ASU ROTC Cadet Honored

Jacob Spiller, a cadet in Angelo State University’s Air Force ROTC Detachment 847, has been selected as the Cadet of the Year for the Southwest Region.

    A junior business management major from Hamilton, Spiller was chosen for the award from 3,500 cadets in the Southwest Region, which contains 11 states and 36 Air Force ROTC detachments. Each Air Force ROTC detachment nominates its top cadet for the award. A selection committee bases its decision on academic achievement, athletics, military performance and other factors, such as membership in the Arnold Air Society national ROTC honor society.

    This is the second year in a row and the third time in the last four years that an ASU cadet has won the regional Cadet of the Year Award. In 2012, the award went to Abraham Morland, who graduated from ASU and received his Air Force commission in May of 2013. The 2014 honoree was Dylan Meador of Wall, who will graduate from ASU and receive his Air Force commission in May.

    “Nominating Cadet Spiller for this award was an easy choice,” said Lt. Col. Pedro Matos, Detachment 847 commander. “He is a natural leader and an inspiring cadet who has already earned his spurs in the United States Air Force serving with the Thunderbirds. He is all about teamwork and always brings his A-game for everything he does.”

    As a recipient of the regional honor, Spiller will compete against the winners from the other three regions for the national USAF Cadet of the Year Award. Meador was the 2014 USAF Cadet of the Year. Spiller will be notified by the end of the summer if he is the winner.

    Previously a nine-year enlisted member of the Air Force, Spiller ranked No. 1 in his flight at Air Force ROTC field training last summer. Field training is a mandatory program held in Alabama and Mississippi the summer between a cadet’s junior and senior year. He is also a member of the Tau Sigma National Honor Society for transfer students and has been named to the ASU Dean’s List every semester. Spiller, who served as an F-16 crew chief, has already been selected for his first choice of the Air Force aircraft maintenance career field when his is commissioned. He is scheduled to graduate from ASU in December of 2015.

For more information, contact ASU’s Aerospace Studies/ROTC Department at 325-942-2036 or [email protected].