The Legion of Valor has honored Jack Welsome, a senior cadet in Virginia Tech’s Army ROTC program, with the Bronze Cross for Outstanding Achievement.
Nationally, each year only one of every 4,000 Army ROTC cadets receives the honor. Recipients must be in the top quarter of their class and represent the leadership qualities of academic excellence, community involvement, and athletic participation.
Welsome recently ranked in sixth place out of more than 6,000 senior Army ROTC cadets in the nation. In addition, he ranks in the top six percent of students in Virginia Tech’s College of Engineering and in the top 16 percent of students in his biomedical engineering program. He also participates in intramural soccer.
Welsome is a leader in the classroom and within the community. With the Virginia Tech Corps of Cadets, he has served as a company first sergeant, a member of the Color Guard, and as the Second Battalion athletic officer. He served as Bravo Company executive officer and cadre staff officer. He was also selected as one of 20 cadets from across Virginia Tech’s 1,200-strong Corps of Cadets to participate in the corps’ Global Scholars Program in Europe to study the D-Day invasion.
Welcome was selected twice for cadet troop leader training in Germany and at the National Training Center in Fort Irwin, Calif. In December 2020, he completed the Air Assault Course at Fort Campbell, Kent.
This past summer Welsome attended the Army’s Advanced Camp where he earned the Reconnaissance Commando (or RECONDO) Award and achieved the highest rating of “outstanding.” His peers there ranked him first in his squad and second in his platoon. In 2020, he received another prestigious honor, the American Legion Award for Military Excellence.
In the U.S. Army, the motto is “Winning Matters,” and Welsome hopes to continue winning by earning his commission as an aviation officer upon graduation from Virginia Tech in May 2022.
Written by Col. Jamie Cogbill, professor of military science at Virginia Tech
