Army ROTC cadets Smith, Mack earn leadership award

IU Army ROTC cadets and seniors Matthew Smith and Thomas Mack were recently recognized as leaders among thousands of their peers.

The two received the Sinclair L. Melner Award at the U.S. Army Cadet Command’s Leader Development and Assessment Course this summer.

“This award recognizes the top two of more than 425 cadets tested in each of 13 training regiments, placing Hoosier cadets Smith and Mack among the top 26 of approximately 6,000 students tested,” Lt. Col. Michael Ogden said. “Of the 273 schools around the nation with Army ROTC, Indiana University was the only school with multiple cadets to earn this award.”

Both received the award for consistently demonstrating excellence in critical thinking, mental and physical toughness, land navigation, resiliency, leadership and peer evaluations,  Ogden said.

“The purpose of ROTC is to train and assess Army officers, so it’s an entire program through college in classroom and hands-on experience,” Smith said. “Then, nationwide, usually the summer between your junior and senior year, you go to the course run by the Army. You’re thrown into a group of people you don’t know.”
Smith said cadets are constantly evaluated during the course.

“You go through a month of training and tasks and are evaluated all day everyday — how well you get people up and outside, how to attack something and everything,” he said. “Every cadet has to do this to become an officer.”

Mack said it felt like being under a microscope.

“They were watching how you perform and your leadership potential,” Mack said. “I was fortunate to have a lot of great guys in my platoon because you’re working with people you’ve never met
before.”

The course was at Fort Lewis in Tacoma, Wash., and lasted 29 days.

Smith served six years of active duty and then decided to finish his undergraduate at IU in order to go to medical school. He will graduate in December with a degree in biology.

“I’m kind of an odd guy,” he said. “Awards don’t mean that much to me. I think it’s more important, and I was more happy when I found out we had done so well as a group. Cadets from IU had been very successful ... It’s a testament to the program that IU produced two cadets who received this award.”

Smith found out he won the award the day before course graduation and said it’s always nice to get an award. Mack found out while lying on his bunk.

“I felt like everything I had done paid off,” Mack said. “All the preparation I did and everything the program here did to prepare me and the extra time I put in paid off. It was a good feeling.”

IU’s Army ROTC program was ranked fourth  of 272 nationwide at the 2011 LDAC.
“Our Hoosier Cadets routinely rank among the top scholars, athletes and leaders in the nation,” Ogden said. “It is truly an honor and a privilege to lead such a special group of Hoosiers.”