As the show floor buzzed with the latest in Army technology at the Association of the U.S. Army's 2024 Annual Meeting and Exposition, the head of Army Training and Doctrine Command reminded cadets attending an awards luncheon that none of the service’s advancements mean anything without leaders to steward them. 

"It's equipment, it's ideas and it's materiel—but none of it works without you as the leader," Gen. Gary Brito told the audience on Oct. 14. "All of the great ideas, all of the futuristic equipment and materiel that you see downstairs today—this makes you better leaders. You enable it to make us a better Army."

Brito challenged dozens of ROTC and Junior ROTC cadets in the room to "continue to learn, continue to grow, continue to know your battle buddy left and right." 

"You control your character, you control your reputation and you control your fitness, and nobody can steal that from you," Brito added. "And our job is to make that better in you."

Earlier that morning, Army Secretary Christine Wormuth announced an ambitious recruiting goal of 61,000 new soldiers for fiscal year 2025, riding a confidence wave after the Army exceeded its fiscal 2024 goal of recruiting 55,000 new soldiers after two years of falling short. 

The commander who oversaw last year's recruiting effort, Maj. Gen. Johnny Davis of Army Recruiting Command, urged the cadets to remember to take care of their people, making sure they're paid on time, they have time with their families and they have the resources to do their jobs. 

"When you take care of your people, they take care of the mission," Davis said.  "And we all know that."

Several individual cadets and cadet companies received scholarship awards during the ceremony, including students at Lehigh University, the University of Minnesota at Twin Cities, Liberty University and the University of North Georgia.

The luncheon concluded with the induction of 25 new members of the Army ROTC Hall of Fame, among them Brito himself, who commissioned as an infantry officer from Penn State University in 1987.

Other inductees included current Army Vice Chief of Staff James Mingus and U.S. Southern Command boss Gen. Laura Richardson.

In its history, ROTC has committed 701,000 new lieutenants, Brig. Gen. Maurice Barnett, head of Army Cadet Command, told the audience, with ROTC graduates making up 76% of the Army's officer corps. 

— Meghann Myers for AUSA