Dates

• Majority of material found within 1948 - 2019

Extent

2 boxes Linear Feet (Indiana University of Pennsylvania has long been at the forefront of ROTC’s contribution to the nation. The ROTC program began on October 12, 1948 when the Indiana State Teachers College (ISTC) Board of Trustees authorized Dr. Willis E. Pratt, the new president of ISTC, to enter into negotiations for the establishment of an Army ROTC unit at the college. By June 1950, Lieutenant Colonel Hubert E. Thornber arrived to assume his duties as the college’s first Professor of Military Science and Tactics PMST). Instruction began in September 1950, and ISTC assumed the important mission of providing officers solely for the Army’s Quartermaster Corps – in fact, ISTC was the only college in the entire ROTC system that commissioned officers only for the Quartermaster Corps. In September 1966, the General Military Science Program was adopted, allowing IUP’s ROTC program to commission officers in branches of the Army for which they were best qualified, not just the Quartermaster Corps. Under this new system, IUP graduates began to fill the ranks of the 17 major branches of the U.S. Army. IUP’s list of distinguished graduates stretches back to the inception of the program in 1950 and includes general officers, including Lieutenant General J.S. Laposata, Major General Leonard L. Hoch, Major General Rodney D. Ruddock (Manuscript Group 156), Major General Larry D. Gottardi, and Major General Thomas Csrnko, and Brigadier General Robin Swan. The ROTC Hall of Heroes at Indiana University of Pennsylvania includes officers who have given their lives in the defense of the United States. Among the inductees are Captain Robert Young ’67 and First Lieutenant James Flannery ‘69. Captain Young, a Saltsburg native, was commissioned in the Ordnance Corps in 1967. While serving as an infantry officer in Vietnam, Captain Young was shot down while traveling in a helicopter and taken prisoner by the Viet Cong; he died while being held as a prisoner in Cambodia. For his service to the nation, Captain Young received the Silver Star, the nation’s second highest award for valor. In his honor, the University and the Army planted a tree on IUP’s campus near Pierce Hall in 1973. First Lieutenant James K. Flannery, an active member of Theta Chi Fraternity, graduated from IUP in 1969, and he was commissioned as an Armor officer. Lieutenant Flannery distinguished himself on April 16, 1970 as a tank platoon leader while conducting a reconnaissance operation near the Demilitarized Zone, Republic of Vietnam. When the element was ambushed, Lieutenant Flannery courageously exposed himself to heavy enemy gunfire in order to return fire with the tank’s machine gun. Despite being wounded by small arms fire, Lieutenant Flannery continued to fire the machine gun at the enemy ambush; he died while being evacuated to a medical facility later that day. As a result of his leadership and bravery, Lieutenant Flannery received the Silver Star. Nine months later, the Flannery Cadet Lounge in IUP’s Pierce Hall was dedicated in his memory and continues to serve as a reminder of the sacrifice and valor in combat of all IUP’s ROTC graduates. This collection contains brochures, guides, and information about the ROTC Program at Indiana University of Pennsylvania. For more current information about the ROTC Program at IUP, visit their department website, http://www.iup.edu/rotc/ )

Language of Materials

English