The Marshall Award Seminar and the U.S. Army Cadet Command

 The annual George C. Marshall Award Seminar is just one part of the overall responsibilities of U.S. Army Cadet Command. The mission is short on words but long on responsibility: To commission the future officer leadership of the United States Army. Headquartered at Fort Monroe, Virginia, Cadet Command is located on more than 270 college campuses in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and Guam.

Cadet Command is for and about cadets. They represent the future of our Army. Cadet Command provides the Army, Active and Reserve Components, with more than 60 percent of its newly commissioned officers. This number overwhelmingly dictates that this proud organization is the lifeblood of the officer corps.

The Army Reserve Officers' Training Corps has commissioned more than a half-million men and women for service with the Active Army and the Reserve Components since it was established with the signing of the National Defense Act of June 3, 1916.  During its 86-year history, Army ROTC has grown into the largest commissioning program within the American military community. Among the thousands of Army ROTC commissioned officers are Gen. Colin L. Powell, USA (Ret.), former Secretary of State and former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Gen. Gordon R. Sullivan, USA (Ret.), former Chief of Staff of the Army.

The Reserve Officers' Training Corps is a student organization. The program is taken concurrently with the student's academic discipline. The campus years broaden cadets' knowledge and skills in dual supporting vital areas. Each cadet obtains a professional education through the dedicated efforts of the university community and the best in military training from the officers and noncommissioned officer cadre. Taken together, the academic and military instruction equips our cadets to take their places in the Total Army as superior leaders.

Programs such as Ranger Challenge and the Department of the Army Science and Engineering Co-op Program make ROTC the organization on many college campuses, and it doesn't stop there. Other activities offer the student an opportunity to experience exciting and rewarding challenges. Thousands of students test themselves annually with rappelling, rafting, marksmanship, and orienteering. Cadets can broaden their military training with programs such as Cadet Troop Leadership Training, Airborne and Air Assault School, and Defense Language School.

All cadets, when they take their commissioning oath and swear to defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic, must understand what that oath means. They are swearing to defend an institution which subscribes to the following moral principles: that our government derives its powers from the consent of the governed; that all men have certain natural, inalienable rights; and that all men are created equal and are treated equal before the law. In short, the officer corps of the United States Army is defending a wondrous and great democracy.