 "Photo: Jerry Rolwes Photo, Courtesy of ROTC")
 "Photo: Courtesy of Ltc. Alan Westfield, ROTC")
If by some twist of fate you've found yourself awake and about campus before sunrise, you may have seen them. They'd already be in the middle of training. You've most likely seen them tending the flagpole between Welch and DeSmet. And you've almost certainly seen them in uniform on Thursdays.
But what the average Gonzaga student doesn't see of the ROTC program are the walls covered in their plaques and awards in the basement of College Hall.
The Bulldog Battalion, started in 1947, is one of the highest-rated ROTC programs in the nation, and has been for some time. In many regards, it is recognized by the military as the best.
So much so that Patrick Constantino chose Gonzaga solely for the ROTC program. Constantino, now a senior and Cadet 1st Lt., says his father (a retired member of the Army Reserves who served in the Vietnam War) had heard the Bulldog Battalion was a premier program through friends in the military.
"I really didn't know anything about GU itself," Constantino says. "I wouldn't be here without [the ROTC program]."
Constantino, an international studies major, also helped lead the Bulldog Battalion to its most recent achievement as a Cadet Captain of Gonzaga's Black Team in the Task Force Big Sky Ranger Challenge Championship, which took place in the Lubrecht Experimental Forest north of Missoula, Mont.
Competing in events such as a map reading exam, physical fitness test, one-rope bridge, a hand grenade assault course, land navigation, weapons (clearing assembly, disassembly and functions check) and a 10-kilometer forced road march, Gonzaga won the competition for the third time in a row, and the 15th victory in the past 16 years.
"It really was a great experience," says freshman Jenna Peterson, who placed first overall in physical fitness testing at the competition. "Having it all come to a point, where we were competing and being able to see all that hard work pay off, was really great."
Gonzaga, overcoming teams from Montana, Montana State, Alask-Fairbanks, BYU-Idaho and Idaho State in snowy conditions, scored high enough in the Ranger Challenge to earn an honor it never has before.
The Bulldog Battalion recently received the news that it had been selected to compete in the Sandhurst Military Competition held at West Point Academy. Featuring teams from West Point and Annapolis as well as international squads from Canada, Britain and Afghanistan, Sandhurst is arguably the most prestigious international competition available to ROTC programs.
And though they will not be able to attend the competition because of extenuating circumstances, the Bulldog Battalion was one of just eight ROTC teams out of 272 nationwide who were selected.
"They performed at a high level and they really earned it," Lt. Col. Alan Westfield, eighth-year assistant professor of military science, said of his Battalion, which includes students from both Gonzaga and Whitworth universities. "They don't give that kind of thing away."
While the cadets and cadre were looking forward to competing in Sandhurst, all are satisfied with the selection itself and recognize that alternative training is what is most necessary for the Battalion at this point.
"It's completely understandable that we're not going," says Chad Murphy, a Gonzaga graduate student in his senior year of the ROTC program. "Yes, it would have been fun for us to send a team to compete, and we probably would have done fairly well. But there are more important things right now, and we must do what is best for the Battalion."
Constantino, who would have led the team in Sandhurst, thinks Gonzaga's program has a good chance of earning the selection next year as well.
"Being selected to go to something like this is a reflection of the hardworking cadets we have here at Gonzaga year after year," he says.
Piling on the accolades
ROTC cadets are ranked nationally every year based on GPA, physical fitness tests, performance in Leadership Development Assesment Courses and other variables, to determine their military placements. This year, 21 of 25 Bulldog Battalion members ranked in the top 50 percent, meaning they would receive their first choice of military branch after graduation.
"People don't realize that we are leaps and bounds ahead of a lot of programs," senior cadet Mary Whitney Ferriter says. "When military people ask where I go to school, they're very impressed."
A significant reason for that impressive number is the Bulldog Battalion's LDAC success. While the Sandhurst competition is prestigious, it has no bearing on a cadet's assessment. The LDAC, however, is known as the single most important training event for ROTC officers. LDAC training, as well as several other factors, contributed to the Battalion's decision to forgo the international competition.
It is a rigorous, month-long event that evaluates a candidate's ability to lead based on several different tasks, including but not limited to ones akin to those of the Ranger Challenge. Cadets receive grades of N (Not to standard), S (Satisfactory) or E (Excellent). Forty percent of Bulldog Battalion cadets received E grades, while the national average is 15 percent.
"We do very well in leadership development," says Lt. Col. Jeff Stewart, professor of military science. "That's our mission: to commission leaders of competence to the U.S. Army. We look for qualified individuals who display characteristics of scholastics, athleticism, and an inclination to serve our country in a leadership role."
It's become easier for Gonzaga to find those types of cadets as the national recognition as grown over the years.
The needed leaders
Lt. Col. Westfield says the program was already well established when he arrived eight years ago, and that that has a positive impact on recruiting, which Constantino is a prime example of. Three of every five incoming cadets, Lt. Col. Westfield says, compete for scholarships while still in high school.
