ROTC adviser announces retirement

Lt. Col. Michael Snyder directs students during a training program last fall.

After braving the storm of potentially losing their program’s charter, students of the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps are now facing a major staff change with the departure of Lt. Col. Michael Snyder. Snyder has announced that he will be retiring from the Army, including his service as faculty at UNA, in May.

Snyder has served as chair of the Department of Military Service for the past four years, he said.

“In the past four years, he has really become kind of like a second father figure, especially to me and to my class,” said Cadet Command Sergeant Major Travis Green, senior. “ I trust the staff to take care of the guys and select a new (program director) that will do a great job. I’m not worried about it.”

A board from the U.S. Department of the Army has selected Major William Cochran Pruett as the new professor of military science for Lion Battalion, Snyder said.

Pruett was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the United States Army as a Field Artillery officer in December of 1997 from Middle Tennessee State University ROTC. He has been deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan and completed Air Assault School, Joint Firepower Course and Combined General Staff College, according to a biography provided by Snyder.

Major Cochran has received a multitude of awards. Some include the Afghanistan Campaign Medal, the NATO Medal, the Airborne Badge, the Air Assault Badge and the Combat Action Badge, the biography reads.

“I think it’s going to be a very different change,” said Sophomore Cadet Alyssa Primeau. “As for Colonel Snyder leaving, I hope all the best.”

Snyder expects Cochran to bring his own personality and perspective to the role, while maintaining and improving upon the preexisting program.

“His approach to leadership may be different, not that one is better than the other, but he will bring his own experiences, his own perspective on how to develop leaders, his own skill sets and traits,” Snyder said. “He is the best of the best—top 20 percent of our army. He is the right person at the right time.”

Cochran will be working to continue Lion Battalion’s current recruitment efforts, Snyder said.

“We are moving forward, but that does not mean we don’t have work to do,” Snyder said. “We are reaching out to increase visits to the high schools hours in the GUC answering questions, and visits to the community colleges.”

The Army is going to continue to expect the ROTC program to recruit more cadets for Lion Battalion, said Snyder.

“We have averaged 11 to 12 commissions in the past three years,” Snyder said. “The University made a commitment and increased our scholarship monies, which are monies used as incentive for academic leadership by $20,000. This was approved about two weeks ago and the Army matched what the university has committed forth.”

Editor’s note: Major Cochran was unavailable for comment at this time.