Austin Peay State University wins 2015 MacArthur Award

Written by Michael Maddox
U.S. Army Cadet Command (Army ROTC)

Fort Knox, KY – The U.S. Army Cadet Command has announced the eight winners of the MacArthur Awards for the school year 2014-2015.

The award recognizes the eight schools, selected from among the 275 senior Army Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) units nationwide, as the top programs in the country.

The awards, presented by Cadet Command and the Gen. Douglas MacArthur Foundation, recognize the ideals of “duty, honor and country” as advocated by MacArthur.

The award is based on a combination of the achievement of the school’s commissioning mission, its Cadets’ performance and standing on the command’s National Order of Merit List and its cadet retention rate.

Cadet Command and the MacArthur Foundation have given the awards each year since 1989.

The FY15 awardees of the General Douglas MacArthur Award, selected by their brigade commanders as the top performing program, are:

• Virginia Military Institute, Lexington, VA which represents Cadet Command’s 1st Brigade.
• University of Vermont, Burlington, VT, which represents 2nd Brigade.
• University of Wisconsin- Stevens Point, Stevens Point, WI, which represents 3rd Brigade.
• University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, which represents 4th Brigade.
• University of Houston, Houston, TX, which represents 5th Brigade.
• Georgia Southern University, Statesboro, GA, which represents 6th Brigade.
• Austin Peay State University, Clarksville, TN, which represents 7th Brigade.
• University of Oregon, Eugene, OR, which represents 8th Brigade.

The U.S. Army Cadet Command is the largest single source of new officers for the Army, commissioning the majority of the Army’s new officers each year through the senior ROTC program.