While national recruiting numbers may be down for the Army, Gonzaga's have remained steady every year. Lt. Col. Westfield says roughly 100 high school seniors express interest ever year, and that that number is actually increased slightly this year.
Lt. Col. Westfield says they owe that in part to the University, and to its partner, Whitworth University, which both attract motivated students who are a natural fit for ROTC.
All Army-given ROTC scholarships are full tuition, with a stipend for books and a monthly stipend. At Gonzaga, that scholarship package has an estimated value of $147,000. Of the 95 students currently in ROTC, only nine are without full scholarship.
That amount accounts for much of the reason that the U.S. Army is the largest donor to the University year after year.
"When it really comes down to it, I'm getting paid to come here," Constantino says. "Apart from everything else, that's a pretty good incentive."
The prospect of tuition paid-in-full may lure many cadets to Gonzaga, but what the Battalion is most proud of is getting them to stay. Gonzaga's retention rate, above 90 percent, is the highest in the nation out of 272 programs, Lt. Col. Westfield says.
Gonzaga is also one of four schools out of that same 272 to achieve the requested number of commissioned officers into the Army. For the past nine years, Lt. Col. Westfield says, Gonzaga's program has been one of four schools to achieve that, and it will do it once more this year.
Gonzaga also sends students to partnering schools across the country during summers for skills such as helicopter piloting, mountaineering and learning how to deploy from planes.
The Bulldogs always score well at these schools, Lt. Col. Stewart says, and Gonzaga is usually allotted more than its share of spots.
Constantino has spent a summer at Airborne school, where he spent three weeks learning how to prepare to jump out of a plane. He also spent the past summer in Germany, shadowing a tank commander.
"That was a great experience," he says. "I got to do everything they do. I got to shoot tanks, watch him navigate, it was very cool."
Constantino believes those types of programs are really what the ROTC program is all about: learning to be a leader.
"There has to be a lot of personal development that happens here, because when we graduate we go in as officers," he says. "Suddenly I'll have soldiers under my command."
Constantino says he has no anxieties about the reality of deployment shortly following graduation.
"I felt that desire to serve, and I think a lot of cadets want to be deployed, they want to serve," he says. "I think there's even some who are chomping at the bit. There's no cadets that I know of who don't want to serve."
"Whether or not you personally agree becomes out of the question," he says of the possibilty of entering a combat zone. "Like they say, you serve for the guys to the left and right of you."
Lt. Col. Stewart, in his first year as head of the Bulldog Battalion, says that two things really impressed him the most when he arrived at Gonzaga.
The first was camaraderie.
"It is truly a family atmosphere," he says. "I noticed right away that everyone is focused on making sure everyone else succeeds." Stewart noted peer mentoring and tutoring programs as an example of that atmosphere.
Ferriter recalls that she didn't know quite what to expect when she came in as a freshman, never having participated in ROTC before, but that the Battalion is structured to ensure a smooth transition. Every incoming freshman has a sophomore mentor, she says, who helps with anything from school to moving in to the dorms.
"Everyone is really accepting from the start," she says. "Because people are there for you right from the start, you turn around and are there for everyone else."
Remembering their start
Lt. Col. Stewart believes that the Battalion, which he compares in some respects to a fraternity, sets itself up for success through that camaraderie.
"They spend a lot of time together," Lt. Col. Stewart says, "and we've seen those bonds continue on after graduation."
The second thing that most impressed Lt. Col. Stewart is the strength of the alumni base, which he says "are very proactive in helping our cadets out."
Senior cadet George Kane says the biggest influences on him were three older cadets, all of whom have been deployed. His freshman year, 1st Lt. Sarah Stender, 1st Lt. Rob Duane and 1st Lt. and captain of the Ranger Challenge team Daniel Robledo (all class of '06) were a big inspiration. Stender and Duane are currently serving in Iraq, and Robledo recently returned from his deployment, also in Iraq.
Kane says he speaks with one or more of them at least once a week.
"Sometimes it's more professional, and they tell me what types of things to expect. But sometimes it's just as friends. Both are great to have," Kane says.
As the Battalion prepares for Ranger Challenges, a tradition began that alumni would send their combat patches for the team to wear while competing, as well as letters of support.
"To see how much they cared, taking the time to send that stuff even from combat zones, was amzazing," Kane says.
Jeanne Hayes, ROTC's administrative assistant, says she has frequent contact with alumni, and keeps a mailing list of the dozens of former cadets currently deployed.
To illustrate her experience with the alumni's level of appreciation for the program, Hayes recalls a moment from earlier this year involving highly decorated Col. Dorothea Burke, class of '82. Burke was recognized in September of this year in a change of command ceremony, as she took over for Col. Jack Summe in Special Operations Command.
Hayes was in the process of sending a gift of congratulations to Burke when, on the day she was set to send the package, one arrived out of the blue. It was from Burke, who had not personally informed Gonzaga of her accomplishment. The package contained an American flag that Burke had flown, as a token of appreciation to Gonzaga's ROTC program for starting her career.
"That speaks to the quality of people who emerge from here to do great things," Hayes says. "These are not people who go off just to shoot guns."
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