ROTC Selected As Top Battalion In 12th Brigade

The SHSU ROTC battalion celebrated its being selected as best in the 12th Brigade on Thursday afternoon. The group, which consists of about 90 cadets and nine cadre members, was awarded based on the overall academic standing, outstanding summer camp performance and the 13 students commissioned last year.

They may be a part of “An Army of One” but the Sam Houston State University ROTC has stood out so much this past year that the group was recently named the top battalion for the 12th Brigade.

Beating out ROTC programs such as Texas A&M and the University of Texas at Austin, as well as about 17 others, the SHSU battalion was also selected as the best medium-sized school for the 12th Brigade by the Cadet Command, which oversees about 272 universities across the country that are placed into 14 Brigades.

“ Within the Western region there are brigades, and my brigade is located in San Antonio,” said Lt. Col. Alan Mooneyham, head of the SHSU military science department. “It encompasses all of the schools in New Mexico, Texas and Oklahoma that have ROTC programs. From those schools in the brigade, we were selected as the top overall school.

“ Basically, we are one of the top 14 ROTC programs in the nation,” he said.

The top ROTC program is selected based on three criteria: academic standing, summer camp performance and the numbers of students commissioned as military officers annually.

The battalion “excelled” in their performance at the 32-day summer camp held annually at Ft. Lewis, Wash., Mooneyham said.

“We had the highest physical fitness, rifle marksmanship and land navigation scores out of everyone in the brigade,” he said, “but we also exceeded the national average in those three areas.”

The number of cadets commissioned by the military science department last year also “worked to our favor,” Mooneyham said.

“ For the first time in 10 years we had actually met our Army mission of commissioning 12 people, but we exceeded it by one,” he said. “They (Cadet Command) designate a portion of students from every school as the top graduates from that school, and they refer to them as the distinguished military graduates. Well, for us, we were the highest percentage of distinguished military graduates in the brigade.”

Mooneyham said he is proud of the battalion because it is a culmination of four years of hard work since he has joined the staff.

“ Some of the schools that we have to compete against within in this brigade are Texas A&M and UT-Austin, and these are big schools with huge programs,” he said. “So for us to have done that well against programs like that that have tons and tons of students is really a big accomplishment.”

He also acknowledges that it was a group effort that got the battalion to this point.

“ I am extremely proud; we have a great team here,” he said. “Every one of the cadre members, the staff here, have all made a huge contribution that went towards us being recognized.

“ The Sergeant Major for example, he’s in charge of our physical fitness program, and we had the highest in the brigade and exceeded national averages; the commissioning and contracting of our students, Maj. (Rosanna) Dolphin, she does a lot of that,” he said.

“ Sgt. (Juan) Rodriguez, he’s a training guy and he’s responsible for their outstanding performance at camp; and also the cadets, had they not done so well at camp and fitness and academically, we wouldn’t have been recognized, so they really deserve a lot of the credit too.”

Along with the recognition of being named top battalion, the department received $2500.

—END—

SHSU Media Contact: Jennifer Gauntt
Feb. 4, 2005
Please send comments, corrections, news tips to Today@Sam.edu.