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CCAC Founding
The CCAC is over 20 years old. I do not have our official start date, but it was probably sometime in 1996 with Joel Ward as the President. We were known as the Cadet Corps Alumni Chapter (CCAC) and were a sub organization of the UTA Alumni Association. When you joined the CCAC you automatically became a member of the UTA Alumni Association and annual dues applied to both organizations. We were very active and the largest chapter of the alumni association. We started the endowed scholarship fund and began to help with the annual Military Science Department Hall of Honor. Jerry Thomas became our President in 2002 and started our Lifetime Membership Fund as a way for us to become monetarily self-sufficient. We also started taking a larger Hall of Honor oversite role. Ray Andre became President in 2006 and started the cadet bar b que at the start of the Fall Semester. The UTA Alumni Association had an organizational change and they ask all the chapters associated with organizations to change their names and drop Chapter. We changed the word “Chapter” to “Council” and disconnected from the alumni association to become or own separate organization. When Bunky Goranzik was or President we began to join with the cadet Sam Houston Rifles in the annual Gainesville Medal of Honor parade. When Rex Latham was our President, we enhanced our Website and started supporting the cadets taking part in the Army 10-mile run. These are only some of our accomplishments over the last 20 years. We have really come a long way and have a bright future ahead of us. Today the Cadet Corps Endowed Scholarship Fund has over $180,000 providing around $8,000 annually for scholarships. The CCAC Lifetime Membership Fund has been converted to an endowment and now has over $118,000 with over $4,000 going annually into the Cadet Support Fund. We continue our oversite of the Hall of Honor and provide the annual Bar B Que. We are starting to focus on ways to connect alumni and cadets by establishing the Cadet Corps Alumni Network. We are working on a mentoring program and perhaps a way to connect alumni and cadets through Army branch affiliation once they MS IV’s have a received their branch assignment. There may also be some opportunities for some one on one connections. We have come a long way but have a long way to go. Our mission remains to support the Military Science Department and the Corps of Cadets in any way we can without getting in the way.