A Day in the Life
Midshipmen in the World’s Greatest Naval Battalion come from every field of study and participate in a number of different university clubs and athletics. The Reserve Officers Training Corps foremost values the challenge and diversity of a public education thus, midshipmen are always students first and are expected to utilize of the many resources offered at a top-tier STEM institution. Second to your education, ROTC seeks to build physical fitness, foster excitement for a career in the naval service, and establish a foundation for leadership development.
First Year Development Program
Our First Year Development Program (FYDP) serves as an intro to battalion etiquette, public speaking, and class cohesion amongst our fourth class, or college freshman. FYDP begins along with the school year after New Student Orientation (NSO), where midshipmen will be tested by their superiors in knowledge, drill, and criteria learned during NSO. FYDP holds the fourth class accountable for their weaknesses as a team, not individually. This means every midshipmen must not only dedicate time towards passing this course, but foster motivation amongst their peers. Midshipmen will eventually be tested on their knowledge, and their overall grade will determine the length of the program. Motivate! Motivate! Motivate!
Physical Training
Physical fitness is a crucial element of mission readiness and success in the Navy and Marine Corps, so we incorporate training into the everyday lives of our midshipmen. Two days a week, we wake up before the sun for training at 0600! With a range of different Physical Training (PT) plans, we hope to develop well-rounded midshipmen, who demonstrate great endurance, strength, and drive in every exercise. Whether it be laps at the Arc swimming pools, Halloween dress-up PT, or Marine vs. Navy dodgeball, we love to switch things up. Our battalion’s physical superior fitness was noted this year by our victory in the Tri-Service Military Competition!
Leadership Laboratories – Drill
One day during the school week, our entire battalion musters at the armory to receive briefs from midshipmen and guest speakers in a classroom environment. Following this, midshipmen are separated into their desired Navy/Marine communities to learn and practice specific skills. Drill serves as disciplinary training by instilling habits of precision and response to orders. The flexibility in Drill Lab allows midshipmen to test out multiple communities of interest and refine their path in the Navy/Marine Corps. Drill falls on the same day as Uniform of the Day, where midshipmen are required to wear khakis, MARPATs, or NWUs (depending on the season) from drill that morning until 5 pm.
Study Hours, MDO, and Colors
Academics are priority #1 for our battalion. To prepare our midshipmen for exams in both naval science and major-oriented classes, we require 4 hours of study at the armory per week. Every weekday, a designated Midshipman Duty Officer oversees the logged in hours and activity of their evening shift. NROTC also offers tutoring services in main STEM courses, including chemistry, mathematics, and physics.
Every three weeks for an entire school week, midshipmen dressed in the designated uniform participate in morning and evening colors. Morning and evening colors refers to the raising and lowering of our national flag. Morning colors is the traditional flag raising ceremony which occurs every morning at 8:00 am as per U.S. Navy regulations. Evening colors occurs when the flag is lowered at sunset, or at 5:00 pm for our unit.
The NROTC expects the maintenance of good academic standing along with the completion of duties such as MDO or colors, in order to imbue them with the highest ideals of duty and loyalty, and with the core values of honor, courage and commitment.