Celebrating and preserving 75 years of ROTC history at Western Michigan University

Many people look back fondly on their college days, but for some Western Michigan University students, those years also marked the beginning of their military service and careers. Thanks to the dedication of two alums, the history of Western’s Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) program—including a list of cadets dating back to its 1950 founding—is now documented and preserved.

Mike Evans (History, 1978) and Tom Vance (History, 1978, 2005) spent over two years researching and documenting the history of Western’s ROTC program. Evans created over 1,095 biographies of Western’s ROTC cadets, and Vance authored a 58-page ROTC program history. The resulting 10-volume series debuted in honor of the program’s 75th anniversary at a military ball in February. Copies are now preserved in the WMU Archives at the Zhang Legacy Collections Center.

Evans and Vance studied history during their undergraduate years at WMU and completed master’s degrees in history—Evans at the University of Michigan and Vance at Western. Drawing on their academic backgrounds and research experience, and with some help from John Winchell, WMU Archives curator, they delved into the University archives, newspapers and online sources, poring over records and ephemera to piece together the program’s history.

The research project started in early 2023—two years before the 75th anniversary. The extended timeline was helpful as a complete contact list for ROTC alums was unavailable. Western commissioned more than 1,700 cadets since the program began, but what happened to cadets after Western was unclear, according to Evans. Getting a more extensive contact list for ROTC alums was the first step.

“We looked at graduation ceremonies, which are here [at the Zhang Legacy Collections Center], that showed the cadets were being commissioned and what branches they were going into,” Evans says.

“Without those commencement programs, the beginning of the project would have been a lot harder,” Vance adds.

The programs provided crucial leads for identifying cadets missing from other lists and confirming commission and branch assignments. Winchell also helped the project team discover other sources for more details on the program’s history and cadets.

“You look at different sources and you go, this complements this and proves something that the initial documents didn’t,” Evans says. “That’s the joy of doing research. You find out things you didn’t know, and you confirm things you thought you knew.”

With support from Western’s Department of Military Science and Leadership and ROTC alumni group, Evans assembled a 53-page list of alums and developed a questionnaire for cadets to submit their biographical information through the department’s website. Archival photographs, newspapers, obituaries, internet searches and direct outreach helped Evans create profiles even if they didn’t complete the questionnaire. 

Throughout the project, Evans was impressed by many cadets' careers after graduating. Some continued their military careers, with 182 alums achieving a rank of Lieutenant Colonel or above, according to Evans’ research. Some served in Korea, Vietnam, the Persian Gulf and Afghanistan, including three service members who died in combat.

Others achieved successful careers in other fields, including Dr. Gregory Anrig (1953), who helped overhaul the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) in the 1980s.

“There were some people that really did some amazing things,” Evan says. “I'm impressed by what most of these people did.”

He was also mindful that not every cadet would want to be contacted. Respecting their privacy was a priority. “Not everybody's experience was positive or something they want to talk about—particularly if they were in combat.”

In many cases, they couldn’t find information about former cadets. However, approximately 51% of known cadets now have documented biographies. 

“They had a story that didn’t get fully told, but there’s still a mention of it,” Vance says, noting that the compiled history includes a full list of all identified cadets.

While Evans was creating the initial database, Vance focused on researching the history of the ROTC program at WMU. Western’s ROTC program originally started as training for the U.S. Army Quartermaster Corps before policy changes allowed officers to be commissioned in other branches and specialties. Vance pulled information from the biographies, WMU yearbooks, university catalogs and publications, the Western Herald and Kalamazoo Gazette to create the program history.

Part of Vance’s process also involved collecting oral histories from alums. He initially spoke with former participants over the phone but eventually found email conversations more effective for collecting information. In total, he collected 12 oral histories—nine with alums and three with former professors of military science. 

“These were a variety of different alumni from different decades just to get some more detail, some flavor,” Vance adds. “It’s just a different level of detail that talks about the program.”

Evans and Vance expressed hope that the documentation will continue and that this project might help future historians and researchers interested in ROTC programs.

“I was just really impressed with the level of detail to the research that they did and the comprehensiveness of it. I think they’ve produced a wonderful product here. I'm happy to accept it into the Archives,” Winchell says.

“Someone may come along that will have a thought about how to use it that you don’t envision when it first arrives,” Winchell adds.

“In most cases, we consolidated it from different sources—the pictures, the articles, the timelines,” Evans says. “I have no idea who will have interest in this, but I do think that it is interesting and good.”