{"id":38160,"date":"2025-05-20T10:44:38","date_gmt":"2025-05-20T14:44:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/?p=38160"},"modified":"2025-05-20T10:44:38","modified_gmt":"2025-05-20T14:44:38","slug":"seven-furman-graduates-commissioned-into-u-s-army-army-reserves-national-guard","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/seven-furman-graduates-commissioned-into-u-s-army-army-reserves-national-guard\/","title":{"rendered":"Seven Furman Graduates Commissioned into U.S. Army, Army Reserves, National Guard"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_38163\" style=\"width: 291px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-38163\" class=\"wp-image-38163 lazyload\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/218\/2025\/05\/ROTC_Commissioning2025-Speaker-432x768.jpg\" alt=\"A man in a green Army uniform speaks from a stage.\" width=\"281\" height=\"500\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/218\/2025\/05\/ROTC_Commissioning2025-Speaker-432x768.jpg 432w, https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/218\/2025\/05\/ROTC_Commissioning2025-Speaker-576x1024.jpg 576w, https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/218\/2025\/05\/ROTC_Commissioning2025-Speaker-84x150.jpg 84w, https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/218\/2025\/05\/ROTC_Commissioning2025-Speaker-768x1366.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/218\/2025\/05\/ROTC_Commissioning2025-Speaker-864x1536.jpg 864w, https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/218\/2025\/05\/ROTC_Commissioning2025-Speaker-1152x2048.jpg 1152w, https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/218\/2025\/05\/ROTC_Commissioning2025-Speaker-288x512.jpg 288w, https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/218\/2025\/05\/ROTC_Commissioning2025-Speaker-720x1280.jpg 720w, https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/218\/2025\/05\/ROTC_Commissioning2025-Speaker.jpg 1200w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 281px) 100vw, 281px\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB3aWR0aD0iMSIgaGVpZ2h0PSIxIiB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciPjwvc3ZnPg==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 281px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 281\/500;\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-38163\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Lt. Gen. Joshua Rudd &#8217;93, deputy commander of U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, spoke to cadets at their commissioning ceremony in McAlister Auditorium May 9, 2025. Photo by Jeremy Fleming.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Seven Furman University graduates, who were members of the Reserve Officer Training Corps Paladin Battalion, were commissioned as second lieutenants in the United States Army, National Guard or Army Reserves in a McAlister Auditorium ceremony May 9, the day before the cadets\u2019 graduation.<\/p>\n<p>The new second lieutenants, their statuses and their assignments are:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Adara Brice\u00f1o, National Guard, field artillery<\/li>\n<li>Glory Gillen, Army Reserves, military police<\/li>\n<li>Kendall Littlejohn, Active duty, ordnance<\/li>\n<li>Jack Mikell, Active duty, infantry<\/li>\n<li>Max Riith, Active duty, armor<\/li>\n<li>Luke Stewart, Active duty, ordnance, and<\/li>\n<li>Matthew Zagar, Active duty, aviation<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Lt. Gen. Joshua Rudd, a 1993 Furman graduate and former Paladin Battalion member, spoke with the future leaders. It was a homecoming of sorts for Rudd; his wife, Ansley Rudd, is a 1991 Furman graduate and their daughter Hayden Rudd graduated from Furman in 2017.<\/p>\n<p>One of the first pieces of advice the general shared was to be open to change. At his graduation, he said he thought he would serve his minimum commitment to the military and settle into a quiet life, perhaps in Greenville, South Carolina.<\/p>\n<p>Rudd\u2019s military service has been anything but \u201cquiet.\u201d After three years he was accepted into the Special Forces. He completed some of the most physically and mentally rigorous specialty training in the military and has commanded at every level. He deployed multiple times into combat operations, including Operation Enduring Freedom, Operation Iraqi Freedom, Operation New Dawn and Operation Inherent Resolve.<\/p>\n<p>Rudd now serves as deputy commander of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pacom.mil\/About-USINDOPACOM\/\">Indo-Pacific Command<\/a>, a joint command headquartered in Hawaii that oversees an area of responsibility that includes 60 percent of the world\u2019s population and 38 nations, including Australia, China, Japan, Korea, India, The Philippines and Thailand.<\/p>\n<p>The \u201cgeopolitical strategic environment\u201d the new Furman second lieutenants are entering today is \u201cincredibly complex. It\u2019s interconnected,\u201d Rudd said. \u201cNothing is happening in isolation. It\u2019s incredibly consequential right now given the threats that we\u2019re facing to the homeland. \u2026 What\u2019s going to be required of them is strength in the face of adversity.\u201d<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_38165\" style=\"width: 410px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-38165\" class=\"wp-image-38165 lazyload\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/218\/2025\/05\/ROTC_Commissioning2025-Chad-768x512.jpg\" alt=\"Two men dressed in green Army uniforms stand on stage in front of a large flag.\" width=\"400\" height=\"267\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/218\/2025\/05\/ROTC_Commissioning2025-Chad-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/218\/2025\/05\/ROTC_Commissioning2025-Chad-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/218\/2025\/05\/ROTC_Commissioning2025-Chad-150x100.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/218\/2025\/05\/ROTC_Commissioning2025-Chad-512x341.jpg 512w, https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/218\/2025\/05\/ROTC_Commissioning2025-Chad.jpg 1200w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB3aWR0aD0iMSIgaGVpZ2h0PSIxIiB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciPjwvc3ZnPg==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 400px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 400\/267;\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-38165\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Lt. Col. Chad Monroe, professor of Military Science, and 2nd Lt. Max Riith at the ROTC commissioning ceremony in McAlister Auditorium May 9, 2025. Photo by Jeremy Fleming.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Today\u2019s young leaders have to be innovative and prepare to adapt as the world changes, Rudd said. He implored the new officers to \u201crelentlessly strive for excellence\u201d in every aspect of their lives.<\/p>\n<p>Rudd had high praise for his alma mater. \u201cI think Furman University and its approach to education is absolutely critical. It prepared me to be where I am now,\u201d he said. The liberal arts and sciences education \u201cprepares you to be open-minded, to think globally, to think beyond your specialty as a leader. That\u2019s incredibly valuable.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Lt. Gen. Joshua Rudd &#8217;93 spoke to the new officers at the May 9 commissioning ceremony. Today&#8217;s geopolitical environment is incredibly complex, Rudd said, just the kind of situation for which a liberal arts education prepares future leaders. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":389,"featured_media":38161,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-38160","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-military-science-rotc"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38160","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\/389"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38160"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38160\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38168,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38160\/revisions\/38168"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38161"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38160"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38160"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38160"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}