For the Steel Battalion Army ROTC, located at Lehigh’s Mountaintop Campus, winning matters.
The Steel Battalion received the 2025 MacArthur Award on Oct. 14, recognizing it as one of the top eight ROTC programs in the country.
This is the second time the Steel Battalion has won the MacArthur Award, following their first win in 2022.
The MacArthur Award, presented to the Steel Battalion on Oct. 14, recognizes outstanding cadet performance and achievement in academics, training and their standing on the National Order of Merit list.
“The Army doesn’t go to war to lose them; we go to win,” said Lt. Col. Christopher Curran, professor of military science at Lehigh and leader of the Steel Battalion. “So we might as well practice that in what we do here. Whether it’s playing frisbee in the morning or winning the MacArthur Award, those are all events that train us to do our best so that we can win.”
Curran also said it’s somewhat rare to win the MacArthur Award repeatedly. He said the fact that the Steel Battalion is able to do that goes to show the ROTC is doing the right things in order to put the best soldiers and lieutenants into the army.
The award’s winner is selected based on six categories: achievement of the program’s mission, order of merit score (a national ranking system for cadets), average grade point average, first-year-to-sophomore retention rate, the program’s overall performance at Advance Camp and the percentage of STEM majors in the program.
The Steel Battalion includes students from 11 colleges and universities.
Curran said while many factors contribute to the battalion’s success, its longstanding culture and expectation of excellence has been crucial to its performance.
“This program doesn’t succeed just based on the people that are here doing it now,” Curran said. “It’s something that continues to perpetuate itself.”
Daniel Neubecker, ‘27, is the command sergeant major of the Steel Battalion.
He was selected by cadets graduating in 2026 to help lead the battalion, a responsibility he said he doesn’t take lightly.
“There’s definitely a level of responsibility I feel to help lead the battalion in the right direction,” Neubecker said. “To make sure that they know what good leadership looks like, planning the right events for them so that they can grow and develop.”
Neubecker said the Steel Battalion’s lasting commitment to high performance, reinforced by each graduating class of cadets, is one factor behind its success.
He said the MacArthur Award is representative of the entire program and the work that everyone has put into the program. Alumni and past cadre, the student leaders and instructors of the cadets training to become commissioned officers in the military, have instilled traditions and standards within the battalion to ensure the next generation is ready to face challenges.
Another display of the Steel Battalion’s recent success is its performance in the Ranger Challenge, a varsity-style competition often called the sport of ROTC.
Curran said the battalion’s success in the Ranger Challenge and MacArthur award was driven by its cadets rather than the professor of military science.
Kyle Vanden Heuvel, ‘27, is a member of the Steel Battalion’s Ranger Challenge team, the team has earned first place in the 2nd Brigade’s Ranger Challenge three times in recent years.
Vanden Heuvel said the team’s success has allowed them to compete in an international competition at West Point against military academies and international programs.
“We really value high performance, physically, mentally and academically,” Vanden Heuvel said. “I think that’s reflected in the awards we’ve gotten over the past few years.”
Curran said the rigorous nature of the ROTC program combined with Lehigh’s academic expectations contributed to the Steel Battalion’s success.
Cadets participate in morning workouts on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays, training labs Thursdays through Sunday and take military science classes while completing their regular coursework.
“This program is a lot tougher than some other programs are,” Curran said. “We demand a lot of our cadets, but because we’re very demanding here, that prepares them to go off into the army world and do hard things.”
Curran pointed to Lehigh’s commitment to Future Makers as a guiding principle that sets the Steel Battalion apart from other ROTC programs.
Caedmon Holland, ‘28, said seeing the success of his fellow cadets pushes him to be a better leader and member of the ROTC community.
“The people in ROTC are just impressive in their own right, in ways that you don’t really get to see in people around the university,” Holland said.
Cadets have the opportunity to attend summer programs such as Air Assault School, where they learn skills including rappelling out of helicopters and parachuting from planes.
“I think all of those experiences are really unique and it’s sort of inspiring to see fellow students do those kinds of things,” Holland said.
Vanden Heuvel said the ROTC community is tight-knit
“It’s small, but the ties run strong,” he said. “We’re with each other every step of the way.”
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