The Norwich University community was notified on February 5th that, after a month-long selection process, Cadet Matthew Ober is to be the NUCC Regimental Commander for the upcoming 2025-2026 academic year.
According to the Instagram post put out by Norwich University announcing Cadet Ober’s selection, he expressed in his application letter that he is “particularly drawn to the Corps’ commitment to excellence and holistic student development. I am excited about the prospect of contributing to the growth of the Corps and nurturing the next generation of citizen-soldiers”.
Ober, an environmental science major with minors in geology and leadership, was able to sit down and provide The Guidon with an exclusive interview about his background, the paths he’s taken here at Norwich that led to him applying for the position of Regimental Commander, and his aspirations for the corps of cadets in the upcoming academic year.
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I guess the best way to start this interview is with the age-old icebreaker: tell me a little bit about yourself and what led you to Norwich in the first place.
I’m from a small town in Pennsylvania called Kennett Square – the mushroom capital of the world, which is pretty funny. Initially, I wanted to go to the Coast Guard Academy, but after getting deferred from early admissions and waitlisted from the regular [decision], I decided to come up here. It wasn’t on the fly; I was on my way to come visit Norwich when I found out about that waitlist, and I told my dad driving up here “Hey, if I like what Norwich has to offer, like what the campus looks like and the environment – I’m gonna go here”. So I came up for NU101, and after that experience, I knew that this was where I wanted to be. So I turned down that waitlist offer from the Coast Guard Academy and the rest is history. Obviously, I was trying to go Coast Guard, and [since] that changed, I decided to try Army ROTC. I didn’t even actually know if [Norwich] had any sort of Coast Guard program, although I know they have their auxiliary program here now, but that’s why I decided to try Army.
Now getting into actual weeds of this; what made you want to try out for Regimental Commander (RCO) in the first place?
Well, it was kind of a step-by-step process each year. As a freshman, I really wanted to be a Rook Corporal in Bravo Company. I see Bravo chooses four corporals, and I was ranked fifth, so I just missed it. But then certain job assignments got changed, and I ended up getting that slot. So I was the Bravo guidon [bearer], and I really liked that. I knew from freshman year, but especially throughout sophomore year, that I wanted to try to be the Bravo Company First Sergeant (1SG). So I went and applied myself for that, which didn’t quite work out. They sent me to Charlie Company and I’m actually really glad they did. It’s a really good experience being able to work with upperclassmen, especially people that I’m not necessarily familiar with because most of them are [coming] from Delta Company. And being able to have a lot more of a professional relationship rather than being based on friendships I think really helped me there. And throughout this year, I just wanted to keep reaching higher and higher. So when I saw that applications were opening up for RCO and I was like “Why not try for it?”. I have. I have ideas. I know what I’d like to see done within the Corps and the University. Let’s see if you know I can make those ideas come to life.
Let’s circle back to that transition from Bravo to the 1SG of Charlie and getting that upperclassmen experience. As I can imagine, and as you know, it’s a lot different being the 1SG for a rook company versus an upperclassmen company in terms of leadership styles. So what would you say was the most challenging aspect of going from sophomore year working in a Cadet Training Company (CTC) versus an upperclassmen company. What would you say was the biggest challenge there?
I think I fit into it pretty well. Not having been rook family with everyone that I’m now in charge of has worked out pretty well this academic year – but towards the end of last academic year when I started deciding those positions, there was definitely a little bit of confusion and uncertainty coming from the people that were in Delta and Charlie. [They were] unsure why the choice was made to have both the Company Commander (CO) and 1SG come from Alpha and Bravo respectively. So [there was] a little bit of adversity I’d say [we were] facing. And the best way to overcome that and what I’ve done and what C/CPT Sauter (Current Charlie CO) has done to do that is showing that we’re not completely different. You got to be relatable, right? And obviously, you have to maintain professionality – but also be friends with people. Show them that you’re not better than them. You’re not better than anyone else, which is what some of them are probably thinking with you coming into the job. You need to be able to show that that’s not the case. You’re just another Cadet, and it’s important for everyone to know that. You don’t think of yourself any higher than anyone else.
