ROTC at Millersville Millersville University educates in more ways than one. It prepares leaders in various fields, including those who serve the nation. It also reaches out to assist student veterans upon their return home. The school’s Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) has been a fixture on the Millersville campus for decades. Millersville’s Armybased ROTC is a partnership school that is part of the Blue Mountain Battalion. Other participating schools in the program are Dickinson College, Carlisle, where Battalion headquarters are located, Penn State Harrisburg and Gettysburg College. Currently, 37 cadets serve in the program. “I’m really impressed [by] their desire to serve their country,” said Major L. Craig Walker, assistant professor for military sciences at the school. Walker can relate to the Millersville men and women who serve. “I’m an active duty soldier,” Walker said, noting service in Fort Hood and Fort Bliss, both of which are in Texas. He also spent time in Okinawa, Japan, and was in Germany when the Berlin Wall came down. He’s proud of his ROTC charges. “It’s a big move, so they have to come here with a certain level of development,” Walker said. Plus, ROTC candidates are shouldering military responsibilities with a full class schedule. “Time management is very critical for them,” Walker said. “ROTC is different than boot camp,” Walker summed up. “ROTC is trying to deliver leaders of soldiers. Everybody who comes here likes the idea of being in charge,” and that translates to a good kind of being in charge. Out of 30 or 40 candidates who start ROTC, maybe three or four commissions come out of that. “It’s very competitive,” he said. “It takes self-discipline and a lot of drive.” In addition to the ROTC program, Millersville established a campus center for the Student Veterans Association at Mercer House. There, student veterans can receive assistance in financial aid and educational benefit information through the Department of Veterans Affairs.
In the fall an Army Chinook helicopter landed on campus to transport ROTC students to Indiantown Gap for a training weekend.
The center also provides a gathering place for our students, cadets and veterans to share experiences as well as quiet study space. In addition, Millersville University’s families of military personnel who are deployed or who are preparing for deployment can find support at the veterans center. Recently, Millersville was recognized as a “Military Friendly School” by Victory Media, Inc., an organization which provides information to military personnel who are returning to civilian life.