Ground was officially broken on the University’s new Reserve Officer Training Corps Facility and Student Veterans Center on Friday.
University president Peter Mohler was joined by Brig. Gen. Maurice O. Barnett, commanding general of the United States Army cadet command; and Col. Eugene A. Moore III, commander of the United States Air Force ROTC, for the official shoveling of the dirt.
Construction of the facility is expected to be completed in March 2027. $12,750,00 of the funding for the project came from the Education Trust Fund Supplemental Appropriations Act in 2024. The fund granted the University of Alabama System $63 million to recruit students, increase research capacity and “ongoing capital projects,” which the “Reserve Officer Training Corps Facility and Student Veterans Center” falls under. The other $250,000 came from the Institutional Reserves.
“Today is a special day for the University of Alabama, and marks an important step for the University of Alabama,” Mohler said. “It also represents a commitment of the University of Alabama to students who have chosen to come here to serve something larger than themselves and ultimately, the citizens of the United States of America.”
The new facility will be located in the plot of land behind the University Health Center and the Recreation Center Tennis Courts. Moore said the new facility will be a “major leap forward” in the training of ROTC cadets.
The facility will contain a workout and strength center for student veterans and ROTC cadets, a computer lab with 40 stations that will help in “wargaming, mission planning and digital training,” four augmented reality flight simulators and a digital rifle range, which Moore says will help cadets increase their “discipline, precision and lethality.”
The center will also have a rappel tower. Dan Hanel, an associate professor of Air Force studies and Detachment 10 Air Force ROTC Education Officer, said the tower will measure in at “exactly” one foot taller than the rappel tower at Auburn. He also recognized the importance of the new facility for the ROTC’s goal of producing “the next fit-to-fight warrior.”
“One of the things that we’re trying to do here is create next generation war fighters for the Department of War,” he said during his speech. “This facility will help us in that effort, in that it’s going to have all the things contained within it, all the facilities that we need in order to produce that next generation.”
Eugene said that the building of the new facility comes with the goal of “strengthening warrior ethos,” an initiative of Secretary of War Pete Hegseth and the Department of War. This comes two weeks after Hegseth announced in a post on X that “Harvard is woke; The War Department is not,” and discontinued all fellowships, certificate programs and graduate military education at Harvard University.
“The Secretary of War’s intent for our next generation of leaders is clear, to instill in young Americans the warrior ethos, the discipline and the leadership necessary to serve the nation in uncertain times,” Eugene said. “This facility will help ensure that warrior ethos is not just something we talk about in classrooms, but it becomes something that cadets live and train and experience daily.”
Barnett, who spoke at the event, said the construction of the facility was an important step for the relationship between the University, the ROTC programs and the military.
“This new center represents more than just brick and mortar. It’s a symbol of this partnership and the shared commitment between the army and higher education and, more specifically, the University of Alabama,” Barnett said. “The investment that they’ve demonstrated, as well as the state, to the future of our nation together, we’re building more than a facility, we’re building opportunities.”
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