The Oklahoma Military Academy Alumni Association will celebrate the return of military students to Rogers State University as the group holds its annual reunion on June 5-6.
The theme for this year’s event is “Boots Back on the Hill,” which will pay tribute to the fall 2014 addition of the Oklahoma Army National Guard’s Guard Officer Leadership Development (GOLD) program at RSU, which is OMA’s legacy institution.
About a dozen students are enrolled in the GOLD program, with more expected to enroll this fall. RSU GOLD students will participate in activities during the weekend and interact with OMA alumni, who were instrumental in returning a military program back to campus.
Several hundred OMA alumni, family and friends are expected to attend the two-day reunion celebration, which will be held on RSU’s Claremore campus. Once hailed as the West Point of the Southwest, OMA operated on College Hill in Claremore from 1919 to 1971 before it transitioned into the university now known as RSU.
The OMA reunion weekend also will feature a host of activities, including tours, golf, alumni luncheon, ice cream social, dinner, dance and presentation of the award-winning documentary, “Oklahoma Military Academy: West Point of the Southwest.”
Maj. Gen. Myles Deering, USA (Retired), will be the special speaker at the luncheon. Deering currently serves as Oklahoma’s Secretary of Veterans Affairs, but he oversaw the Oklahoma Army National Guard during the discussions to bring the GOLD program to RSU.
The adjutant general for the reunion is Maj. Gen. Mike Kuehr, Class of 1968.
OMA Alumni President Phil Goldfarb, Class of 1969, said this year’s reunion was designed to allow alumni to have more time to visit with friends and swap remembrances of their time on College Hill. This year also will feature a “Sound Off” event on Friday evening allowing alumni to display their best “OMA command voice” as they yell instructions to those under their command.
On Saturday morning, the OMA Alumni Association will induct three alumni into its Hall of Fame and recognize five men as Distinguished Alumni.
Hall of Fame inductees include William J. Daugherty, PhD, Class of 1965; Sen. Gene Howard, Class of 1943; and a posthumous recognition of Patrick Jordan, Class of 1963.
Those recognized as Distinguished Alumni include Shawnee Brittan, Class of 1953; Col. Alvin Bruce Cobb, USA, Class of 1963; Robert L. Dean, Jr., Class of 1949; Col. Frank Landrum, Class of 1960; and Harry Simpson, Class of 1965.
Full biographies on the honorees or more information about the reunion.