Department of Military Science - U.S. Army ROTC

Battalion History

Eastern Washington University has a long and proud tradition of developing leaders. Our Senior ROTC unit was established at Eastern pursuant to an agreement between the school's governing authorities and approved by the Secretary of the Army on 16 June 1952.

The Professor of Military Science is LTC Michael G. Kirkland. Assistant Professors of Military Science are MAJ (Retired) Robert Riedel and MAJ Von Astudillo, who also serves as the Battalion Recruiting Officer. 1LT Lance Cromwell has recently joined the Cadre and serves as Assistant Instructor. MSG Joseph C. Martinez is the Senior Military Instructor, SFC Donny Thornton serve as the training NCO and SFC Michael Stutzke serves as the ROTC instructor at Spokane Falls Community College. Mr. Roy Hood is the Cadet Human Resources Technician, Mr. Stuart Heritage is the Battalion Supply Technician and Ms. dyanna Flores is the EWU Department of Miitary Science secretary.

The Fighting Eagle Battalion alumni include distinguished professionals such as MG (R) Kenneth L. Privratsky, MG (R) Roger K. Bean,BG. (R) Frederick G. Wong, BG. (R) Gratton 'Neal" O. Sealock II, BG Gary Volesky and MG (R) Scott G. West.

Eastern is well represented in all of the major conflicts over the last 52 years. EWU Officers have led soldiers in Vietnam, Desert Storm, Bosnia, Kosovo, Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom.

In 1990, our program won the prestigious MacArthur Award, ranking us as one of the top ROTC programs in the nation. In 1995 and 1996, at Advanced Camp, our Cadets achieved the highest scores of all the ROTC programs in the country. In 1999 we ranked eighth in ROTC programs nationwide for Advanced Camp scores.  In 2004, we had four cadets place in the top 20% in the nation, and in 2005 EWU Cadets exceeded all national averages during Warrior Forge Summer Camp. For each of the past three years there has been at least one Distinguished Military Graduate.

The future of the Fighting Eagle Battalion shines brighter than ever as we continue to develop leaders for service to our great nation in and out of the military.