Idaho Republican wanted to save an Army ROTC program. He called in Trump

The University of Idaho’s U.S. Army officer training program, better known as ROTC, was placed on the chopping block as part of federal cuts before President Donald Trump intervened to save it, according to U.S. Sen. Jim Risch.

The university’s military program launched more than 130 years ago in 1893 – just three years after Idaho statehood, U of I President Scott Green said in an email last month to the students and faculty. The program currently counts 87 cadets, and thousands have graduated from it over the years in preparation of military leadership, he wrote.

But that was all at risk of ending this summer through an Army plan to combine the program, Green said, with the one at Washington State University 8 miles west of Moscow over the Idaho state line in Pullman, Washington. WSU’s Army ROTC program is similarly sized with 80 cadets.

“The Army’s proposed restructuring and consolidation threatened the U of I’s standing as a host institution for Army ROTC,” he wrote. “Our U of I students would have been forced to travel across state lines for training under a different brigade.”

Green contacted Risch, an alum who holds bachelor’s and law degrees from the U of I, to help put a stop to the merger, Risch told the Idaho Legislature’s federalism committee last week.

“Some genius back in Washington, D.C., decided they were going to save some money, so they were going to combine it with WSU,” Risch said. “In America, we’re doing everything we can to bolster the number of officers we train, and you’re going to take this out of the University of Idaho?”

In turn, Risch told the committee he eventually brought the issue directly to Trump. Immediately, “DJT” got involved, he said.

“He picked up the phone, made the call,” Risch said. “The next call I got was from President Green saying, ‘I don’t know what you did, but, man oh man, our program is alive and well, and we’re now going to build a new building and everything.’ ”

Risch, a Republican endorsed by Trump in his bid for a fourth term in the U.S. Senate next year, did not return a request from the Idaho Statesman.

The U of I already planned next year to begin a $17 million project remodeling of Targhee Hall, an old dormitory on campus, into a ROTC and student veterans services center. The Idaho Legislature provided $8 million toward the renovation, and the remainder the university raised among donors, U of I spokesperson Jodi Walker told the Statesman.

That construction project will now move forward as scheduled.

“We’re grateful for the opportunity to build on our rich traditions and continue to produce outstanding leaders for our U.S. military,” Green wrote to the campus community.

For more than 40 years, the U of I and WSU has operated a joint program for the Navy/Marine Corps ROTC with the Moscow campus as the host institution. Group events take place “periodically,” but U of I personnel travel to the WSU campus to train its midshipmen, Walker said.

That joint program has about 90 trainees, with roughly 60 of them from the U of I.

The two campuses – along with Lewis-Clark State College in Lewiston, Idaho, and Whitworth University in Spokane, Washington – also have a joint Air Force ROTC program, for which WSU is the host institution. Similarly, WSU personnel routinely travel to Moscow to train its cadets, Walker said. Of the 60 cadets, about 25 are from the U of I, she added.

When completed, the reimagined Targhee Hall will serve both the U of I Army ROTC and joint Navy/Marine Corps ROTC programs.