BUFFALO, NY – Canisius University will commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) with a 5k run on Saturday, April 23. The run is scheduled for 10:00 a.m. at LaSalle Park. The nearly 200 participants will include ROTC cadets from Canisius University and Niagara University, as well as cadets from the Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (JROTC) at Hutch Tech, South Park and McKinley high schools.
The Army Reserve Officers’ Training Corps, as it exists today, began with President Woodrow Wilson signing the National Defense Act of 1916. Although military training had been taking place in civilian colleges and universities as early as 1819, the signing of the National Defense Act brought this training under a single, federally-controlled entity: The Reserve Officers’ Training Corps. Army ROTC is the largest officer-producing organization with the American military, having commissioned more than half-a-million second lieutenants since its inception. Army ROTC has provided the nation with the right leaders at the right time, yielding visionary leaders such as Sam Walton, founder of Walmart; former Secretary of State Colin Powell, and Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito.
Today, Army ROTC has a total of 275 programs located at colleges and universities throughout the 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and Guam, with an enrollment of more than 30,000. It produces approximately 70 percent of the second lieutenants who join the active Army, the Army National Guard and the U.S. Army Reserve. More than 40 percent, of current active-duty Army General Officers, are commissioned through the ROTC.
For more information about the Canisius University ROTC program or the 5k run, contact MAJ Stephen Ang at 888-3249.
Canisius is one of 28 Jesuit universities in the nation and the premier private university in Western New York.
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