Achievements

Battle Streamers

Due to the efforts of UH ROTC cadets during WWII as part of the Hawaii Territorial Guard to protect Pearl Harbor, and General Order 56 US Armed Forces, the ROTC staff believed the unit that participated in active war would receive a battle streamer. However, upon investigation in 1960, they found that the Department of Army refused on the grounds that only active Army personnel who participated were eligible for battle streamers since the Territorial Guard was a local unit. Based on this Lieutenant Colonel William C. Meyer spoke with the Military Science Department at UH and concluded that it might be possible to get battle streamers issued by the State of Hawaii. Through the additional efforts of Dean Bitner and State Senator Takahashi, the state of Hawaii purchased and awarded a battle streamer to the Army ROTC Detachment at the University of Hawaii. The streamer was officially presented by Major General W. Makinney on April 3, 1962.

University of Hawaii at Manoa Army ROTC. (n.d.). Warrior Battalion History. Retrieved November 10, 2021, from https://manoa.hawaii.edu/undergrad/armyrotc/history/

Warrior of the Pacific Trophy

Much of the history and whereabouts of this trophy was lost with the fire that burnt the ROTC buildings and many of the records and photos within them in the 1970s. In fact, this trophy was believed to have been destroyed in the fire as well. However, a visiting alumni in the 1990s researched the trophy and found that it was not at UH at the time of the fire, but instead administrated by the War Department to the winners of the annual national ROTC rifle competition, and petitioned for it to be returned to UH.

This trophy was originally created in response to the UH ROTC victory in the IX Corps Areas Competitions due to UH's inability to receive the competition award as a non IX Corps participant, despite attaining the highest score. In the face of the disappointment of the UH ROTC team, Col. Adna G. Clarke inspired the team to raise $329.26 for the commissioning of the statue. Starting in 1925, the trophy was offered as the prize to the University ROTC team at advanced camp with the highest average marksmanship score. In the first competition, UH won the trophy at the IX Corps Areas against 21 other University ROTC teams with a score of 216.54. In 1927 the trophy was handed over to the War Department to award to the winning US ROTC team at the annual rifle competitions, with the last recorded winner the University of Tennessee in 1984. It is unknown who the last holder of the trophy was before it was returned as the records were lost in the fire.

The following materials were used as references for this section. They can be found in folder 13 of the Mortimer Collection at the UH Manoa Archives.

[Attachment to letter from LTC Allen Frenz, Professor of Military Science to Dr. Kenneth Mortimer, 12 May 1947], [Mortimer Collection], University of Hawaii at Manoa Library University Archives and Manuscripts Department.

[Letter from William K Emerson to the President's Office 30 March 1997], [Mortimer Collection], University of Hawaii at Manoa Library University Archives and Manuscripts Department

Saber