The UT Military Science Department predates those of all other state universities. Military instruction began in 1844, with the formation of a cadet infantry company led by Professor Albert Lea. In 1860 John McMillan Brooks organized a military company and became the institution’s first military instructor. When the university reopened after the Civil War, it … Continued

In fall 1961 the Army ROTC added a new shoulder patch to its uniforms echoing the establishment in 1960 of the Dragoon Army ROTC Color Guard. The patch consists of the black Dragoon headpiece, the shako with a white plume, mounted on an orange background with the word VOLS superimposed across the bottom in white.

The first female battalion commander of UT’s corps of cadets was Gwyn A. Ayer, a senior French major from Tucson, Arizona, who assumed command on September 7, 1995.

In 1954 the first official UT Army ROTC flag in history was presented to ROTC cadets by ROTC officials. The flag is gray and burgundy. The UT seal is in the center, with “The University of Tennessee” above the seal and “Reserve Officers Training Corps” below the seal.

On Veterans’ Day 1994, the Army ROTC dedicated a flagpole and monument honoring veterans past and present outside Stokely Athletics Center. The students dug the foundation, the cadets purchased the flagpole, and the cadre put in the cement. A granite bench and a monument were donated by Island Home Memorial Company. The monument is inscribed: … Continued

The Army ROTC’s Ranger Company was created in fall 1962 by then-captain John S. Daniel, who had been assigned to UT’s Army ROTC unit in 1961. Daniel had served as Ranger instructor at the Ranger Camp in Florida. With the establishment of the Ranger Company, UT became the first ROTC Ranger Program to be established … Continued

UT first won the Warrior of the Pacific Award as the nation’s top Army ROTC detachment in 1982, based on competitions conducted at annual summer advanced ROTC camps. The award was instituted by the University of Hawaii in 1925.  In 1975 the three-foot-high, spear-toting statue was awarded for the first time to the top Army … Continued

The first instance of Military Sponsors—female students chosen by the US Army cadet unit leaders and the military band as representative of the best characteristics of UT women—appears in the UT yearbook for 1915, representing the 1914–15 school year, prior to formation of the ROTC. Sponsors that year were Evelyn Hazen, May Morgan, Georgia May … Continued

John Reece Roth, professor emeritus of electrical and computer engineering, was convicted on September 3, 2008, of one count of conspiring with Atmospheric Glow Technology Inc., a Knoxville technology company, to unlawfully export in 2005 and 2006 fifteen different “defense articles” to a citizen of the People’s Republic of China in violation of the Arms … Continued