The Pentagon’s New ‘Distinguished Military Colleges’

Liam Collins and John Spencer:

The Pentagon last month designated five institutions as distinguished military colleges. Hillsdale College, Liberty University, Louisiana State University, Mississippi State University and Tuskegee University join the six congressionally designated senior military colleges in what Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is calling America’s Corps of Cadets. The schools will establish self-governed student cadet corps programs similar to those of senior military colleges that offer rigorous military education and tactical training.

The distinguished military college designation predates World War I but was dropped in the mid-20th century. At the time, the War Department recognized schools such as Pennsylvania Military College and LSU as distinguished military colleges based on an annual formal inspection of their corps of cadets programs, facilities and instruction. Mr. Hegseth’s new initiative should restore similar metric-based assessments.

The U.S. Army ROTC began with the National Defense Act of 1916 and was later extended to include programs for the Navy and the Air Force. These programs provide students with military classes and training at civilian universities alongside civilian college degree requirements. Those who complete the program and meet service requirements can be commissioned as officers.

The six existing senior military colleges—Norwich University, Texas A&M, The Citadel, University of North Georgia, Virginia Military Institute and Virginia Tech—maintain university-run full-time corps of cadets alongside their federal ROTC programs. Cadets live under military discipline throughout the academic year, attending formations, maintaining their rooms and uniforms for inspection, and assuming responsibilities within a cadet chain of command beyond scheduled ROTC training.