U.S. Air Force Maj. Matthew Spinks compares the new Air Force Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (AFROTC) program at The University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH) to an aircraft on a runway. Thirty cadets are on board, and the pilots – cadre officers Spinks and Capt. Brett Collins – are ready to take off.
The program at UAH, a part of The University of Alabama System, is a test flight, a new expansion of the Air Force ROTC enterprise.
“UAH is one of three universities chosen to host an operating location for ROTC,” Spinks said. “We’re here to get the wheels off the ground.”
The AFROTC program at UAH is the first of its kind in the U.S., and UAH is working with Samford University in Birmingham and Maxwell Air Force Base in Montgomery to develop it. Samford’s existing detachment will assist UAH in an administrative role for the first couple of years.
U.S. Air Force Brig. Gen. Joseph Sheffield, left, Jeanne M. Holm Center for Officer Accessions and Citizen Development commander, passes the guidon to Lt. Col. Joseph Johnson, Air Force Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (AFROTC) Detachment 012 commander, as Chief Master Sgt. Jennifer McKeen looks on. The Passing the Flag event occurred during the opening ceremony of the new AFROTC extension at The University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH) on Aug. 29, 2024.
Michael Mercier | UAH
UAH celebrated the official activation of the operating location on Aug. 29 during a Passing the Flag ceremony featuring officials from the Department of the Air Force and the university. Guests included Brig. Gen. Joseph Sheffield, commander of the Jeanne M. Holm Center for Officer Accessions and Citizen Development at Maxwell. The previous commander, Brig. Gen. Houston Cantwell, who recently retired, was one of the driving forces behind the UAH program.
“This ceremony is meant not just to recognize the work and effort of those individuals – General Cantwell and his staff at Maxwell and everyone at UAH – but it’s also cementing the foundation that this is a fixture at the university,” Spinks said. “After two years, they’re going to evaluate and determine whether this is a viable program. My hope is that this is the start of a long and tenured lifetime of ROTC here at UAH.”
AFROTC allows scholarship and non-scholarship cadets to live as regular college students while pursuing their degrees. Students can sign up as freshmen or sophomores. When they graduate, they will be commissioned in the U.S. Air Force or U.S. Space Force.
Spinks described the program as a three- or four-year job interview.
Dr. Charles L. Karr, center left, president of The University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH), presents a proclamation welcoming UAH’s new Air Force Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (AFROTC) operating location to U.S. Air Force Brig. Gen. Joseph Sheffield, center right, commander of the Jeanne M. Holm Center for Officer Accessions and Citizen Development at Maxwell Air Force Base, on Aug. 29, 2024. Also pictured are Lt. Col. Joseph Johnson, left, AFROTC Detachment 012 commander, and Chief Master Sgt. Jennifer McKeen.
Michael Mercier | UAH
“They interact with me and Captain Collins or whatever cadre member might be at the operating location. We are watching their development. We’re helping them grow and take on responsibility managing programs and personnel. When they commission as lieutenants, they’re ready to hit the ground running. It’s an internship with a no-joke career at the end of it.”
During that internship, cadets gain knowledge and skills useful in all aspects of their life.
Spinks noted the dreaded “freshman 15” weight gain: “We give them the tools and resources to be successful in managing their own physical fitness.”
But grades take top priority: “We meet with them once per semester. We want to make sure that they’re staying on track. The only way that they succeed in this program is if they are succeeding academically.”
Spinks touted the balance, perspective and maturity cadets can achieve through ROTC and on into their military career.
“The mentorship, the development and the leadership skills that they gain, both in our program and after they commission, they can take that anywhere. We’re here to teach them and give them all those tools to be successful, capable leaders, both in the military and once they choose to depart service, whether that be retirement or separation.”
Air Force ROTC, Spinks said, is a program that sells itself.
“It’s one of the most professionally and well developed programs.”
And that gives UAH another strong career path to offer its students.
As for the Air Force perspective on this partnership, Spinks pointed out, “UAH has a top-notch engineering department and nursing program. Engineering and nursing are two of the biggest and most in-demand programs in the Air and Space Force, especially in the Space Force.
“The Air Force is gaining individuals who have the best, most technical knowledge on those programs, on those systems. We need people who have a desire to want to serve in the military, but also have that technical aptitude. This is very much a win-win-win situation all the way around.”