St. Thomas is one of four schools nationwide to receive the ROTC Educational Institution Partnership Excellence Award from the Department of Defense.

Air Force Reserve Officer Training Corps is a four-year commissioning program that prepares young men and women to become officers of the United States Air Force, in whatever occupation they may choose, such as pilots, engineers, nurses, etc. There are 145 schools across the country that have an ROTC detachment program.

The award recognizes schools that go above and beyond in the integration of their ROTC detachment programs to the university’s community. Notre Dame, Auburn University and Texas A&M also received the award.

“What I thought was really amazing is that the other three schools were just massively larger than St. Thomas, you know they were all D1 schools that you see on ESPN all the time,” United States Air Force Lt. Col. Mark Madaus said, “and St. Thomas was able to make it into consideration right up there with them.”

Madaus said it makes the program proud to see the host school is receiving recognition for their outstanding work and credits the university’s inclusiveness of its ROTC detachment into its culture and community.

“We’re as much a part of the school as any other department or group. It’s not like that everywhere,” said Madaus.

AFROTC has three core values: integrity, service, and excellence.

“Integrity first, service before self, and then excellence in all we do,” Madaus said. “That in general aligns really closely with the core values of the institution, you know act, think and do for the common good.”

Madaus believes this alignment of values between the program and its host institution is a big part of the reason why their relationship is so close-knit and mutually beneficial.

AFROTC’s mission statement is, “We create leaders of character for the Air Force, one cadet at a time.”

“You can go to a lot of business schools and they’ll teach you how to be a leader… But I think we really go a step beyond that, you know you’re not only in charge but you have some moral foundation behind that,” Madaus said.

Senior Luke Hubers received individual recognition as one of the best cadet training assistants of the year by being selected as one of the top five in a group of 2,000 people for his year.

“I got the award but it was a lot of other people that helped out to get the award so I think more than anything that’s what it means to me,” Hubers said.

St. Thomas’ AFROTC detachment started in 1948, just a year after the Air Force began in 1947. This makes it one of the oldest and most respected detachments in the nation. As of right now they are ranked eighth in the country out of 145 detachments.

“It’s the cadets that make the detachment amazing. We have folks that just do incredible things,” Madaus said.

The first two years of the program are spent learning the fundamental customs and courtesies of the military and preparing for the summer camp after their sophomore year. The last two years are spent practicing leadership skills and managing stressful situations, which students are sure to encounter later in their career as officers on active duty.

“What makes this detachment different, honestly I have to pull that back to the camaraderie and the family-feel of this detachment and how every single cadet within this detachment has each other’s back,” Hubers said.

Hubers insists that the life of an AFROTC student is not too different from that of a regular college student.

“We’re just like a normal student, we do normal college student things but at the same time we’re holding ourselves to a very high standard, we’re enforcing those core values on ourselves,” Hubers said.

In May, Hubers will graduate and the following February, in 2019, he will travel to an Air Force base in Oklahoma and train to become a U.S. Air Force pilot there.

Ignacio Garcia can be reached at garc3913@stthomas.edu