To commemorate the OSU Army ROTC program’s centennial anniversary in the fall of 2016, the OSU Army ROTC program is working with the OSU College of Arts and Sciences to publish monthly stories over the next year highlighting the history and present success of the program. By clicking on the OSU Army ROTC’s centennial logo on OSU websites, readers will be directed to the current month’s feature story as well as stories from previous months. The first of these stories highlights freshmen cadets from the OSU Army ROTC program's largest incoming freshmen class in nearly three decades.
Freshmen cadets: Where it all begins
2015 marks the largest class of incoming freshmen for the OSU Army ROTC program since 1989, with this year seeing 49 enrolled freshmen cadets. Michael Dale, the OSU Army ROTC recruitment and operations officer, says this is a direct result of the program’s longevity and history, which attracts some of the best young men and women across the nation to the military.
With this increase in new freshmen, it seemed appropriate to have the first feature on the OSU Army ROTC program revolve around the class with whom the ROTC experience at OSU begins.
Freshmen students enter the OSU Army ROTC program for a variety of reasons including career opportunities, scholarships and family history with the military. Four freshmen cadets offered their experiences with how they became involved with the Army ROTC program at OSU and what it means to them now that they are here.
Reed Wheeler is from Wichita, Kansas, and plans on pursuing a chemical engineering degree with a pre-med option.
Aidan Wright was born in Monterrey, California, but has called several cities home. She is majoring in microbiology.
Brady Friend is from Easton, Pennsylvania, and is majoring in wildlife ecology and management.
Kelton Kelch is the only native Oklahoman in the group, hailing from Ardmore. He plans to pursue a civil engineering degree.
Had you been involved with ROTC programs before you came to OSU?
Reed: No, this is my first experience with it.
Aidan: No, I just knew about the military because of my dad because I’m a military brat. He was in the Army.
Brady: I had no prior experience.
Kelton: I went to a small school, and they didn’t really offer ROTC programs.
When you were looking at different colleges, and OSU came across your radar, were you approached about ROTC or did you seek it out on your own?
Reed: I applied for and received the ROTC scholarship before I decided to come to OSU. My older sister did ROTC at Pittsburgh State before and told me about the scholarship.
Aidan: I was either going to apply to an academy or an ROTC program because my dad had talked about it. He told me all the options, and I decided I wanted a more normal college experience with a little Army on the side, so I chose ROTC here.
Both my parents went here. My dad actually went through the ROTC program here. My grandparents, my dad’s parents, went here and his dad went through the ROTC program here, too. So, if I was going to do ROTC, I was going to go here.
Brady: I wanted to not go to school in Pennsylvania because it’s way too cold in the winters, so I wanted to come somewhere warm. I looked at schools around here and I really liked OSU. It was very friendly. I really liked the ROTC program here compared to others I looked at. I applied for the ROTC scholarship and got one, but I had decided I wanted to go to OSU before I got the scholarship.
I always wanted to be an officer and have a career in the military. I had looked at military academies like WestPoint, but I just felt I would have a better experience doing ROTC. Plus WestPoint is in New York, and it gets cold up there.
Kelton: Ever since seventh or eighth grade, I was dead set on an academy, and I guess I realized it’s not actually what I wanted. I didn’t want the 24/7 aspect of it. And then I’ve always wanted to go to OSU, even before I considered applying for the ROTC scholarship. They ask you to put down five to seven college options. I put down OSU, TCU, OU actually. Not that I ever thought I’d go to OU.
I have a cousin that graduated from OSU who is a patent lawyer now. I’ve had three other cousins who graduated from OSU recently with civil engineering degrees. So I’ve had a lot of family that have come here.
Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin recently passed House Bill 138, which allowed out-of-state ROTC students to receive in-state tuition waivers if they came to an ROTC program within the state of Oklahoma. Is anyone taking advantage of that bill?
Reed: I got a waiver before I enrolled in ROTC, so I got in-state tuition without it.
Aidan: I’m here on scholarship.
Brady: I’m also on scholarship but it’s a three-year scholarship. For my freshman year, I am taking the in-state tuition with the bill.
Kelton: Well, I live in state, so I don’t have to worry about the bill, but I’m also on a four-year scholarship.
What are some of the experiences you’ve had at OSU as a student versus the experiences you’ve had on the ROTC side?
Reed: As a student, I did the summer bridge program through the engineering department. It was a three-week program. I came up here, lived up here and got to take summer freshman courses. I met a lot of fun people and they became some of my good friends I have at OSU right now. I’m also involved in a couple of other clubs.
