Published: September 07, 2008 01:28 am            

Rave reviews

• OSU ROTC cadets take honors at summer training

Oklahoma State University’s Army ROTC turned heads at this summer’s training at Ft. Lewis, Wash.

Three seniors in the Cowboy Battalion were among the top two of their respective regiments at Warrior Forge. John Andrews was best out of 381 cadets in his regiment, while Stephen Gagnon was first out of 363 and Troy Duerr was second in a regiment of 295.

The regiments complete the 33-day course in staggered schedules, so the three OSU representatives didn’t know how each other were doing on the scoring, which included leadership evaluations, physical fitness, land navigation, marksmanship and military skills.

Andrews said his reaction when he found out how his battalion had done was, “Holy crap, we kicked some butt here.”

The university studies major from Elgin said he didn’t plan to earn the Association of U.S. Army 2008 Outstanding Cadet Award.

“I just did what I know how to do and I guess I did well,” he added.

Gagnon, Andrews’ roommate, is a Tulsa native who said he was shooting for an “overall excellent” before he earned his own Outstanding Cadet Award.

“I’m pretty excited,” the construction management major said. “We just did really well. Our cadre helped us along. They gave us the tools we needed to be successful.”

He said his success reaffirmed the belief he could do anything he set his mind to.

Duerr took the Sinclair L. Melner Award for outstanding performance. The fire protection and safety technology major from Ripon, Calif., said his success was like studying hard and then getting an “A” on a test.

“You do as well as you can and that helps validate everything I’ve been doing here,” Duerr said. “That means a lot to me.”

The commander of the battalion, Lt. Col. Jeff Hensley, said OSU was the only school to have multiple award winners and one of only two in the four-state bridge — Arkansas, Illinois, Missouri and Oklahoma — to have every attending cadet pass every test. The other was Missouri University of Science and Technology.

“Not just those three individuals but really Oklahoma State this summer in general did well,” said Hensley, who sent 15 cadets to Warrior Forge. “Over 40 percent of our cadets earned an excellence ranking. That is the top 10 to 15 percent in the nation as far as their leadership evaluations.”

Of the three big award winners, Hensley said, “Each of them is physically fit. They know how to make decisions on their feet. If you give them a task, they know how to organize a group to accomplish that task. You give them something they are not comfortable with and they will make great decisions, get things together, get organized and accomplish any task you put in front of them.”

As Hensley notes, OSU’s ROTC has a long history of success. It was established in 1916 and has commissioned more than 6,000 officers since 1920. He said the school has produced “over 97” General Officers — Generals in the Army and Air Force, Admirals in the Navy. He believes it is more than 100, but some of the records from the World War I era are incomplete.

        

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