Cadet Major Brown prepares to serve his country

BY BETHANY KILPATRICK / Contributing Writer

Jacob Brown, better known as Cadet Major Brown, within the Tarleton Texan Corps of Cadets, will graduate from Tarleton State University on Dec. 13, 2024.
 

Brown began his journey at Tarleton in 2021 and will complete it with a bachelor’s in history, a minor in criminal justice and a minor in leadership studies. After commissioning on Dec. 12, 2024, he will walk the stage in uniform as a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army.
 

“It has been a great four years. I am excited for the next phase,” Brown said. 
 

Brown and his graduating cadets will find out what branch they will enter on December 5, 2024.  
 

“I just know that I will be joining the Army. For us December grads it has been exhilarating,” Brown said. “My top three [choices] are infantry, field artillery and military intelligence.”
 

After graduation and commissioning, Brown will take the next steps to begin his career in the Army.
 

“Once you graduate and commission you have to wait around a little bit, and then you go to your basic course, which will teach you how to do your job, for about eight weeks to nine months depending on your job,” Brown said. “Then after that, you actually get to start your job as an officer. I have a little more schooling to go.”
 

Serving in the military has been a concept that Brown and his family have always been familiar with. 
 

“My dad was in the Army and my grandfather was in the Navy,” Brown said. “My other grandfather was in the Air Force and the Coast Guard. We have been in the Army before the revolution. My ancestors were militiamen, so we have always liked to joke that it is the family business.”
 

Serving his country is something that Brown has desired to do for quite some time and has put forth a great effort to be able to do.
 

“Getting to be a leader, truly in the sense of creating plans, and leading soldiers is the thing that I have been looking forward to for four years, or more than four years,” Brown said. “I have always wanted to be an Army officer.”
 

Brown is originally from New Hampshire and had lived in Germany for many years before his time at Tarleton.
 

“My dad was in the military, so I moved around a lot,” Brown said. “His first duty station was Wurzburg, Germany, so we were there for two years. Then we moved within Germany to Grafenwoehr for another four years. I was living in Germany and getting to travel around a bit.”
 

Brown recalls traveling overseas to Kaiserslautern, Germany to visit his family during holiday breaks as a student at Tarleton.
 

“During my freshman and sophomore year here I would go back and visit [my family] in Germany, and during winter and summer break,” Brown said.
 

Brown met his wife, Melanie Zoch, during his freshmen year of high school and married her in October of this year. 
 

“My wife is already commissioned,” Brown said. “She is an active duty medical officer, so she is finishing up her basic course right now.”
 

Brown is excited to begin his career in the Army alongside his spouse. 
 

“We will be moving to Fort Riley, Kansas here in December,” Brown said. “December 27 is when we take ownership of the house. We have already signed for our on-base house. It will be pretty fun.”
 

During his time as a Tarleton student and cadet, Brown became involved within the special teams the Corps offers, including the Ranger Challenge Team, which is a team that competes against other schools in infantry skills, physical capabilities, rifle marksmanship etc. 
 

“I was a member of the Ranger Challenge Team for two years,” Brown said. “I got to compete last year, and then I did it my freshmen year.”
 

Brown was not only a part of the Wainwright Rifle Team, a special drill and ceremony team that performs complex rifle spins and tricks, but was the commander of it his junior year.
 

“I have been a member of that [The Wainwright Rifle Team] the whole time I have been in the Corps,” Brown said. “I joined it my freshmen year and then I commanded it my junior year. Then this year I was just a training officer for it.”
 

During his senior year, Brown stepped into a new leadership role.
 

“This year I was the Army FTX (Field Training Exercises) Planner, so our big operation we do over three days out of Fort Walters and Mineral Wells, I was the lead for that, so I got to plan that operation. It was a lot of fun,” Brown said.
 

After planning and executing a successful three-day training exercise for many cadets within the Corps, Brown feels proud of the work he accomplished. 
 

“Anything where I got to be in charge and lead, was always rewarding,” Brown said. “Having the semester to work with our cadre, plan pretty much a company-level operation, get to execute it and see it and unfold before me, was probably the most rewarding thing that I have done, and it is the most close like job here that will resemble what we do in the Army as an officer, so it is great training for that.”
 

Operations officer, or Cadet Lt. Col. Jake Broadway, remembers meeting Brown for the first time years ago. 
 

“I met him freshman year when we were getting Texan IDs together,” Broadway said. “This was after we shaved our heads, so we were all bald and we were all waiting in this line, and Brown remembers talking to me, but I never talked to him because I was like, ‘Look at this loser. Look at this bald loser right next to me.’”
 

After a comical introduction to one another, a friendship between Broadway and Brown began to develop.
 

“When we actually started to be friends and everything, that was my sophomore year or junior year, when I moved out and started living with him,” Broadway said. “We have been dormmates since then.”
 

The two cadets have become close friends and have grown to know each other quite well.
 

“I think he is a great, great leader,” Broadway said. “He is very charismatic, which you do not see a whole lot in leaders. He is very intelligent.”
 

While his leadership skills make Brown stand out, so does his comedic personality. 
 

“I think there are a million funny stories that I have with that guy,” Broadway said. “And every day I make a new one with him.”
 

Homecoming week was always a special time for Brown.
 

“My best memories here were anything with homecoming,” Brown said. “Last year I got to help light the bonfire. I was not part of the actual ceremony, I was just in the back with the risk management guys. That was a lot of fun.” 
 

While new doors are opening for Brown, others are closing as his time at Tarleton comes to an end. 
 

“It has been pretty normal for four years having a place to wake up and come to every day,” Brown said. “So leaving that routine and the people here, it is going to be tough.”
 

Having an optimistic take on life and the many challenges that it brings is something that has made Brown stand out to his peers.
 

“I would definitely tell him to keep on being himself,” Broadway said. “Personally, I feel like I am a little bit more of a negative-thinking kind of guy. I am very easy to see the bad parts, but his character and his overall personality are that he is always seeing the good in everything he does. He is a great guy.”
 

Though leaving behind what he knows and loves is challenging, Brown is one step closer to beginning the life he has worked diligently for.