{"307541":{"#nid":"307541","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Townsend Commissioned as Second Lieuteant in U.S. Marine Corps","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EDecades ago, serving in the Reserve Officers Training Corps (ROTC) was mandatory for all Georgia Tech students and the ranks\u0026nbsp;of the campus battalion routinely numbered in the thousands. Today, Tech\u2019s \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/www.rotc.gatech.edu\/\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003EROTC\u003C\/a\u003E programs provide advanced training for only\u0026nbsp;an elite few, such as \u003Cstrong\u003ESchool of Economics\u003C\/strong\u003E alumnus Andrew Townsend \u003Cem\u003E(pictured left)\u003C\/em\u003E.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cI always\u0026nbsp;wanted to be a\u0026nbsp;Marine, ever since\u0026nbsp;I was young,\u201d said\u0026nbsp;Andrew Townsend just a couple of weeks before commencement and within days of achieving his childhood goal. He has been commissioned as a second lieutenant in the \u003Cstrong\u003EU.S. Marine Corps\u003C\/strong\u003E and in the months following will face The Basic School (TBS, a six-month program that the Marine Corps uses to invest in the education, training and further evaluation of its newly commissioned officers.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cI didn\u2019t even think I\u2019d go to Georgia Tech,\u201d the Tucker native continued. \u201cBut I knew Tech was a good school and had the Naval ROTC. That\u2019s what I wanted to do.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe plan seems surprisingly simple for a student who has surpassed every benchmark laid out for him since he started in 2010. Townsend secured one of the coveted four-year national ROTC scholarships that would eventually train him to be a junior officer. \u0026nbsp;During his tenure at Tech, Townsend also earned a slew of awards.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EHe was recognized as the Officer Candidates School\u003Cstrong\u003E Honor Graduate\u003C\/strong\u003E last summer; then he was named the Navy ROTC\u2019s \u003Cstrong\u003Emidshipman of the year\u003C\/strong\u003E by the United Services Automobile Association (USAA). Last fall, he served as \u003Cstrong\u003Ebattalion commander\u003C\/strong\u003E, helping train younger students preparing to attend Officer Candidates School. It\u2019s the highest leadership a participant in the Marine Option Program can attain.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cIf you want to be a true leader, you can\u2019t worry about yourself. I look at Townsend and he gets through running a phenomenal run, almost Olympic athlete pace type-stuff,\u201d Captain Joshua Roberts said. \u201cAnd he gets done and he doesn\u2019t go over and lick his own wounds, he doesn\u2019t sit on the side of the field and stretch out. Immediately when he gets done, he looks around and goes back down the course to find more people to help them finish at a better time.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ETownsend is a bright representation of what Georgia Tech\u2019s ROTC program looks like today. He is one of 18 students on track to commission as Marine Corps second lieutenants upon completion of their studies at Georgia Tech. Those 18 Marine options round out the 67 students participating in the Georgia Tech NROTC battalion, which includes students from Georgia State and Southern Polytechnic State. They make up just over half of the 124 students who are the Atlanta Region Consortium.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ERead more about a \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/gtalumnimag.com\/?p=46293\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003Eday in the life\u003C\/a\u003E of a Marine Corps Option.\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EDecades ago, serving in the Reserve Officers Training Corps (ROTC) was mandatory for all Georgia Tech students and the ranks\u0026nbsp;of the campus battalion routinely numbered in the thousands. Today, Tech\u2019s \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/www.rotc.gatech.edu\/\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003EROTC\u003C\/a\u003E programs provide advanced training for only\u0026nbsp;an elite few, such as \u003Cstrong\u003ESchool of Economics\u003C\/strong\u003E alumnus Andrew Townsend.\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Tech\u2019s ROTC programs provides advanced training for an elite few, including School of Economics alumnus Andrew Townsend."}],"uid":"27889","created_gmt":"2014-07-09 10:56:50","changed_gmt":"2016-10-08 03:16:45","author":"Beth Godfrey","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2014-07-09T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2014-07-09T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"307531":{"id":"307531","type":"image","title":"Townsend Marine Option","body":null,"created":"1449244708","gmt_created":"2015-12-04 15:58:28","changed":"1475895017","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:50:17","alt":"Townsend Marine Option","file":{"fid":"199775","name":"townsed_marine_option.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/townsed_marine_option_0.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/townsed_marine_option_0.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":34888,"path_740":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/townsed_marine_option_0.jpg?itok=5exuoNxC"}}},"media_ids":["307531"],"groups":[{"id":"1281","name":"Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts"}],"categories":[{"id":"8862","name":"Student Research"}],"keywords":[{"id":"19141","name":"Marine Corps"},{"id":"97511","name":"Marine Option"},{"id":"915","name":"ROTC"},{"id":"97501","name":"Townsend"}],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[],"email":[],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}