GETTYSBURG, Pa. — Ohio University’s Army ROTC Bobcat Battalion traveled during Veterans Day weekend to the battleground of a major turning point in the 1863 Civil War.
About 20 people involved with the Army ROTC traveled in three Government Service Agency vans to Gettysburg, where they explored the town and battlefield where about 50,000 Union and Confederate soldiers died.
The three-day trip, costing about $5,000 in total for gas, food and hotel expenses, was funded by donations from the Army ROTC alumni and a Military Ball fundraiser the seniors hosted their junior year, said Major Robert Paley, executive officer of the OU Army ROTC Bobcat Battalion.
“We have done this trip in this current format for only three years, but we have gone on trips like these for many years,” Paley said. “We chose Gettysburg due to its proximity. We really wanted students to get experience on a battleground that has been preserved in its original state.”
Wayne Motts, licensed battlefield tour guide and CEO of the National Civil War Museum in Harrisburg, Pa., led the battalion on an expedition through different areas of the park on the second day of the trip.
The expedition’s purpose was to show how leading officers in history are similar to the current senior cadets who will be commissioned officers after graduating in the spring, Motts said.
“Every experience that they can have as leaders, to stand where these critical decisions were made is going to be beneficial to them,” he said. “I think this experience you can’t get in a classroom. To understand the decisions that they made and learn from that — I think this will well serve them.”
The expedition gave more insight into how key officers during the Civil War thought and calculated strategies that remain significant today, said Cadet Marisa Cremean, a senior studying communication studies.
“We get to have hands-on experience instead of sitting in a classroom reading papers and presentations,” Cremean added.
Brian Johnson, Cadet Battalion Commander and a senior studying forensic chemistry, said the trip helped with team bonding and gave perspective into what the Army ROTC program does.
“It was great,” Johnson said. “Seeing (Gettysburg) was a different experience when I came here with a leadership mentality. The number of those who died here is a different feeling, now. You can definitely feel it.”
Lieutenant Colonel Terry St. Peter said he hopes the cadets take the experiences they had during the trip to use in furthering their future careers in the military.
“The trip exposes future Army leaders under extreme conditions and dangers,” St. Peter said. “Those lessons in leadership withstand the tests of time.”
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