{"id":28547,"date":"2023-10-24T21:12:37","date_gmt":"2023-10-25T01:12:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/?p=28547"},"modified":"2023-10-26T12:39:59","modified_gmt":"2023-10-26T16:39:59","slug":"furman-cadets-earn-national-distinguished-military-graduate-honors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/furman-cadets-earn-national-distinguished-military-graduate-honors\/","title":{"rendered":"Furman cadets earn national Distinguished Military Graduate honors"},"content":{"rendered":"

Three members of Furman\u2019s Class of 2024 have earned a distinction reserved for the top 20% of all U.S. Army ROTC<\/a>\u00a0cadets in the country.<\/p>\n

Cadets Denison Jones, Andrew Klein and Cole Sweeney have been named Distinguished Military Graduates (DMG) by the U.S. Army Cadet Command. Their names appeared in the top fifth of the command\u2019s Order of Merit List, a ranking of more than 6,000 Army ROTC cadets commissioning in the United States, said Lt. Col. Sarah Whitten, professor of military science at Furman. In addition to earning high grades in their military science courses at Furman, the cadets also completed Advanced Camp during Cadet Summer Training at Fort Knox, Kentucky, over the summer along with other ROTC students across the country.<\/p>\n

It takes more than military science acumen to get to the top of the Order of Merit List, and Paladin Battalion cadets benefit from Furman\u2019s emphasis on\u00a0academic excellence<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0student involvement<\/a>, said Whitten.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe designation highlights that ROTC students must be well-rounded,\u201d she said. \u201cThe list takes into consideration not just their ROTC performance, but more importantly, their GPA and cultural experience, athletic activities and roles and responsibilities in on-campus clubs and organizations,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

For Jones, a\u00a0business administration<\/a>\u00a0major with a minor in Latin American studies, the DMG title reflects his time-management skills in balancing academics, ROTC and the Paladins\u00a0men\u2019s soccer<\/a>\u00a0team.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe hardest part of my life is that I will play a home game under the lights of Eugene Stone Stadium,\u201d he said, \u201cand seven hours later, I\u2019m under those same lights that brighten the space for ROTC physical training.\u201d<\/p>\n

After receiving his commission and graduating in the spring, Jones will enter the Army National Guard to fly CH-47 Chinook helicopters.<\/p>\n

\u201cDMG is a title that recognizes how well the Paladin Battalion prepares its cadets to be successful and effective in all things we put our minds to,\u201d he said. \u201cGoing into Cadet Summer Training, I was blessed to have been overly prepared by my home program.\u201d<\/p>\n

Like Jones, Sweeney, a biology major on the\u00a0conservation biology<\/a>\u00a0track, also plans to enter the National Guard after being commissioned. And he, too, appreciates the training he received at Furman.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe over-drill and over-exercise the things we\u2019re going to do at camp,\u201d said Sweeney, who plans to attend flight school to become a medevac pilot. \u201cProbably about 25 percent of the people I met there had done land navigation twice in their entire college career, whereas we\u2019re doing it multiple times a semester to prepare us.\u201d<\/p>\n

A member of Furman\u2019s club lacrosse team, Sweeney chose Furman over other schools where he could have played on a varsity team, he said. The military science program helped him make his decision.<\/p>\n

\u201cROTC is why I came to Furman,\u201d said the senior, who appreciated the one-on-one opportunities the school\u2019s relatively small battalion size and\u00a0low student-faculty ratio<\/a>\u00a0provide.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m very thankful for everyone who has been a part of my ROTC career,\u201d said Klein, a communication studies major and\u00a0rugby club<\/a>\u00a0player. \u201cI have a great team surrounding me. The cadre has developed me in ways I could never have thought I\u2019d be able to develop.\u201d<\/p>\n

Klein hopes to serve in the Army\u2019s infantry branch after graduation. Cadets nationwide compete for positions in the service\u2019s various branches, and a cadet\u2019s place on the Order of Merit List is one major factor in their assignment.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d like to be an infantry officer for my whole career,\u201d Klein said.<\/p>\n

Wherever Furman\u2019s Distinguished Military Graduates go, it will be better for their service, said Whitten.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt has been amazing to watch them grow and develop as leaders these past several years,\u201d she said. \u201cI know they and their peers will go on to do amazing things.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Denison Jones \u201924, Andrew Klein \u201924 and Cole Sweeney \u201924 earned a distinction reserved for the top 20% of all U.S. Army ROTC cadets in the country. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":265,"featured_media":28601,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,20,51,44,30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28547","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-biology","category-business-and-accounting","category-communication-studies","category-military-science-rotc","category-top-stories"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28547","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/265"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28547"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28547\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28601"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28547"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28547"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28547"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}