Army ROTC cadets greet fans at a Cowboy football game.
UW’s two Reserve Officer Training Corps programs help prepare the next generation of Army, National Guard and Air Force officers.
To say the University of Wyoming has a rich history of military training for students would be a vast understatement. Military training at UW began way back in 1891—just one year after Wyoming became a state. When the Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) was created in 1916, UW immediately applied for a unit and became one of the first seven institutions nationwide to host an ROTC unit.
Today, UW is home to two ROTC programs—the Army Cowboy Battalion and the Air Force Detachment 940. Both units help students pay for school and provide leadership training to create the citizens and military leaders of tomorrow.
“The fact UW has one of the oldest ROTC programs in the Unites States commands respect, and I think it shows in the way the cadre run the program,” says Cowboy Battalion cadet and Wyoming Army National Guard member Greyson Buckingham of Kelly, Wyo., who is pursuing his law degree and MBA in a joint degree program. “I know I’m getting the necessary training I need to be an effective officer one day.”
Small but mighty describes UW’s Cowboy Battalion. “For a small school, UW out-produces many of the medium and large programs in regard to quantity and quality of commissioned officers,” says Lt. Col. Mitch Day, UW Army ROTC department chair and professor of military science.
“We have doubled the size of the program over the last few years and, each year, we have been in the top percentages in Army Cadet Command in several areas of measured excellence.”
The Cowboy Battalion received the 2013–14 Cochise Award for the Best Small Unit in the 5th Brigade, which consists of 36 host schools and more than 20 smaller or satellite schools. The battalion was selected for the honor based, in part, on the quantity and quality of commissioned officers the program produces. In 2015, the program commissioned 23 second lieutenants—a number that is 153 percent above mission requirements.
In 2015, five of the battalion’s seniors were also awarded the Distinguished Military Graduate Award, given to cadets who ranked in the top 20 percent of about 6,000 Army ROTC cadets nationwide. One of those honorees is Cadet Battalion Commander Jade Schmitt, a criminal justice senior from Green River, Wyo., who will go into active duty in the U.S. Army upon graduation.
“Five of us received this award—that is an incredible accomplishment for our program, university and state,” Schmitt says. “Our small but very strong program is highly competitive and one of the best in the nation. I believe that comes from most of the cadets holding onto the Wyoming spirit, camaraderie and having a cadre willing to put in the extra hours. I am proud to be where I am doing what I do best—serving this great country.”
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