The Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) began with the National Defense Act of 1916. The University
of
Pittsburgh established a Department of Military Science of Tactics in March of 1918 and was one of the first
universities to offer the ROTC program to students. The department initially only offered infantry tactics
instruction intended mainly to train able-bodied men in military drill. Shortly after, the Carnegie
Institute of Technology (now Carnegie Mellon University) also established an Army ROTC program in 1919.
Initially, Army ROTC programs were focused on branch-specific training. The University of Pittsburgh
focused
primarily on training Coastal Artillery and Motor Transport units and did so through World War I and into
World War II. In 1943 the program expanded and began commissioning officers into Antiaircraft Artillery, the
Army Corps of Engineers and the Medical and Quartermaster fields of the Army. Interestingly enough, during
World War II, the Pittsburgh area produced more steel for weapons, ships, and planes than all the allied
countries combined, earning the city the title “The Arsenal of Democracy.”
In 1956, a general Military Science program of instruction was established at the University of
Pittsburgh,
ending the branch-specific training. This transition was instituted so that ROTC programs could focus on
developing scholar athlete leaders first. To this day, Army ROTC continues to follow a general Military
Science curriculum and offers commissions in all Army branches.
On 1 July 1975, the Department of the Army fused the ROTC programs at Carnegie Mellon University,
the
University of Pittsburgh, and Duquesne University to form the Pittsburgh Senior ROTC Instruction Group. Between 1922 and 1975 these
two programs commissioned more than 5,000 officers into the Army.
Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, the Panther Battalion Army ROTC program expanded to partner with other
area
universities within the Pittsburgh area. These universities included Duquesne University, Washington &
Jefferson University, California University of Pennsylvania, Robert Morris University, Franciscan University
of Steubenville and many others.
In 2008, the University of Pittsburgh Army ROTC program changed its name from the “Panther Battalion”
to the
“Three Rivers Battalion” in order better reflect the diverse and widespread nature of the battalion that now
encompassed 20 different partner and affiliate universities. Additionally, this seemed fitting based on
Pittsburgh’s location at the junction where the Allegheny and Monongahela Rivers come together to form the
Ohio River, and the proximity of all of the schools to one of the Three Rivers.
Presently, the Three Rivers Battalion consists of 200+ cadets and 15 cadre at the University of
Pittsburgh
and its partner universities.