{"id":938,"date":"2016-04-19T15:34:11","date_gmt":"2016-04-19T15:34:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.tntech.edu\/visions\/?p=938"},"modified":"2018-02-07T22:06:23","modified_gmt":"2018-02-07T22:06:23","slug":"the-long-purple-line","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.tntech.edu\/visions\/the-long-purple-line\/","title":{"rendered":"The long purple line"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Lori Shull<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\"At
At Cummins Falls, cadets assembled to learn land navigation. This was the first year the skill was taught off campus; previous cadets practiced the skill in Sherlock Park.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\n

\u201cAt the time, it was terrible. Looking back, it was the best thing that could have happened.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tech ROTC Golden Eagle Battalion Cadet Commander Caleb Anderson knows what he\u2019s talking about. The senior interdisciplinary studies major was starting to make a name for himself in Tech ROTC when the U.S. Army Cadet Command threatened to shut it down. He and the other cadets were forced to choose between ROTC and TTU until the Army changed its mind.<\/p>\n

In the two years since, the battalion has received a new lease on life. Enrollment is up more than a third, cadets receive more realistic hands-on training and Golden Eagle alumni have joined forces to help the cadets and to ensure the program remains a vital part of campus culture.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose of us who have been here and gone through this program view these cadets in the same way as the ROTC program does,\u201d said retired Lt. Col. Jim Pippin, \u201979 industrial technology. \u201cWe\u2019ve been through it too; they are ours.\u201d<\/p>\n

More than 150 alumni have volunteered to be part of the alumni association, whose goals include establishing a leadership program for cadets, assisting with student recruitment and raising money for scholarships and other opportunities. Pippin serves as the association\u2019s chairman.<\/p>\n

In the past year, the group has met only a few times, but already has helped to sponsor several ROTC fundraisers, including a 5K and a golf scramble; sent cadets to leadership conferences; and hosted two panels with ROTC alumni, both active-duty and retired.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been a 50-50 partnership,\u201d said retired Lt. Col. Ron Borden, Tech ROTC recruiting operations officer. \u201cThey\u2019ll come up with some ideas, we\u2019ll come up with some ideas and float something by them to ask their opinions. Then they\u2019re running downfield with the ball.\u201d<\/p>\n

Support from the alumni association, which is actively seeking additional members, is one part of the cadre\u2019s plan to continue strengthening the Golden Eagle Battalion.<\/p>\n

The battalion\u2019s mission from the Army is to commission 12 lieutenants every year, including two nurses and at least four from science, technology, engineering or math disciplines. To do that, the ROTC cadre is focusing on recruiting the right students and mentoring them on campus.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe image we project is you have a warrior-varsity athlete combined with an honor society member,\u201d said Lt. Col. Stephen Peterson, military science professor. \u201cWe really need that critical thinker, that very engaged academic student who has the ability to go on the gridiron and make a difference with the team.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tech ROTC students develop the physical and mental skills to be Army leaders in classroom activities and labs. Until this year, those labs have taken place on campus. Cadets have learned land navigation in Sherlock Park and tried to familiarize themselves with weapons by reading diagrams and watching YouTube videos.<\/p>\n

All that changed this year. In their weekly labs, cadets have gone paintballing, practiced squad movements at the Tech farm, learned land navigation at Cummins Falls, and trained with weapons systems hands-on at the Cookeville National\u00a0Guard Armory.<\/p>\n

\"Tech
Tech cadets trained with weapons systems at the Cookeville National Guard Armory.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t want to be known as the school that doesn\u2019t know how to\u00a0use weapons,\u201d said accounting major Daniel Williams, who has been in the\u00a0National Guard for nine years and organized the armory trip. \u201cSince these cadets will be officers, they will have to show someone someday how to use them.\u201d<\/p>\n

At Cummins Falls, 37 new cadets, members of the 65th Tech ROTC class, received their battalion patches. Thirteen others contracted with the Army, agreeing to serve for eight years and the three graduating seniors, including Anderson, were recognized for accepting active duty assignments. The contracting and active-duty cadets jumped off the waterfall to commemorate their commitments.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis trip to Cummins is a new tradition; we\u2019ve never done this before,\u201d Peterson said during the ceremony. \u201cWhen you put on this patch, you\u2019ll know that it means something and when you look back on this day, you\u2018ll know you were a part of something better than yourself.\u201d<\/p>\n

That organization has commissioned approximately 1,600 second lieutenants from Tennessee Tech. ROTC has been on campus since 1950; its first officers graduated in 1954. One of those, retired Col. Jim Stallard, \u201954 accounting, came back at the end of the fall semester to participate in an alumni panel.<\/p>\n

The leadership panel gave cadets the chance to find out more about being an Army officer. They asked questions about balancing family life and a military career, opportunities for nurses and physicians assistants, and the qualities of a leader.<\/p>\n

\"GOlden
Golden Eagle Battalion cadets speak with Karen Parks at the alumni association’s leadership panel.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s amazing to watch these alumni connect with 18- and 20-year old cadets,\u201d said alumni association secretary Liz Pippin, \u201978, \u201985 M.A. English. \u201cSome of these men are heroes and to give these cadets the contact with that caliber of person, who has been there and done that and done it well, makes a difference.\u201d<\/p>\n

Many in the association are former members of the Rebel Rifles drill team. Now that the group is established, members are seeking ideas and input to determine goals for the present and distant future. For more information, contact Jim Pippin at jpippinj@comcast.net.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt doesn\u2019t matter if they graduated in 1954 or 2002. They all say \u2018Yes, ROTC was a critical leadership-shaping effort at Tech. When I graduated and commissioned, I was set for success, whether it was the Army or corporate\u00a0America,\u2019\u201d Peterson said. \u201cI\u2019m really proud of the 64 classes that came before this one; there\u2019s a long purple line that connects them all.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

Cummins Falls Land Navigation and Patch Ceremony<\/h4>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Lori Shull \u201cAt the time, it was terrible. Looking back, it was the best thing that could have happened.\u201d Tech ROTC Golden Eagle Battalion Cadet Commander Caleb Anderson knows what he\u2019s talking about. The senior interdisciplinary studies major was starting to make a name for himself in Tech ROTC when the U.S. Army Cadet […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":990,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-938","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-spring16"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.tntech.edu\/visions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/938","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.tntech.edu\/visions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.tntech.edu\/visions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.tntech.edu\/visions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.tntech.edu\/visions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=938"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.tntech.edu\/visions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/938\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1149,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.tntech.edu\/visions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/938\/revisions\/1149"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.tntech.edu\/visions\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.tntech.edu\/visions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=938"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.tntech.edu\/visions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=938"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.tntech.edu\/visions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=938"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}