Homecoming 2017 is barely in the books, but we are already are making plans for Homecoming 2018, even though we don’t have a date for it yet.
BGen Michael Dudzik, USAF (Ret.), ’75, is organizing a gathering of alumni who were members of University of Detroit’s active ROTC program that had a strong presence on campus from the 1950s through the 1980s.
“In the military we have something called a Warning Order,” he said, describing the term as a way of alerting troops that something is going to happen and they should be prepared.
His Warning Order is for ROTC alumni to make plans to attend the Army and Air Force ROTC Alumni Formation at the 2018 Homecoming.
“There are a lot of guys, and later women, who went through this program,” he said. “It was a four-year program for many of us and four years of bonding means we made friends for a lifetime. There’s a lot of camaraderie among ROTC alumni, but we’ve never had a reunion.”
Plans are very tentative, but he hopes the formation at next year’s Homecoming will bring many of those who went through the ROTC program at University of Detroit back to Detroit Mercy, and start building relationships between alumni and current students who are also veterans of the U.S. Military.
The Army and Air Force ROTC programs at University of Detroit trained more than 4,000 cadets from the 1950s through the 1980s. These men and women leaders went forward to serve our nation with distinction on acive duty from the Korean conflict through present-day military operations. After military service, these individuals continued to serve in key leadership roles with industry, government and academia.
In the early 1950s, the ROTC program was mandatory for male students and the formal Military Ball was the largest annual social event of the campus. Coeds competed campus-wide to be crowned the Army and Air Force “Sweethearts” each academic year. The early 1960s brought ROTC scholarships to leverage the University’s strong academic programs; the turbulent late 1960s and early 1970s found the campus ROTC programs maintaining strong enrollments but were no longer mandatory for males. The Pershing Rifles and the Arnold Air Society supported many community and campus activities.
The 1970s welcomed the first women cadets into both programs, however, the University ROTC units fell victim to the defense draw down of the late 1970s and early 1980s, and were formally closed.
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Check past yearbooks and contact members of the U-D Rifles [Army] and the Arnold Air Society [AF]. I might come next year.
We’d love to have you, William Cubley!
Class of ’69, UD Rifles 😉
Pls sent registration form for the 2018 ROTC Reunion on Sept. 29, 2018
Hi, You can register for the ROTC reunion when you register for Homecoming, here: https://community.udmercy.edu/HomecomingRSVP
There are many options on that form that you can also register for, but you can make sure to click the checkbox for ROTC Reunion and add yourself (and guests) then click Continue at the bottom of the form.
Thanks! We look forward to seeing you there.