Tar Heel Battalion History

OUR HISTORY

In 1993, COL William Causey, 1968 UNC graduate and commander of the Carolina Army ROTC Brigade, pushed to upgrade the UNC-Chapel Hill Army ROTC program from cross-enrollment status to extension center status.  In spring 1994, the Army approved the upgrade, making UNC-Chapel Hill’s ROTC program the Army’s only new ROTC program in the nation for that year.

On March 22, 1995, UNC officially became an extension center of Army ROTC.  By August 1995, Cadet enrollment at Chapel Hill was larger than Cadet enrollment at either Duke or NCCU, and that summer, among the 16 programs in the Carolina Brigade, Chapel Hill Cadets attained the highest composite averages in leadership and military proficiency.

In Spring 1997, LTC James Rhoads, Extension Center OIC at UNC-Chapel Hill, applied to upgrade the Army ROTC program from Extension Center status to Host status.  The young program was doing very well; in 1997 it won the prestigious Douglas MacArthur Award for being the most outstanding Army ROTC program in the nation (small program category).  Effective 1 September 1997, the Army formally approved UNC’s upgrade to Host status.  UNC would go on to be awarded the MacArthur award again in 1999 and 2003.

The Tar Heel Battalion is closing in on 30 years of building Army leaders and setting the standard for leadership excellence!