Santa Clara Magazine

Most excellent!

SCU's Bronco Battalion is recognized as one of the top university-based officer training programs with another MacArthur Award. The battalion was recently profiled in the Winter '12 issue of Santa Clara Magazine.

Santa Clara University's ROTC Bronco Battalion has again won the annual MacArthur Award, which recognizes the top university-based officer training programs in eight brigades nationwide. The battalion, which includes cadets from San Jose State University and Stanford University, was also recognized with the distinguished award in 2009-2010.

“This is a testament to the teamwork between our cadre and cadets, and to our hard work recruiting cadets who are top notch in terms of academic excellence, leadership, and desire to become officers,” said SCU Military Science Department Director Lt. Col. John Tao. “Our cadets are willing to listen, work hard, and be the best that they can be.”

The award is named after the late General Douglas MacArthur and has been given annually since 1989 by the U.S. Army’s Cadet Command and the General Douglas MacArthur Foundation. In winning for the West Coast 8th Brigade, SCU topped 33 other battalions on factors like cadet retention rate, success in commissioning officers after ROTC, and the cadets’ physical fitness, navigation skills, and leadership.

The award comes amid an already distinguished year. Bronco cadets have won several highly competitive overseas cultural internships, 17 seniors became commissioned officers, and some were honored as Distinguished Military Graduates. The SCU ROTC team also placed second in the 8th Brigade Ranger Challenge, a varsity sport competition for ROTC programs.

"The MacArthur Award epitomizes professionalism and hard work by a group of cadre who dedicated themselves to the pursuit of perfection and an unwillingness to settle for second best. To win the award twice in three years is an amazing achievement," said Tao. "Someone once said, 'It takes hard work to get to the top. It takes a double amount of hard work to stay on top.' We will do that double amount of hard work going forward."

To read specifics of the Bronco Battalion's accomplishments this year, read the university press release. A recent article profiling the Bronco Battalion can be read in the Winter '12 issue of Santa Clara Magazine. And here online, you can read memories of alumni who have been part of the Bronco Battalion over the years—and share your memories.