debate: “I felt like if that’s how I truly feel I should be willing to fight for it.”

The senior expects his Applied Mathematics degree, which only 36 graduating seniors earned in 2004, to come in handy.