Have you ever wondered who those guys are that wear Army uniforms to class each Thursday? They are members of EOU's Guard Officer Leader Detachment, or GOLD for short. It is an Officer Commissioning Program for the Army National Guard. At the surface, this program appears to be similar to the Reserve Officer training Corp (ROTC) that are common on many of the larger colleges and Universities across the nation. But there are many differences. The GOLD program is an offshoot of Oregon's Army National Guard's Officer Candidate School (OCS), and each of its members is referred to as an officer candidate. OCS is an Officer Commissioning program that is for soldiers seeking commissions as officers who have already spent time as enlisted soldiers, and they have a sufficient amount of college work completed. All of the GOLD programs' officer candidates have spent time as enlisted soldiers, and therein lays the key difference between GOLD and ROTC. GOLD is also a very unique commissioning program because there are only two of these in existence. The other is located at Southern Oregon University.

The program was started more than ten years ago when cutbacks in state funding forced the closure of all ROTC programs in all schools within the Oregon University System with enrollments of less than 5,000 students. This created a problem for Army National Guard units in eastern and southern Oregon because there was not any officer commissioning programs nearby to help fill officer vacancies. As a solution to this problem, two detachments of Oregon's OCS program were created, and on 16 September 1991, Eastern's GOLD program came into existence. Since then, the GOLD program has commissioned approximately 25 officers, many of whom have chosen to serve in Guard units throughout eastern Oregon, primarily in 3rd battalion 116th cavalry brigade. Our official designation is 354th Army GOLD, which is in honor of the flight training school that was stationed here on campus during World War II. The official designation of the flight school was the 354th College Training Detachment.

There are a multitude of activities that the GOLD program does to train its candidates to be officers. In addition to the military science curriculum, the candidates also have Leadership Lab each Thursday during the term, which is the reason why we wear our uniforms to class on those days. Leadership Lab is the time for our candidates to apply what they learn in class, and to develop our skills. Among the activities we perform are, giving classes, planning upcoming activities, and training the other candidates in a variety of areas such as small unit tactics, or drill & ceremony. In addition to lab, every fall and spring we conduct Field Training Exercises in a tactical environment. We rent paint ball equipment and conduct force-on-force tactical operations. Each candidate is given the opportunity to lead troops in simulated combat missions. Their leadership qualities are assessed based primarily on how well they followed the Troop Leading Procedures and their ability to make a decision, rather than on the success or failure of their missions. The overall program is structured into three different phases. Incoming officer candidates typically begin their training with us in an unofficial capacity at the beginning of their freshman or sophomore year. Then they are officially in-processed into the program during a drill weekend in March. A prerequisite to entering the program is that the prospective candidate, in addition to completing Army Basic Training, must also have at least 90-quarter credit hours, prior to beginning the first phase. Upon completion of the program, he/she must have a Bachelor's degree, or they may delay commissioning until they have been awarded their degree.

Before going to Phase I, they must take the class MS 203 Basic Military Skills during the spring term. Phase I is an intensive two-week course that takes place at Fort Meade, South Dakota immediately following the spring term. The first week primarily involves classroom work and developing essential military leadership skills such as taking care of soldiers, taking charge, and delegating tasks. The candidates are harassed by TAC (Teach, Analyze, and Counsel) officers, and the candidates are not allowed more than four hours of sleep each night. The second week is held out in the field, and the focus is on Land Navigation training and testing. The day before the end of phase I, the candidates travel to nearby Mount Rushmore for rest and relaxation. Phase II involves the aforementioned activities of paint ball and Leadership Lab. In addition to this we take the class series of MS 301, 302, 303 throughout the course of the academic year. In these classes, the candidates learn the basic nuts & bolts of how to be an officer. We learn everything from filling out a line-of-duty injury report to calling for indirect fire support using a radio. Phase III is another two-week long course that is held at Fort Lewis, Washington during the first two weeks in August. Essentially, this phase is an extended version of the Paint ball Field Training Exercises. During this phase, the candidate has to pull together all he has learned from the prior phases, and lead troops effectively in simulated combat operations. Unlike Phase I however, the candidates are treated like professionals rather than being harassed. At the end of this phase, Officer Candidates are given assessments of their leadership abilities, and are told of the things they should work on to become better officers in the future. After that, the Candidates are commissioned as Second Lieutenants in the Army National Guard.

One unique feature of EOU's GOLD program is that Phase II candidates have the opportunity to fill any officer vacancies that exist in Eastern Oregon. This is something that prospective officers from other commissioning sources cannot do. While we are receiving our officer education here on campus, one weekend each month we have an opportunity to apply what we have learned in the classroom. This helps us to develop our leadership skills in a real-world environment before we actually become officers. Because of this, I believe that our officer education is superior to any traditional OCS and ROTC program. Occasionally we do get some strange looks and responses from fellow students when we wear our uniforms to class, especially at the start of the school year. I personally have been affiliated with the GOLD program for two years prior to this year, and in that time, it has become clear to me that many students are unaware of our presence here on campus. This is understandable because out of a student population of 3,000, there are only six of us. It is my hope that this article will help us gain more visibility on campus.

Article written by Officer Candidate Dan Edtl

Eastern Oregon University

GOLD Program

La Grande, Oregon  97850