Photo provided by Arianna Sivo
By Victoria Durgin, Editor in Chief
Information provided to The Quill by Arianna Sivo, on behalf of ROTC.
Susquehanna’s Reserve Officer’s Training Corps (ROTC) has grown to the largest group in several years on campus. The ROTC program is broken up by leadership ranking, from MSI as the lowest rank to MSIV as the highest rank.
The program at Susquehanna makes up one-third of the Bison Battalion. Bloomsburg University and Bucknell University’s ROTC programs comprise the remaining two-thirds of the group.
According to Sivo, a sophomore cadet, there are currently “3 contracted MSIV’s, 1 contracted & 3 non-contracted MSIII’s , 2 contracted and 7 non-contracted MSII’s, and 5 MSI’s” enrolled in the program.
Two of the senior members, Daniel Sellers and Nicholas Pannes, are also members of the The Simultaneous Membership Program. This program enrolls cadets simultaneously in the ROTC program and either the Army Reserve or Army National Guard. According to Sivo, Sellers and Pannes both are active members of the Army National Guard, where they do Aviation work while completing their Susquehanna coursework.
The program’s rise in numbers is partially due to the newest cadets who have joined the group. They are as follows, with their rank denoted following their name: Alexandra Angelopoulos (MSIII, transfer student), Clay Olley (MSIII), Walter Wyatt (MSII), Andrew Mancini (MSI), Craig Lyttleton (MSI), Sylvan Huber (MSI), Tim Alliegro (MSI), and Xan Lawrence (MSI).
The ROTC program aims to give members the background to ultimately commission into the armed forces.
“It is with high hopes that each cadet in this program earns a scholarship and/or contract in order to commission as a Second Lieutenant upon graduation from SU,” Sivo said.
Additionally, Sivo said cadets Connor Garrison (MSII) and Adam Yeager (MSII) took the Oath of Enlistment, overseen by Lieutenant Colonel Griffiths. The act of taking the oath is not an enlistment into armed services. Rather, it is seen as the first step towards becoming an Officer in the United States Army.
Garrison and Yeager took their oaths on Wednesday, Sep. 2.
Sivo said she and the rest of the program hope they continue to grow at Susquehanna.
“Our program at SU is continuously growing and striving to mold college students into officers by the end of their four years at Susquehanna,” Sivo said.
