“It has been very hard, and it hasn’t always been fun. But it’s been one of the most worthwhile things I’ve ever done, and I love it,” says Sean Young ’17, speaking of his experiences in the Blue Jay Battalion of Johns Hopkins’ Army ROTC, which celebrates its 100th birthday this year.
Army ROTC came to Johns Hopkins in 1916–17, after President Woodrow Wilson signed the National Defense Act, which expanded the size and scope of the Army National Guard. Since then, nearly 3,000 officers have been commissioned from the university’s ROTC program, including more than 55 who have gone on to become generals and admirals.
Young, a senior biomedical engineering major who intends to work someday as an Army doctor, is proud to be one of them. “Even as a kid, I was patriotic, and it made sense to me that people should be willing to fight and to serve America and what it stands for,” he says.