I joined the OSU shooting club, which used to be for ROTC cadets, and now it’s public for everybody. It can get some of us who have never shot guns before familiar with weapons. The more experienced shooters go and compete.ROTC has been interesting because I had no prior exposure to anything like this. I’m learning and trying to get up to speed with everything with trying to go to class and doing PT every morning. It gets pretty hard because I get tired, and I don’t have a lot of time to do things or sleep throughout the day.
Aidan: I haven’t gotten into many clubs yet. I brought two out-of-state friends with me who I’ve been friends with since middle school. We’ve been hanging out a lot when I’m not here in the class. I applied for the Life Science Freshman Research Scholar program. Hopefully I’ll be able to do that.
I don’t have to work out every day like the other three guys have been doing. I only have to work out Tuesday and Thursday, but they’re doing Ranger training, so they have to work out every day. It’s super fun and it reminds me of high school sports when I had to work out in the morning. I love it. It makes me hyper.
Brady: I went to Camp Cowboy this summer and met a lot of cool people. That was fun. I’ve been going to classes and I enjoy them. I go to the Colvin a lot, and I go to Linguetti’s in the Kerr-Drummond dorms a lot. They have a really good buffet there. I also joined the OSU shooting club. There are a lot of other ROTC cadets in it.
The Ranger Challenge is every morning. It’s exhausting but it’s fun. You’re pushing yourself. Class is fun. Military Science is a fun class. Capt. Beaty is a fun guy.
Kelton: I love it here. It’s my home away from home. Everyone has a smile on his or her face and are so easy to get along with. I feel like I’ve made a new friend almost every day. I’m an engineering major, so of course my classes are tough, but with all the free tutoring OSU offers, they set you up to not fail. You have to try really hard to fail.
ROTC has been great. Right off the bat you can tell there’s a bond you share because we’re all here for similar reasons and going toward the same goals. Yeah, it’s exhausting, but at the end of the day it’s worth it and I look back and think ‘I’m glad I did that’. I’m also in the OSU shooting club, so I’ve added that on, too.
What are the Military Studies classes at OSU?
Reed: What we’re learning in our classes right now is pretty much military basics, like uniform regulations and things like that. It’s like the building blocks to becoming a soldier.
Aidan: One of our more recent classes, we talked about what it means to be a leader. We watched a clip from Band of Brothers and talked about what the leader was like.
Brady: We’ve done a lot of leadership exercises. We’ve gotten some networking assignments to find cadets and meet upperclassmen in our battalion.
Kelton: Right off the bat, they’ve been exposing us to the military side because a lot of us don’t have a lot of any experience with that coming in. A big part of that is leadership. Almost everything in ROTC is centered on leadership, and our MS1 instructor Capt. Beaty makes it fun and makes us want to come to class. That’s a big help. They’re there to support us.
Talking to some of the upperclassmen and some of the alumni who have been commissioned out of the program, what are some of the things you’re looking forward to with the program?
Reed: We recently had the Burger Burn event, and a lot of alumni were there and we got to hang out with the upperclassmen. The thing I took away from that event is that we’re going to make bonds that we’re going to have for a long time from this program.
Aidan: I feel like every time I’ve come to the lab I’ve felt lost, but an upperclassman, like a MS4, comes along and helps me out. I’m looking forward to doing that for an MS1 one day.
Brady: The Burger Burn made me excited, too, about gaining experience in ROTC and seeing what the upperclassmen do and knowing one day that’s what I’m going to do. I’m excited to get to the point to where I have the experience they have.
Kelton: I’m excited to do a lot of push-ups on the Push Up Crew. I hope we have a good football season. We signed up last week, and I think we all got at least one or two games in. They mix you up with other people that aren’t in your class, so you get to know them and be a part of OSU football at the same time.
What does it feel like to have been a part of an ROTC program that has been around for 100 years?
Reed: Being around that long shows this program has great tradition. It’s an honor to be a part of it.
Aidan: Sometimes it’s hard to believe how big of a timespan 100 years is. When I think about it, my grandpa who is in his 80s was here when he was 18. That’s a really long time. For the program to consistently put out really good officers throughout that time shows that it’s a really good program.
Brady: I think it’s comforting to know there’s a solid line of great officers that came before us through this program. It can show us what to expect for ourselves and the caliber of officer we can expect to be from the Cowboy Battalion.
Kelton: We need to take all the training and advice from the upperclassmen and alumni to heart so we can keep carrying on that tradition and passing it down.
Dale says that just like nearly 100 years ago, cadets still wear with pride the Army ROTC uniform with the “Cowboy” patch on the sleeve. The Cowboy Battalion is proof that OSU is helping many young men and women who want to serve their country as professional military officers fulfill those dreams.