Army Strong

Baylor is home to one of the oldest ROTC units in the nation, and now it’s home to one of the newest. While the Air Force ROTC was established in 1948, Baylor launched an Army ROTC in January.

The U.S. Army began taking a serious look at Baylor about two years ago, according to Army ROTC program director Lt. Col. John Agor. Wanting to increase its yearly contingent of commissioned officers, the army was seeking universities to host ROTC units. “Baylor immediately came to the forefront, because it is a school of merit with an outstanding reputation,” he said. He contacted the Baylor provost in the spring of 2008, and by October the Baylor Board of Regents had approved the new program. In the spring semester of 2009, a dozen cadets entered the program. This fall, the group has already grown to more than thirty.

“The interest is astounding,” Agor said. “I have no doubt we will start the next school year with well over one hundred cadets.”

Major Tim Childress, the recruiting officer and instructor of the junior cadets, said that the army is growing the program from the bottom up, with about seven at the junior ROTC level this year and more in the earlier stages. There are students of all classifications, including one in graduate school. Cadets can major in anything, and they certainly are: biology, physical education, engineering, journalism, economics, and criminal justice. There are several cadets majoring in international studies, Childress said, and one majoring in music, specializing in organ performance.

Learning leadership skills is one of the key goals of an Army ROTC cadet, said Childress. The major will spend all year preparing juniors to participate in the army’s Leadership Development and Assessment Course (LDAC) next summer. “The army brings together six thousand college juniors in ROTC for head-to-head competition and to rank-order all six thousand,” Childress said. “Everything in the army is based on merit,” he added. “We don’t care what you look like; we don’t care who your dad is.”

Next summer will be Baylor’s first time to attend LDAC, and among Baylor’s seven or eight cadets who will attend is this year’s cadet lieutenant colonel, Baylor senior Adam Brewer. Brewer used to be in the Air Force ROTC program but withdrew after a few semesters, he said, because he didn’t feel that the career fields—which he described as more technical—offered what he was seeking. When he heard about the Army ROTC program, he was one of the first in line.

Because he needs four semesters of Army ROTC course work, Brewer will stay at Baylor an extra semester. He will graduate and be commissioned as a second lieutenant in December 2010, making history in Baylor’s first class.

He doesn’t mind the extra semester,  he said, and it doesn’t hurt that he’s on scholarship through the Army ROTC.

When you join the Army ROTC, there are many benefits, Brewer said, including the possibility for scholarships. But leadership training was a big draw. “Army ROTC really does teach you leadership skills,” he said. “How many twenty-three-year-olds can say that they are directly responsible for the actions of about thirty people every day?”

As the group’s leader, Brewer said he tries to follow the army’s mantra and lead by example—he doesn’t yell a lot. “I like to be more of a motivator and make things happen through the chain of command,” he said. The ROTC unit is set up exactly like an active-duty unit. “It really helps us get the whole chain-of-command idea,” he said.

Even with perks like scholarships and a $40,000-a-year job guaranteed, Brewer said that he and the other cadets are really in it for one reason—service.