Cadet enters Transportation Corps of Army as No. 1 cadet in U.S.
JUSTIN KRIVICKAS
News Writer
Graduating Notre Dame senior Nathaniel Hicks has been ranked nationwide as the No. 1 cadet entering the Army's Transportation Corps.
Notre Dame professor of military studies Lt. Col. David Mosinski contacted Hicks and told him about the award.
"I was really surprised," said Hicks. "My parents were very proud of me, and they are really excited for me both for the award and for my opportunities with the Army."
The Office of the Chief of the Transpor-tation Corps, in Fort Eustis, Va. will present the award to Hicks at the Association of the United States Army Logistics Transfor-mation Symposium, held May 20-22 in Richmond, Va.
Hicks has also received other awards through the ROTC program this year.
"At our own Army ROTC Awards Ceremony … Nate received the Society of American Military Engineers Award, and he received the Distin-guished Military Graduate Certificate," said Mosinski.
"I feel like Notre Dame's ROTC program prepared me extremely well for the Army," said Hicks. "One of the many good things about the program here at Notre Dame is that the combined academic rigors and demands of ROTC force cadets to develop time management skills and grow to be very balanced individuals."
Hicks will be graduating from Notre Dame with a chemical engineering degree, and although his position in the Army will not make use of this education directly, Hicks plans to use the degree after he leaves the service.
"The management training I will receive in the army will help me with job opportunities in the future," said Hicks.
On July 17, Hicks will begin training at Ft. Eustis and afterwards will be stationed in Germany as a Second Lieutenant.
The Army transpor-tation officer works with logistics and is in charge of the management and movement of people and goods with air, rail and truck. This officer procures, provides, arranges or manages all surface transportation assets required to support and sustain the armed forces in peace and war.
Branch assignments in the military are determined during the cadets' senior year of college after they have completed Advanced Camp. This exercise is the culmination of ROTC training and takes place at Ft. Lewis in Washington the summer after each cadet's junior year of college. These cadets are evaluated numerous times while at Advanced Camp on various leadership roles and training exercises, and these scores are then added to all the other evaluations that each cadet receives throughout their four years of ROTC.
All these evaluations, physical fitness test scores, ROTC class performance, ROTC activities and academic performance are included in a packet that is sent to Cadet Command in Washington, D.C. Included in the packet is each senior's requests for branch assignments and duty locations. Cadet Command then ranks all the cadets nationwide into an Order of Merit List. There are 16 different branches in the Army, and based on this order of merit list, cadets are branched into their choices until the needs of the Army are satisfied.
All News Stories for Friday, May 17, 2002
