"A military science & leadership development program."--Amazon.com.

Army 101 is a war correspondent's critical look at the dual lives of ROTC student-cadets. Axe spent a year interviewing and following the lives of student-cadets and trainers with the USC Gamecock Battalion ("undergrads with guns," as he labels them) to assess the strengths and weaknesses of a representative university ROTC program -- one of 270 currently in existence.

Since the founding of the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1802, more than eight hundred military schools have existed in this country. The vast majority have closed their doors, been absorbed into other educational institutions, or otherwise faded away, but others soldier on, adapting to changing times and changing educational needs. While many individual institutions have had their histories written or their stories told, to date no single book has attempted to explore the full scope of the military school in American history. Cadets on Campus is the first book to cover the origin, history, and culture of the nation’s military schools—secondary and collegiate—and this breadth of coverage will appeal to historians and alumni alike. Author John Alfred Coulter identifies several key figures who were pivotal to the formation of military education, including Sylvanus Thayer, the “father of West Point,” and Alden Partridge, the founder of the school later known as Norwich University, the first private military school in the country. He also reveals that military schools were present across the nation, despite the conventional wisdom that most military schools, and, indeed, the culture that surrounds them, were limited to the South. Coulter addresses the shuttering of military schools in the era after the Vietnam War and then notes a curious resurgence of interest in military education since the turn of the century.

This book examines the Reserve Officers Training Corps program as a distinctively American expression of the social, cultural, and political meanings of military service. Since 1950, ROTC has produced nearly two out of three American active duty officers, yet there has been no comprehensive scholarly look at civilian officer education programs in nearly forty years. While most modern military systems educate and train junior officers at insular academies like West Point, only the United States has relied heavily on the active cooperation of its civilian colleges. Michael Neiberg argues that the creation of officer education programs on civilian campuses emanates from a traditional American belief (which he traces to the colonial period) in the active participation of civilians in military affairs. Although this ideology changed shape through the twentieth century, it never disappeared. During the Cold War military buildup, ROTC came to fill two roles: it provided the military with large numbers of well-educated officers, and it provided the nation with a military comprised of citizen-soldiers. Even during the Vietnam era, officers, university administrators, and most students understood ROTC's dual role. The Vietnam War thus led to reform, not abandonment, of ROTC. Mining diverse sources, including military and university archives, Making Citizen-Soldiers provides an in-depth look at an important, but often overlooked, connection between the civilian and military spheres.

Table of Contents: Preface and Acknowledgements -- Introduction -- Part 1. How To Improve Yourself -- Chapter 1. Education -- Chapter 2. Physical Fitness -- Chapter 3. Nutrition -- Chapter 4. Garrison -- Chapter 5. Land Navigation -- Chapter 6. Field Leadership Reaction Course (FLRC) -- Chapter 7. Situational Training Exercises (STX) -- Chapter 8. Patrolling -- Chapter 9. Leadership Development and Assessment Course (LDAC) -- Chapter 10. Life as a Cadet -- Chapter 11. Leadership Philosophy -- Part 2. How To Improve the Battalion -- Chapter 12. Things We Do at Truman -- Chapter 13. Improving Our Battalion -- Appendix A. RECONDO Constitution -- Appendix B. OPORD for Patrolling -- Appendix C. Sample Physical Training (PT) Plans -- Appendix D. List of Exercises -- Appendix E. The Military Alphabet -- Appendix F. Military and Civilian Time -- Appendix G. Radio Phraseology -- Appendix H. 9-Line MEDEVAC Messages -- Appendix I. Recommended Books -- Appendix J. Army Ranks -- Appendix K. Battle Drills Smart Sheets -- Appendix L. Variable Lanes Smart Sheet -- Appendix M. Acronyms, Abbreviations and Specialized Terms -- Bibliography -- Index. Are you or is someone you know interested in Army ROTC (Reserve Officers' Training Corps)? People join ROTC for many reasons. Some want a guaranteed job once school is finished. Others need help paying for college, want a challenge, or feel a special calling to be a leader in the most powerful military in history. For anyone interested in this topic, The Ultimate ROTC Guidebook: Tips, Tricks, and Tactics for Excelling in Reserve Officers' Training Corps is a must-read necessity. Cadets come from all walks of life, including students from high school beginning their first year of college, veterans who want to get an education and return to the military as officers, and enlisted personnel who are taking advantage of receiving a free education as they work to transform from an enlisted soldier to an Army officer. The expectations, learning curve, requirements, and tasks in cadet life will be new to you or will be conducted in a manner you have never experienced. Author David Atkinson had no idea what to expect as a new member of ROTC (2007). With some extra effort and hard work he adjusted and rose to the top of his class. The Ultimate ROTC Guidebook will show you, step by step, how to do the same thing he did--and much more. Within these pages you will learn what to expect and get specific and practical tips on how to excel at every level of training. There are already documents that explain how to wear your uniform correctly and what awards are available, but only this guide will tell you how to complete a mission above the standard, explain how to reach your peak fitness level, and how to improve your battalion as a whole. Using the information in this book, Atkinson became a Distinguished Military Graduate (top 20% in the nation). The Ultimate ROTC Guidebook shortens the learning curve and will help you perform better than you believed possible. If you are planning to join, have already contracted, or are simply curious about what it takes to turn a US Army cadet into an Army officer, this book is essential reading.