Athens, Ga. – The University of Georgia’s Army Reserve Officers’ Training Corps department has won one of eight MacArthur Awards for the school year 2011-2012 from the U.S. Army Cadet Command.
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 University of Georgia department represented Cadet Command’s Sixth Brigade, which consists of the 39 senior Army ROTC programs in the southeastern United States and Puerto Rico.
The award is based on a combination of the achievement of the school’s commissioning mission and its cadets’ performance and standing on the command’s national Order of Merit List and its cadet retention rate.
“I am certainly honored and humbled that UGA’s Army ROTC program has been selected as one of the 8 best out of 270+ ROTC programs from across the nation,” said Kurt Felpel, commander of the Bulldog Battalion and an adjunct professor of military science. “I am proud of the cadets and how well they perform in the classroom, in leadership roles and when compared to other cadets from across the country. This award means that we are a program headed in the right direction and all the hard work put in by the cadre and cadets has been recognized at a national level.”
Cadet Command and the MacArthur Foundation have given the awards annually since 1989.
UGA Bulldog Battalion
A unit of the UGA Office of the Vice President for Instruction, Bulldog Battalion is one of the oldest ROTC programs in the nation. While a military-educated presence has been evident since the establishment of classes on the UGA campus in 1801, Army ROTC became official on June 30, 1919. More than 20 U.S. generals began their military career with the Bulldog Battalion. For more information, see armyrotc.uga.edu.