Bucknell ROTC Receives MacArthur Award for the Second Straight Year

Headquarters U.S. Army Cadet Command, the parent organization of the Army Reserve Officers' Training Corps program, in conjunction with Norfolk, Va.'s General Douglas MacArthur Foundation, recently announced the Army ROTC battalions that received the MacArthur Award for 2005.

Bucknell University's ROTC unit, the Bison Battalion, was recognized as the best Eastern Region unit in the small category for 2005. This is the second straight year it has attained this honor. The Bison Battalion is made up of students from Bucknell University, Bloomsburg University, Lycoming College, Pennsylvania College of Technology and Susquehanna University.

The MacArthur Awards were instituted in 1989 to honor the top Army ROTC units from around the country, said retired Marine Corps Col. William J. Davis, executive director of the General Douglas MacArthur Foundation.

"The awards recognize the individual units within the Army ROTC program that have achieved the standards that best represent the ideals of the watchwords of 'duty-honor-country' as practiced by General MacArthur," Davis said.

The Army ROTC battalions selected for the awards were the most successful of the command's 272 units in accomplishing their mission of training and commissioning the majority of the lieutenants entering the Army each year.

Army ROTC teaches students how to succeed in today's competitive world by providing them with leadership and management skills that last a lifetime. Many graduates attribute their success in careers in government and industry to the training they received while ROTC cadets. Among the distinguished graduates of the program are former Secretary of State Colin Powell and Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton.

ROTC units are at 272 colleges and universities throughout the country. Students at nearly 1,200 other institutions of higher learning also can participate in Army ROTC training through partnership agreements with nearby schools. Since the establishment of the program in 1916, more than 500,000 men and women have gone on to become Army officers through Army ROTC.

Other units receiving MacArthur Awards for excellence were Wake Forest University for the Eastern Region medium-size group and Rochester Institute of Technology for larger battalions. The Western Region units honored were California State University, Fullerton in the small-unit category and Wheaton College in the medium category; Arizona State University was the top Western Region large school.