The Cyclone Army ROTC Battalion at Iowa State University has been named the top program in the 3rd Brigade. The award is based on overall training performance and success at the annual Leadership Development and Assessment Course (LDAC), and commissioning excellence. The 3rd Brigade is based at the Great Lakes Naval Station in Illinois, and includes Army ROTC programs at more than 40 schools in the Midwest.
In addition, the battalion earned the top award for leadership Excellence during the LDAC for having the most cadets who finished at the top of the leadership class. And they won the Commissioning Excellence Award for commissioning the highest number of cadets who are in the top 20 percent of all 5,700 cadets on the national order-of-merit list. The ranking is based on military and extracurricular activities, as well as grade point average.
Engineers in the program are:
- Tim Elbert, mechanical engineering — Queensbury, N.Y.
- Matthew Grussing, civil engineering –Stillwater, Okla.
- Derek Hagerty, civil engineering — St. Michael, Minn.
- Derick Light, chemical engineering — Colorado Springs, Colo.
- Dustin McLean, civil engineering — Andover, Minn.
- Sam Pearce, civil engineering — Omaha, Neb.
- Carl Schmidt, mechanical engineering — Bloomington, Minn.
- Tom Wilson, civil engineering — Cherokee