In 1951, a Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) unit was established at the University of Massachusetts Lowell, serving as one of 64 units at colleges throughout the United States which were charged with recruiting and training 27,000 Second Lieutenants by the year 1955.
It was stated in an official release by the Air Force in 1951, "although it is assumed by most, that graduates from a textile college would be placed in a quartermasters unit of the Air Force, no such unit exists and no intention is so directed. Rather, placement and assignment will be affected with academic major in mind. Those graduates who have both the desire and physical requirements for duty involving flying will be assigned to a flying command commensurate with their requests and subject to the interest of the service."
Throughout the late 1940s, many of the service academies were sending their graduates to UMass Lowell for further degrees in Textiles and Fabric Technology. They were doing this for the purpose of learning new ways to produce camouflage material. For this reason, and at the time, the University of Massachusetts Lowell was a land grant college requiring the school to have an ROTC unit thus, the Department of Defense and the Air Force established a Detachment at UMass Lowell in July of 1951.
Leadership Laboratory, during the late 1950’s and 1960’s, was held on Thursday afternoons. The cadet corps would gather behind the university and then parade up Riverside Ave to Textile with the ROTC band leading the way. Dr. Everett Olson was quoted as saying, “it was a magnificent event, it was something we were all proud of because we have never had our own band before.”
When the Costello Gymnasium was built, the ROTC rifle club and school installed a rifle range in the basement. This facility was used until the early 1980’s when due to lack of use it was closed and put to other uses.
- July 1, 1951 – Air Force ROTC (AFROTC) established at UMass Lowell with Lieutenant Colonel Kelley as Professor of Air Science and Tactics.
- November 15, 1951 – AFROTC had its first full-dress drill.
- August 1, 1952 – First HQ’s for AFROTC established at Maxwell AFB, Alabama with Brigadier General Matthew K. Deichelmann as first commandant.
- February 16, 1952 – First Military Ball held at UMass Lowell, the whole university was invited at $4.00 per couple.
- February 18, 1954 – Howard Cobin was the first cadet to be commissioned as a Second Lieutenant from UMass Lowell.
- 1951 through 1965 – ROTC was mandatory for the first two years of college.
- April 1977 – Lowell celebrates 30th anniversary of the Air Force with week-long festivities along the Merrimack River.
- Maj. Gen. Hoyt S. Vandenberg, Jr attended the 30th Anniversary to accept honors on behalf of his father, General Hoyt S. Vandenberg, Sr., former Air Force Chief of Staff.
- Famed conductor, Arthur Fiedler, maestro of the Boston Pops Orchestra, led the United State Air Force (USAF) Band in "The Stars and Stripes Forever" at the 30th Anniversary.
- October 1981 – Lowell ranks 5th out of ~148 ROTC units in the country.
- 1984 – Cadet Michael Piscitelli from DWC was named the most outstanding AFROTC pilot in the nation.
- October 6-12, 1987 – Air Force’s 40th Anniversary was celebrated.
- 1987 – Detachment (Det) 345 was rated number one detachment in the entire Northeast Region and top ten in the nation.
- Lt. Col. Shaughnessy, Det 345 Commander, was presented the Air force Association Special Presidential Citation.
- 2002 - Capt. John Ogonowski, a graduate of AFROTC Detachment 345, was the command pilot on American Airlines flight 11 whose plane was hijacked and steered into the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. In 2002 the Captain John Ogonowski Scholarship is awarded to the top UMass Lowell AFROTC cadet in their Junior year.
- May 5, 2011 - University of Massachusetts Lowell’s Chancellor, Marty Meehan, and the University of Massachusetts Lowell honored Det 345 on its 60th Anniversary with a Flag Retreat Ceremony in front of Cumnock Hall. Mr. Richard Lombardi, a 1980 alumnus of UMass Lowell and Det 345 was the keynote speaker.
- October 2011 - Det 345 was awarded the AFROTC Northeast Region’s "Right-of-Line Award" in the Small Unit category. This award is given out once annually to the small detachment in the Northeast Region who best excels in the areas of "Production, Education, Recruiting and Retention, University and Public Relations, and Cadet Activities."
- May 18, 2012 - Det 345’s long-time home on the fourth floor of Perry Hall on the North Campus of UMass Lowell was destroyed in a fire. The Det was temporarily relocated to the first floor of Donahue Hall and remained there from June through August of 2012. In September of 2012, Det 345 was again relocated, this time to the Tsongas Center. In the summer of 2013, it was moved to Mahoney Hall on South Campus.
- October 15, 2012 - Det 345 is once again awarded the AFROTC Northeast Region’s "Right-of-Line Award" in the Small Unit category! This made them back-to-back winners of the award and was a true testament to the "character, determination, and resilience of both the cadets and cadre."
- 2016 - Det 345 celebrates their 65th Anniversary.
- September, 2018 - Det 345 moves to Wannalancit Mills located on East Campus.
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