Two years later, taking the top

After revving up this university's ROTC program over the past two years, members of the Air Force Detachment 330 saw their efforts pay off after winning the Detachment of the Year award, marking it as the top unit in the nation.

To distinguish themselves among the nation's 144 detachments, many of the cadets logged hours of community service in addition to their school and ROTC responsibilities and participated in activities such as the Air Force honor guard drill team and the Arnold Air Society — a service organization within the Air Force — which set this university's detachment apart, cadets said.

"The most work that we've put into the program isn't what we're expected to do," said Wayne Mowery, the new wing commander of the detachment. "It's what we've done that has not been expected of us, like the hundreds of hours of community service or honor guard for basketball and football. These are things where we go above and beyond because we enjoy doing it."

Detachments were evaluated on a number of criteria — including number of officers produced by the program, cadets' GPAs and extracurricular activities — and members of the unit said the cadets' willingness to go beyond required expectations earned them the title.

"We submit a document with our accomplishments — things that we've done over the past two years, things our cadets have done," said Maj. Thomas Sadiq. "We've got a lot of very good students here, so when they do well, we do well. They've been very active this past year."

Former Wing Commander Connor Brooks said the cadets' ability to get involved with organizations outside of ROTC transformed the detachment into a top unit.

"Basically, we kicked butt and the University of Maryland kicked butt," he said. "It helps that we're so close to D.C., because there's so many opportunities, and the cadets are really engaged outside of ROTC and that gives us so many different venues to take advantage of. … I think it's that ethic as far as our guys going out and doing stuff that's really developed."

Since the ultimate goal of ROTC is to produce quality leaders for the Air Force, Mowery said, recruitment and retention of cadets is a critical component of winning the award. This university's program — which boasts between 160 and 200 cadets per year — attracts cadets from about 20 schools across the tristate area because of its ability to place its students in top military positions.

"For our senior class, I think we have 24 people, and at least 10 pilot-selects, which is a pretty big deal," Brooks said. "Most detachments are happy if they have three or four, and we have 10."

kirkwood@umdbk.com