Army Lieutenant Colonel (LTC) Troy Bucher’s appointment as the OSU Army ROTC's new Professor of Military Science (PMS) in May 2015 couldn’t have come at a better time as OSU prepares to celebrate 100 years of Army ROTC next fall.
As a Professor of Military Science, LTC Bucher serves as the department head and highest-ranking officer of the OSU Army ROTC program. A PMS typically has achieved the rank of Lieutenant Colonel before they are assigned to an ROTC program. LTC Bucher, however, was appointed as OSU Army ROTC’s PMS as a Major and was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel on Oct. 1.
“It’s fairly competitive because there are only 80-90 positions that come open each year,” Bucher said. “They look at your evaluation reports and military record, and they make sure your academic background is a good fit for the university you’re assigned to while taking into account your regional history.”
LTC Bucher is no stranger to Oklahoma, so it’s easy to see why he was assigned to OSU. He received his bachelor’s degree in English from Cameron University (later receiving an M.F.A. in Writing Popular Fiction from Seton Hill University), his wife and in-laws are from Ryan, Oklahoma, and he has been stationed at Fort Sill three times over his career (most recently as the Deputy Commanding Officer for the 30th Air Defense Artillery Brigade).
Over a 26 year career that included both enlisted and commissioned time, LTC Bucher has worked his way through numerous Army assignments, including three years teaching at the NATO anti-terrorism training center in Ankara, Turkey, two tours in Korea, and two deployments to Iraq. He also commanded two different units as a Captain (the first in the 3rd Armored Calvary Regiment and the second at Officer Candidate School at Fort Benning, Georgia).
Now that he is at OSU, his mission for the next three years sounds simple: Recruit, educate and commission officers for the total Army (meaning the active Army, the OK Army National Guard, and the Army Reserves). It is, however, far more challenging than he expected.
“Being the PMS is a lot more difficult than most Army officers believe it to be,” LTC Bucher said. “There are so many areas to focus on. In addition to the primary mission of the ROTC program, I am working with alumni, community outreach projects, Highs School Junior ROTC programs, and extracurricular activities for my cadets. While complex, it will certainly be my most rewarding assignment.”
LTC Bucher is committed to developing scholar-warrior-athletes for the U.S. Army. This means his cadets must be commissioned out of the program with the resources, skills and knowledge to adapt to any situation or mission they might find themselves in.
Similar to his cadets, LTC Bucher evaluates the Army ROTC history at OSU as adaptive. As a land-grant university, there have always been Army cadets at OSU. In fact, when OSU started as Oklahoma A&M, all of its students were taught military tactics.
“Army officer training is part of what the university was founded on,” LTC Bucher said. “The university has been very supportive of the ROTC program over the years, and the two are going to remain strong partners for the years ahead.”
To learn more about the OSU Army ROTC program visit rotc.okstate.edu.