Savannah State University

Savannah State University participates in the Eagle Battalion, a multi-school ROTC program hosted by Georgia Southern University that has won the Army's MacArthur Award four times — 2009, 2010, 2015, and 2016 — recognizing it among the nationally elite programs across those evaluation cycles. The Eagle Battalion serves as the Green to Gold counterpart program for both Fort Stewart and Hunter Army Airfield, the two installations anchoring the 3rd Infantry Division's presence in coastal Georgia, giving SSU cadets direct contact with one of the Army's most-deployed heavy brigades. The program is recognized as one of the largest producers of Army nurse officers in the 6th Brigade, and Savannah State's nursing program feeds directly into this pipeline — an unusually strong specialty niche for an HBCU. Savannah State holds the distinction of being Georgia's oldest public HBCU, founded in 1890, and its coastal location gives the city a military character shaped by Army and Coast Guard presence that permeates student life. Cross-enrollment from SSU into Georgia Southern's hosted program means cadets sometimes train at Statesboro facilities 50 miles away — a commute cadets navigate and find worth the program's competitive standing and MacArthur pedigree. For nursing students at an HBCU looking at Army medicine as a career track, Savannah State's Eagle Battalion connection is one of the most direct pipelines available at any HBCU.