Four years ago, the program was a middle-size unit. Since then, numbers have increased from 35 to 110 cadets.

"I surrounded myself with a great cadre team... the Army values, the ethics. We're role model for the cadets, so they could understand how to treat each other, upper-classmen, the lower-classmen, and they've been bringing friends, relatives, anybody else into the program because they really like it," Lt. Col. Kirk Wallace said.

Now this ARMY program ranks first in schools west of the Mississippi River.

"It's only legit if the cadets believe in it, support it, come to it and they've been doing that the last couple of years and as a result, we've been recognized as having the top large program in the Western region. Great Honor," Wallace said.

Derek Frost, a lieutenant colonel in the program, said credit is due to his predecessors.

"Personally, it wasn't just my class or the class below us, or the class ahead of us. It's been the last three or four years really working hard and really recruiting and recruiting really good people. Lt. Col. Wallace was excellent in guiding us to the way of being number one," Frost said.

The ARMY ROTC contains a partnership with school cadets from Central Methodist University, Columbia College, Westminster College and William Woods University.

The General MacArthur Award recognizes achievement in ROTC programs. Since its creation in 1989, this is the first time the University of Missouri is a recipient. The program officers said the ROTC program numbers will grow and they will work to maintain the ranking. The Award ceremony is scheduled for April.

Prominent Americans in ARMY ROTC Programs:
    Colin Powell - Former U.S. Secretary of State and former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
    Sam Walton - Founder of Wal-Mart (Mizzou ARMY ROTC)
    Nancy Sherlock Currie - Space shuttle astronaut
    Samuel Alito - Supreme Court justice
    Earl Graves - Chairman and publisher of Black Enterprise Magazine
    Robert Novak - Syndicated newspaper columnist and CNN panelist