[057] Green Beret leads MTSU ROTC program

MURFREESBORO — Lt. Col. Jackie McDowell has been an active duty U.S. Army Green Beret for more than a decade and was deployed five times between Iraq and Afghanistan.

Starting Aug. 18, he became professor and leader of the MTSU Department of Military Science and its ROTC program.

As McDowell entered his new Army assignment at MTSU, he and his staff received an added boost for training cadets — a six-station obstacle course, built by the Tennessee Army National Guard’s 212^th Engineering Company out of Paris and Camden, Tennessee, with support from ROTC alumni, on the east side of campus adjacent to the rappelling tower. 

The cadet corps, now numbering nearly 30, will receive an additional 30 to 40 new members this week. This depends on how many pass the Army physical fitness test 6:30 to 8:30 a.m. Thursday, Aug. 20, in Floyd Stadium, sign required paperwork and participate in the 11:15 a.m. Friday, Aug. 21, swearing-in ceremony.

McDowell replaces Lt. Col. Joel Miller, who will be a history professor at the U.S. Military Academy in West Point, New York, this fall.

Military science is one of 11 departments in the College of Basic and Applied Sciences. To learn more about military science at MTSU, visit http://www.mtsu.edu/arotc1/. For more information about the college, visit http://www.mtsu.edu/cbas/.