Squared Away

Eagle Battalion ranks among the nation’s top ROTC units

“Preparedness,” Gen. Douglas MacArthur once said, “is the key to success and victory.” By any measure, Georgia Southern’s ROTC program would have made the late Gen. MacArthur proud.

Eagle Battalion was named a MacArthur Award winner this spring, making it one of the eight best ROTC programs in the nation. It was the second consecutive year it earned the honor.

Since 1989, the MacArthur Foundation has recognized the country’s top ROTC units based on the ideals of MacArthur, performance on the Cadet National Order of Merit List, cadet retention, quality and performance of military training and newly commissioned second lieutenants.

This year, seven cadets achieved “Iron Eagle” status by scoring 300 or higher on three demanding consecutive Army Physical Fitness tests. Two cadets, Craig Overholt and Charles Deem, were selected for the nationally competitive LTG Maude Scholarship – a first for any ROTC battalion. Overholt was assessed as the 21st best cadet in the U.S. and also received the National Defense Transportation Award. Cadet Jason Graf was named a National Level Society of Military Engineers Award winner.

The program commissioned five nurses and 34 line officers in 2010. The Battalion’s leader, Colonel George Fredrick, expects to commission 50 officers in the summer of 2012 and 60 in 2013. Those kinds of numbers are what are expected from military colleges, not a traditional university like Georgia Southern, said Fredrick.

U.S. Department of Education statistics show that only 36 percent of American college undergrads graduate within four years, and only 57.5 percent of them attained a degree or certificate in six years. The Eagle Battalion’s average time to graduation is four years and two months.

Fredrick said 104 of 171 contracted cadets (those committed to accepting an Army commission upon graduation) have GPAs of 3.0 or higher and of those 104, 44 stand at 3.5 or higher. The overall GPA for all of the Battalion’s contracted cadets is 3.22.

Fredrick credited Recruiting Operations Officer LTC Bill Roberts’ skills for the program’s rise in well-qualified and motivated new cadets. “Colonel Roberts is still the best in the business,” he said. “People confuse the term ‘recruiter.’ A recruiter brings you in, signs the paper, and tells you, ‘Goodbye. Now you’re going somewhere else.’ When we bring somebody in, we follow them until they finish.

“The Army tells us if you’re going to be successful, you’ve got to recruit the best, you’ve got to develop the best and retain the best,” said Fredrick. “Together we’ve contracted 211 cadets – 211 times somebody raised their right hand and made that promise. Out of those, we lost 15. Two of those were for medical reasons. That’s a 93 percent retention rate. My instructors are the best – competent, professional with a high level of care. Retention is very important. I’ll take that 93 percent any day, and I’ll put that up against any other ROTC program.”

“Step one is to try to bring in the very best, high quality, really motivated, ‘I want to be an Army officer’ kind of student into the program,” said Roberts. “If I can bring in those kinds of students and give them to a really good instructor who’s going to develop them and mentor them and coach them, he’s going to get them over those little speed bumps you get when you’re in college.”

Much thought is also given to keeping instructors informed of each cadet’s academic and personal situations. “We’re very careful of how they get passed from the freshman year to the sophomore year and to the junior year,” Roberts said. “The sharing of information is very important. Each instructor knows students’ strengths and weaknesses and passes that to the next instructor.”

It’s also vitally important for new freshmen to believe they are invested in the program and that there is concern about their needs from the first day. Early on, cadets are in uniform and participating. “They’re thinking, ‘So far, everybody I’ve met is concerned about me and has taken care of me and makes me feel a part of the team.’ You don’t get that at every school,” said Roberts.

When a program is a cut above the rest, it doesn’t take long for word to spread, said Fredrick. “Word is getting out. It’s an Internet world. These kids go online, they search, they check. They know how to research.”

Both men had high praise for the University’s Office of Admissions. “I consider myself a part of that team,” Roberts said. “Every year they give me an opportunity to talk to the SOAR leaders. I take 30 minutes to teach 50 people about ROTC and they’re going to be talking to thousands of people who come to campus.

“Every one of those admissions folks can talk ROTC,” said Roberts. “If you’re a student and you show up in the admissions office, they’re going to be friendly to you. You’re going to walk in there and think, ‘These people like me. They’re genuinely nice and they would really like for me to come to Georgia Southern.’ That to me is one of the reasons Georgia Southern is one of the most popular schools in the nation.”

“There is just something about this University,” said Fredrick. “It’s hard to say too much about the support we get – from President Keel, the provost, the deans, down to the individual professors.”

Some parents are now sending their second and third children to Georgia Southern ROTC. “That’s a high compliment,” said Fredrick. “That tells us that when the kid comes home at Thanksgiving, the parents like what they see.”