UT’s Army ROTC Alumni Council and Army ROTC Department held their inaugural Army ROTC Hall of Fame Induction Dinner on Veterans Day, Friday, November 11. The event also marked the 100th national anniversary of Army ROTC.
The first class of honorees includes:
- Gen. (Ret.) Robin B. Akin (’82), one of the first female master parachutists, whose 31 years in the military included senior leadership positions in Operations Iraqi Freedom, Desert Shield/Storm in Saudi Arabia, Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan, and Unified Response in Haiti.
- Col. (Ret.) Foster Arnett (’42), a distinguished local attorney who served as a paratrooper in World War II, honored posthumously.
- Gen. (Ret.) Clarence Bayless (’65), whose 35 years of military service culminated in service as commanding general of the 194th Engineer Brigade.
- Gen. (Ret.) William G. Beard (’80), who had a long career in the Army and Army Reserve and served as an assistant state attorney in Florida.
- Gen. (Ret.) Kenneth Bouldin (’64), who had a career in the Army Reserve and served as executive vice president and chief development officer at Corrections Corporation of America.
- Gen. (Ret.) Douglas Carver (’73), who holds degrees from UT and the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and served as the US Army’s 22nd chief of chaplains.
- Gen. (Ret.) David E. Greer (’72), who now serves as executive director of the American Foundation for Relief and Reconciliation in the Middle East.
- (Ret.) William Guinn (‘52), who had a long and distinguished career that included being a professor of military science at UT and then going on to run a cattle ranch and a bed and breakfast near Greeneville, Tennessee.
- James A. Haslam II (’52), the founder of Pilot Corporation.
- Gen. (Ret.) James R. Montgomery (’52), who earned a doctorate in philosophy from Columbia University, worked for decades in research and planning at UT, and then earned his law degree from Penn State.
- Gen. (Ret.) John Tindall (’67), a businessman in Elizabethtown, Kentucky.
- Col. (Ret.) Allen B. West (’83), who was a Republican congressman from Florida from 2011 to 2013 and now serves as executive director of the National Center for Policy Analysis
Logan Hickman, president of the Army ROTC Alumni Council, said the new Hall of Fame program honors the many contributions of veterans and celebrates UT’s rich military history.
“A program as distinguished as UT’s is well deserving of a Hall of Fame. We have a large inaugural class due to our storied history,” Hickman said. “We had the largest gathering of UT general officers in the history of the university, along with the current cadet battalion. This evening will long be remembered as a celebration of UT military achievement, which spans over 170 years.”
UT’s military program was among the first formed in the nation. In 1844, Professor Albert Lea Miller, a West Point graduate, organized an infantry company and adopted the dragoon uniform for the cadets.
Tennessee had been the Volunteer State since the War of 1812, but it wasn’t until the Mexican-American War that the Volunteer name caught on. When Tennessee Governor Aaron Brown issued a call for 2,800 troops to fight against Mexico, 30,000 Tennesseans volunteered, including UT’s Dragoons. Their uniform, modified slightly, is worn by color guards at home football games.
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CONTACT:
Logan Hickman, UT Knoxville Army ROTC Alumni Council President
(423-871-1975; loganh@pbsouth.com)