{"id":11071,"date":"2011-05-06T15:24:19","date_gmt":"2011-05-06T22:24:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stage.headlessnauedu-b6hgdzckfdgxgzhe.westus-01.azurewebsites.net\/?p=11071"},"modified":"2013-01-30T16:47:45","modified_gmt":"2013-01-30T23:47:45","slug":"nau-blue-to-army-green-rotc-couple-works-together-to-serve-country","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/nau-blue-to-army-green-rotc-couple-works-together-to-serve-country\/","title":{"rendered":"NAU blue to Army green: ROTC couple works together to serve country"},"content":{"rendered":"

NAU seniors\u00a0Ren\u00e9e<\/strong>\u00a0and\u00a0Matt Ingerson<\/strong>\u00a0haven\u2019t taken the easy route through college.<\/p>\n

Before the break of dawn, Army ROTC drills and exercises have pulled these married cadets out of bed. Competitions and tests required the sacrifice of free time. Academically, they\u2019ve each completed 26 credit hours of military and leadership courses over four years in addition to the typical student\u2019s course load.<\/p>\n

\"Matt<\/a>
Army ROTC cadets Matt and Ren\u00e9e Ingerson<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

While their future paths in the military eventually may veer in different directions, the Ingersons are together in their desire to earn a degree and serve their country.The couple, both on the path to a career in public service, met as freshmen ROTC cadets. Ren\u00e9e is majoring in political science and Matt in criminal justice. They will graduate in May just before their first wedding anniversary and shortly thereafter commission into the Army as officers, along with 10 other NAU cadets.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wasn\u2019t sure what I wanted to do in college or in the military, and then I discovered this wonderful thing called ROTC where I could do both,\u201d Ren\u00e9e said. \u201cI knew I wanted to do a job where I would leave a mark.\u201d<\/p>\n

Watching westerns with his dad instilled a clear sense of right and wrong in Matt, and it eventually led to his interest in law enforcement and the military.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy grandfather and uncles all served,\u201d Matt said. \u201cI knew someone else did it for me so I felt like I should serve for those after me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lt. Col.\u00a0Glenn Johnson<\/strong>, professor of military science at NAU, said the Army ROTC program, now in its 30th year, provides students with leadership and management skills that set them up for success. He said the Ingersons have received multiple honors during their time at NAU.<\/p>\n

\u201cMr. and Mrs. Ingerson are superior cadets who are about to embark on a successful military career,\u201d Johnson said. \u201cThey possess the values, skills and capabilities to be truly respected leaders in the Army and will undoubtedly leave a positive mark on their soldiers, their unit and the nation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ren\u00e9e was selected as a Distinguished Military Graduate for ranking in the top 20 percent of more than 5,000 cadets in the nation and received the Batallion Commander Award as a top senior course cadet. She served as captain of coed teams that won the statewide Ranger Challenge and the\u00a0Sandhurst Military Skills Competition<\/a>\u00a0at West Point last month.<\/p>\n

Matt has received multiple athlete awards, the ROTC Honors award and the Cadet Scholar Award. He was a member of the Ranger Challenge team for three years and serves as a core leader of the battalion.<\/p>\n

But for the Ingersons, it isn\u2019t about the individual. Ren\u00e9e points out that every member of the team makes sacrifices and none of them could accomplish what they do without each other.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe team had to take time out of their personal and academic lives to train and put their best effort forward,\u201d she said. \u201cEarly mornings, Fridays, Saturdays\u2014it consumes a lot of people\u2019s lives\u2014and we all step it up. This is a different college experience than most.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n\n\n
Teamwork<\/strong>\u00a0takes the prize<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
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<\/object><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

As captain of NAU\u2019s self-proclaimed underdog Army ROTC team entering its first\u00a0Sandhurst Military Skills Competition<\/a>\u00a0at West Point last month,\u00a0Ren\u00e9e Ingerson<\/strong>\u00a0was told to find the easiest way to get the team through each challenge in the obstacle course and skills test.<\/p>\n

They had a week to explore the course but little guidance on what they\u2019d face. What they knew for certain was that they\u2019d compete against teams from all over the world and try their skills against military academies that train \u2018round the clock.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs an ROTC cadet, we are always intimidated by the West Point cadets,\u201d Ren\u00e9e said. \u201cThey are living the military training 24\/7. We expect we will be a little bit behind, but competing this year was definitely an eye-opener. It built a lot of confidence in the leadership abilities that we had going in.\u201d<\/p>\n

The team finished first among eight teams representing senior Army ROTC units nationwide and 15th overall.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

NAU seniors\u00a0Ren\u00e9e\u00a0and\u00a0Matt Ingerson\u00a0haven\u2019t taken the easy route through college. Before the break of dawn, Army ROTC drills and exercises have pulled these married cadets out of bed. Competitions and tests required the sacrifice of free time. Academically, they\u2019ve each completed 26 credit hours of military and leadership courses over four years in addition to the…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":46,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11071","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-spotlight"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11071","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/46"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11071"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11071\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11071"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11071"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11071"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}