America's North Shore Journal

Sgt First Class Ed malone, Bowie State ROTC senior military instructor

Malone is a 14 year veteran of the Army, with a deployment to Kosovo and two deployments to Iraq under his belt. He wears a Purple Heart and a Bronze Star with V device among other medals, so you know that he’s been there and done that.

Bowie State is a historically Black institution. It is Black History Month, the ROTC staff at Bowie are all black. You get the idea for the BRT.

However, it went well beyond the usual platitudes. Malone gave a gripping description of the battle in which he was wounded and for which he received his Bronze Star. That story is awaiting publishing approval at Associated Content. He also filled us in on the ROTC program at Bowie, which is an area of the military we don’t get to look at very often.

Bowie has 52 cadets in its Army ROTC program. Sgt. Malone believes the male to female ratio is about 60:40.

Recruiting is doing very well and the program is growing. The institution has a number of academic specialities, and ROTC seems to be attracting the Communication majors.

The cadre visit all the local high schools for recruiting. They also are reaching out to all the students on campus, not just the black students.

The ROTC program is one class and one lab a week. Beyond those three hours, the cadets are ordinary college students. There are weekend activities for the cadets.

Malone seeings one of his primary tasks as mentoring the cadets. Many of them come from backgrounds where the military and its challenges are unfamiliar to them.

Sgt. First Class Malone is working on his Associates degree. He has been to airborne and air assault school, and the NCO academies. His plan is to remain in the Army until retirement.