by Doug Neve - Class of '81

Coordinator, OSU NROTC Alumni Group

The highlight since the last newsletter is the Alumni/Battalion Tailgater held October 15th behind the Unit.  We were blessed with a beautiful Fall day with no rain in sight.

For the first time, the alumni sponsored the event in its entirety for the NROTC Unit.  Many thanks to the generous donors that made it possible to do so.

Attendance was around 85-90 alumni, spouses, staff, and students. Availability of game tickets no doubt affected attendance. 

The event was catered this year by J&C BBQ in Lebanon, which freed up the alumni, midshipmen, and staff to swap yarns and play cornhole.  Everyone feasted on pulled pork and pulled chicken BBQ with all the fixins.  A refrigerator full of leftovers kept the midshipmen fed well into the next week.

Midn2/C Jarrett Sansoni was the battalion liaison and did a great job coordinating the event including attendance, set-up, and tear-down.

The Unit kindly hosted televising the game on the Quarterdeck following the tailgater and the event was capped off with a Beaver win over the Washington State Cougars.

Thanks to all who attended, donated, and helped out to make this year’s tailgater a big success.  I’m looking forward to next year for an even bigger and better event.

In other news, we have drafted a revision to our charter and it is ready for Advisory Committee approval.  We continue to search out alumni to add to our roles. A focus area is to engage the midshipmen to sign up as they graduate. We had some luck with that as we advertised and prepared for the tailgater.

We missed an opportunity to assist fellow alumni last Spring in that the newly commissioned Marine officers do not get paid until they report to Quantico.  Most of the Marines did not report until October and had to look for other work until their report date.

We want to work with the unit CO and MOI next Spring to identify

temporary employment opportunities for new Marine officers that may end up in the same position.  If anyone is interested in coordinating this activity please let me know.

Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas and happy holiday season!