Military training made its first official appearance on campus with the initiation of the Student Army Training Corps during the latter stages of World War I.
During World War II, Springfield State Teachers’ College (as MSU was called then) participated in the Air Corps Cadet Training Program from February 1944 to June 1945.
The third and present phase of military training at Missouri State University started with the activation of the ROTC Detachment in July 1952. The contract for the ROTC Program provided for annual production of not less than twenty-five officers.
The first regularly scheduled Annual Federal Inspection was conducted on 1 May 1953. Soon after, the ROTC band was organized under the direction of the Music Department.
Company “L” of the Pershing Rifles was organized as a Drill Team in 1952 and was chartered into the National Society in 1963. The Rifle and Pistol Club was organized during the Fall Semester of 1955. The University Rifle Team also was established in 1955 and was sanctioned by the NCAA in 1986. In 1985, the MSU Military Science Department assumed sponsorship of the University’s Trap and Skeet Club.