Due in part to its proximity to Fort Liberty, which houses one of its extended campuses, Campbell University has maintained a solid relationship with the nation’s armed forces over the years.
And nationally, Campbell’s ROTC program has developed a reputation as being one of the nation’s best. 2012 went a long way in building on that reputation.
Campbell’s ROTC had a total of eight cadets place in the Top 10 percent nationally of ROTC seniors based on order-of-merit rankings. That number was more than any other non-senior military school in the nation (schools like VMI, the Citadel and Texas A&M).
And during the last Army fiscal year, Campbell’s ROTC program commissioned more officers than any other non-senior military school.
But the big news to come out of Buies Creek in 2012 was ROTC senior John LeBaube, who is ranked second in the nation individually.
Each year, Cadet Command in Fort Knox, Ky., compiles a list naming the Top 20 percent of ROTC seniors. These future military officers are designated as “Distinguished Military Graduates,” based on their GPA, performance in the Army Physical Fitness Test and college athletics and their performance in ROTC training.
Of the more than 5,500 senior cadets in the United States, LeBaube is ranked second, behind Patrick J. Lupfer of Northeastern University in Boston.
“It shows that what we do here works,” said Cadet Public Affairs Officer Alyssa Kulhanek. “We have a quality program. Campbell may be a small school compared to other ROTC programs, but we have a higher standard, and we consistently meet that standard to create quality officers.”