I know you’ve only been the incumbent RCO for all of a couple days, but like you said earlier, you already have some ideas on what you want to accomplish during your time as RCO. What would you say you would want to see improve in the Corps going into the next year and what are some rough ideas on how to get that done?
Yeah, so I have three main propositions with what I want to focus on during my time as RCO. And [they’re] largely focused on embodying citizen soldiery and making sure that Captain Partridge’s mission is lived out. And the best way that I think we can do that as students is through civil service in our community and surrounding communities.
To accomplish that – and I haven’t had it planned specifically yet – but the ideas are to do certain events in Northfield and even maybe towards Burlington, and getting a large amount of the Corps or even extending it to civilian students involved with Civil Service to interact with the community. Not only will it look good for the University, but most people who do community service feel good doing it. You’re helping other people out, and in my eyes, that’s the best way to embody what it is to be a citizen soldier. Here at college, we’re limited in what we can do primarily because we have classes and our ROTC programs and everything like that, but working through that and getting involved with the community will build really strong relationships and it’s great for people’s experience here, so that’s one of the things I’d like to incorporate.
Another is strengthening our upperclassmen training programs, getting them more involved and more invested. What I’ve seen in Charlie Company – which is definitely not the best [method of training] – is that training revolves around checking the boxes off in the job books. It’s doing those mandatory trainings from the University that are often just sit down conversations. Some people might take stuff away from it, and that’s great. But a lot of people don’t. A lot of people won’t even show up to them because they’re not invested in that sense. So we need to be able to strengthen that in some way or another and get everyone involved, even if it’s our senior privates (PVT). Letting them teach classes on things that interest them. Everyone has their own unique interest, right? And making them more involved is going to make everyone more invested with their time here. I see a lot of people wasting their Norwich experience, so we need to start working a way around that. You’re a C/PVT, right? You don’t have a job here in the Corps, but you’re here with The Guidon. You’re getting a really unique experience. So my idea is to let people like you share [your experience] in an SMI or TAT or RMT or something like that. Getting people more involved, regardless of where they are position-wise in the Corps.
The final big thing that I’ve really thought about implementing is this sort of mentorship program for all of our upcoming leadership. We can extend this to primarily our rising juniors and our rising seniors. Getting them to do sort of a mentorship shadowing thing with those people that they’re going to be replacing the following year. It’s gonna allow things to run a whole lot more smoothly and give everyone a clear hands-on understanding of what they want to do with their jobs and how they’re going to do that rather than kind of being thrown into it with an inconsistently productive leader’s week. A lot of leaders’ weeks get wasted as only so much can be done in a week, whereas we have all these company discretion trainings in the spring semester that, once jobs are decided, what’s stopping the regiment from planning these trainings from happening going on for someone’s that may be going into an S-section position as an NCOIC or the OIC? They should go and meet with those people. They might do that on their own, but extending it to make sure it’s happening for everyone, it’s going to make things run a whole lot more smoothly the next year. So those are definitely the three big pillars.
Well, it sounds like you’re definitely going to be coming out swinging next year. I look forward to putting this out on The Guidon and giving people a little snapshot at what the next academic year is going to look like on the NUCC side of things. Is there anything else that you would want to say – one final message to put out to the masses, if you will.
Well…it’s gonna be a good year. I have some good goals, realistic goals, that I think are gonna benefit the entire student body if they choose to take advantage of it. I’m going to be choosing my command team and staff next week I believe, so once that’s done – the process really starts, getting ready for next year. It’s not just like they’ve picked me, and now I just get to sit around. There’s a lot of preparation that goes into it, getting ready for a smooth start to next year. And I don’t know exactly who I’m gonna pick for my command team, but I’m gonna pick my team and together we’re going to make the next year a great one.
