Roche serves with the U.S. Army's 16th Combat Engineer Battalion in Iraq and is an adjunct fellow at the National Center for Public Policy Research, a conservative think-tank.
To be an adjunct fellow I would think that the guy has at least a Master's Degree.
When I first went into Basic Training years ago, I was surprised at the amount of persons with Bachelor Degrees. I have also known a number of enlisted soldiers with advanced degrees.
Most of the advanced degrees were obtained by persons taking advantage of certain G.I. Bill benefits. I knew of one particular fellow who was in an advanced course and he was the only NCO in the entire class. The general assumption was that every one in that class was a commissioned officer.