Brockport Removes Army ROTC Officers After Exercise Con­tro­versy

BROCKPORT, N.Y. -- There is a big shakeup in The College at Brockport's Army ROTC Program as the school and U.S. Army investigate possible wrongdoing. The investigation was sparked after the college learned that a dozen students in the Army ROTC program were hospitalized following a training exercise.

“This particular training regimen we’re not sure they’ve done this before because we’ve never have anything like this happen before,” said Chief Communication Officer David Mihalyov.

The training in question sent 12 of the 55 cadets to the hospital. The incident spanned over the course of a week, starting on Monday, Nov. 9.

School leaders wouldn’t describe the training but, The Stylus, the college's student-run newspaper, reported Tuesday that it included a pair of mile runs split up by pull-ups, pushups and squats.

Mihalyov said the students didn’t go to the hospital until the end of the weeklong event.

“It was over the course of several days that the symptoms showed and they either went to the hospital on their own or our health center reached out to them and asked them some questions and sometime suggested they go to the hospital for observation," he said. 

Lieutenant Colonel Christopher Bringer and Master Sergeant Mark Breyak, the two top officers with the ROTC program, have since been dismissed.

“We wanted them to be removed because we wanted the students to be in a safe environment and it was the Army’s decision to permanently take them off, out of this position,” Mihalyov said.

Despite the ongoing investigation, the program is moving forward. Major Rodney Clark has been named as the interim head of the ROTC program and the U.S. Army is looking to permanently place two more people with the program. 

“I don’t think it will impact future students coming here and I hope if they look at they’ll see the college was concerned about the student’s health and welfare and was decisive in how quickly we took action when we learned there was an issue," Mihalyov said. "With new leaders coming in they’ll do a fine job of recruiting students."