The University has had a long-standing relationship with the military dating back to the Civil War. The NY 44th Volunteer Regiment, comprised of faculty and students from the institution, then called the NY Normal School, fought in almost every major Civil War campaign.
There are several monuments in the Administration Building commemorating those who have served their country. Monuments photographed by Marge Corbett.
President Hitchcock leads from the front in support of New York Army National Guard soldiers enrolled in Army ROTC. She and the senior administrative staff participated in an awards ceremony for newly commissioned Second Lieutenant Thomas Hernandez, a member of the 42nd Infantry Division, New York Army National Guard. The Secretary of Defense recently approved award of the Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal to Hernandez for his 1996 deployment to Bosnia in support of Operation Joint Endeavor. Lieutenant Hernandez was mobilized from the 311th Civil Affairs Battalion, USAR, Danbury CT as a civil affairs specialist. He was attached to the USA Special Operations Command, Ft Bragg, NC and deployed to Bosnia for six months to support peacekeeping and humanitarian efforts there. He graduated this May from the University at Albany with a BA in Political Science and was subsequently commissioned an infantry officer in the US Army.
Hernandez, is one of forty-five students at the University at Albany studying leadership and training to be an officer through the Army ROTC program here. Hernandez took advantage of the specialized paid internship, the Simultaneous Membership Program (SMP), whereby he practiced his new found management and leadership skills as an officer-in-training with the New York Army National Guard.
Additionally students who are members of the ROTC program here at the University at Albany were recently featured on Channel 10 News for their community service project to a local veterans shelter for the homeless.
