22 • THE GRIFFON • Summer 2015
Historic Plattsburgh ROTC Program to Close By Maj. Joe Notch
collar alternative to UVM,” a slogan which also reflected the strong work ethic of its graduates, who in the last PLATTSBURGH, Pa. — After two years alone, all earned Active nearly a century of preparing young Duty commissions and either their citizens to become military leaders, first or second branch choices. the historic Army ROTC program at Despite its historic contributions Plattsburgh State University College is to Army ROTC, the modern program closing its doors for good at the end did not come to Plattsburgh State of the 2014-15 school year due to a University College until 2007, when nationwide ROTC restructuring. interest from students demonstrated Although Plattsburgh ROTC was the potential for growing the Army’s never a large program, it offered wartime need for junior officers. degrees at a tremendous costWith the nearest ROTC campus just savings to its Cadets and the Army 20 miles away in Burlington,Vermont; – producing officers with similar the cities lie on opposing shores of degrees at tuition rates roughly onethe country’s sixth largest body of third the cost of its full-partnership water, Lake Champlain. Fees and a program, the University of Vermont 1.5 hour commute and ferry crossing (UVM). Cadets and Cadre warmly were too impractical for prospective referred to their program as the “blue- cadets to travel each day, so University of Vermont ROTC assigned Lt. Col. Douglas Goodfellow of the Army Reserve to run the Plattsburgh program as an Army ROTC contractor. Starting the program with just 10 cadets, Goodfellow singlehandedly ran all aspects of the program, from drill and ceremony, physical fitness training, MSI-IV classes, labs, administration and recruiting events. Within two years, the program grew to over 40 cadets and gained enough attention to garner support from the Army Reserve’s 4/415th SROTC Battalion, 104th Training Division (LT), joined first by Maj. Chris Dobozy in 2009, Maj. Joe Notch in 2010 and Maj. Dan Gardner in 2012. When initial ROTC restructuring caused Goodfellow’s Army Cadet Theodore (Teddy) Roosevelt marches while training at the Plattsburgh Camp. Cour- reassignment to Clarkson University in 2013, the Plattsburgh tesy photo
104th Training Division (LT)
Members of 4/415th Battalion, 3rd Brigade (SROTC), 104th Training Division (LT), pay tribute to ROTC at Plattsburgh State University College (PSUC). The Army is ending its ROTC program on campus at the end of the school year following nationwide SROTC restructuring. Pictured from left to right are Maj. Dan Gardner, Maj. Chris Dobozy, 2nd Lt. Bob Matzel, Lt. Col. (Ret.) Douglas Goodfellow and Maj. Joe Notch. Courtesy photo
ROTC program was kept alive by the tireless efforts of just the three remaining 4/415th Battalion officers, who juggled full-time coverage of the program with rigorous careers as federal agent, pilot and as an assistant U.S. Department of Justice Attorney. Modern ROTC rooted in the “Plattsburgh Movement” The blueprint for modern ROTC began in Plattsburgh in 1913 as an addition to Land Grant colleges. Gen.
Leonard Wood,Army chief of staff and President Theodore Roosevelt’s former commanding officer during the Spanish-American War, established two experimental military training camps for students, inaugurating the “Plattsburgh Movement.” For the first time in history, a condensed course prepared civilian professionals and college students as competent reserve line officers after only a summer of training.
