By design, they don’t stick out. Each boot falls in line with the rest. Each uniform is exact in what it displays. Each cadet trains alongside the others, lives alongside the others — and ultimately takes care of the others.

Fifty years ago this fall, Texas A&M’s Corps of Cadets took a bold new step.

A class of 51 cadets became the first women to join the Corps, falling in step with the century of Aggies that came before them and becoming the beginning of the line of all who would follow. Half a century later, just under a fifth of the Corps is now women. These cadets — from Reveille’s handler to commanding officer for Parsons Mounted Cavalry and every role in between — continue what the trailblazers first started decades ago in 1974.

Leah, A-2, early morning

The sun has barely risen above the Quad, but Leah Bechert is already up — and focused. The biomedical sciences freshman is attempting to slick back the perfect cadet bun in the mirror of her dorm after breakfast. She’s starting to get the hang of it after two months, cutting her time from an hour to just 10 minutes. 

“Gel is your best friend — and hairspray,” Bechert said. “It kind of sucks because some days you wash your hair, and you’re like, ‘Okay, I don’t want to put a bunch of gel on my hair,’ but you have to, especially if you want it to stay down. ”

After waking up around 5 a.m. every day, Berchert has to prepare for formation, train with her outfit, head to breakfast and get her class material together before her 8 a.m. lecture. But Bechert said it’s not as bad as it sounds; it’s just a matter of getting into the groove.

“You kind of psych yourself out for the most part,” Bechert said. “Then you get there, and you realize, ‘Okay, it wasn’t as bad as I thought it was going to be.’ The PT is not as bad as it seems. They definitely challenge us physically. However, they encourage you at the same time.”

From using fake rifles on the drill field during Army lab to crafting fish spurs for the first time, Bechert said while being a fish is different, it’s more fun than she thought it’d be. 

“Even though this year definitely is more challenging, I think it teaches you a lot about yourself and who you are,” Bechert said. “… Sometimes you’ll feel out of place, especially because in the Corps, you’re an outsider to everyone else because you have a different experience. But I think having strong leaders, especially strong female leaders to look up to, definitely helps.”

Olivia, SQ-20, midday

Over on the Fiddler’s Green, Olivia Baptiste is busy overseeing the Parsons Mounted Cavalry. Dedicated to becoming a veterinarian, the biomedical sciences senior spends five days a week feeding and caring for the over 70 horses and mules, not to mention the roughly 300 other “cav jocks” that call Parsons home. Although the job is intimidating, it doesn’t scare Baptiste away.

“There’s so much, and you don’t want to be the one to mess it up,” Baptiste said. “What we do is very dangerous. You’re taking 73 1500-pound animals through a crowd of 500 … 1,000 people … There’s definitely lots of pressure in the sense of it’s such an incredible opportunity. They represent what I truly believe is the best part of the Corps, and have what I think is the best opportunities to get people — in terms of leadership — actually doing things that are impactful and seeing the results of your action.”

Currently, half the cavalry leadership team is female led with Baptiste being the unit’s third ever female commanding officer, along with her XO — the detachment executive officer, the second in command — making them the first female CO-XO group. 

“I was like, ‘Well, what are people going to think about a half female command team?’ Baptiste said. “And Chaz, who was the CO last year, just told me, ‘Pick the best people for the job. It doesn’t matter if they’re women or if they’re men. Just pick the best people for the job.’ I think we kind of took that into tryouts. We looked and said, ‘We have a lot of females,’ and it’s almost half and half — which compared to the Corps it’s about a fifth. So we’ve got a lot of girls out there.”

Madison, A-1, afternoon

While Baptiste tends to the horses, Madison Cronin, the brigade sergeant major of A-1, trains for the Ranger Challenge. A part of the first outfit created when A&M was founded, Cronin prepares daily for the infantry field she aspires to be in, physically training more than almost anybody else in the Corps for the competitions — especially the Sandhurst Military Skills Competition at the United States Military Academy at West Point.

“In between each event, you have to ruck with 25 to 35 pounds, like one to two miles in between each event,” Cronin said. “By the end of the day you’ve done like over 20 miles of just rucking and a lot of physical stuff.”

The animal science junior plans to stay hands-on by serving in the U.S. Army after graduation. Growing up in Arkansas, she said her passion came from growing familiar with veterans in the area, saying specifically she felt like the infantry fit her personality best. 

“When I joined the Corps, it was a very deliberate of a decision,” Cronin said. “I graduated high school a year early, so everything that I was doing was kind of new and strange … I researched a ton, especially because I was coming out of state to Texas and A&M, and so it was like, I looked up the Corps. I was like, ‘What does the Corps do? What is it like?’”

Her uniform is adorned with patches and cords featuring accomplishments ranging from the Ranger Challenge, awards, a shooting badge, academics and even the Army Airborne School. She admits she can’t stay away from the action too long, always buzzing to be back in her element.

“The Corps is my favorite place around here,” Cronin said. “I love it … Every time I come back, it’s like a breath of fresh air. It’s like, ‘Yes — this is my place.’ This is where I love to be. There’s only a couple weeks in the summer where I’m happy to be back home. And then I get tired of sitting around, and I don’t get to see my buddies.”

Sarah, E-2, lights out

It’s the end of a long day, and Sarah DeLacerda needs some Reveille love. As one of the mascot handlers, DeLacerda walks to her dorm, stopping by the other two handlers’ room before stealing Rev after a particularly tiring stint of organic chemistry. The rough collie curls up in her favorite spot — DeLacerda’s pillow — and quickly falls asleep.

“Sometimes she’ll be sitting in my room, and I’m still like, ‘Wow. That’s the mascot of A&M,’” DeLacerda said. “I’m from Louisiana. I’m not even Texan. This isn’t even my state, but I love this girl so much. It’s just crazy as an out of state person, as a girl, all that stuff, that I’m able to take care of her.”

DeLacerda’s outfit, E-2, is the part of the Corps officially in charge of Reveille and her activities. Three sophomores are chosen each year to be her handlers, and it wasn’t until 2018 that one of them was a woman.

“E-2 was all male up until 2017, so it’s still relatively new to me and my sophomore class,” DeLacerda said. “The juniors in E-2 right now, the girls — there’s only four of them. They’re still in the first 10, and then my class will be in the first 17. It’s crazy to me that, for all of E-2, one of the oldest outfits on the Quad, and yet I’m still in the first 20 girls.”

Now, the Queen of Aggieland is a regular part of DeLacerda’s everyday life. In her dorm, she still keeps a photo from the first time she met Reveille, back at an event with her family as a freshman.

“I waited in line to get a picture with the same dog that slept on my bed this summer,” DeLacerda said. “And it’s just a full circle. That picture is on my corkboard right beside a selfie we had from our first event together. There’s me waiting in line to see her, and then me getting a little selfie with her in the backseat of my buddy’s car.”

Being Rev’s handler makes DeLacerda one of the most visible members of the Corps, something she doesn’t take lightly. She said her favorite thing is using her position to make things around slightly brighter.

“When you’re with Rev, you forget some people haven’t ever seen her,” DeLacerda said. “They go through all of it, all four years, and graduate. I had one girl say that she did grad school, got her whole doctorate, did everything, never got to meet Rev and then she met Rev when Rev was with me. It’s stuff like that that just makes people’s day. She brings so much joy to people.”

Being a woman in E-2 is new — DeLacerda has met all but four of them since the oldest female members of the outfit are in their mid-twenties — but DeLacerda said she carries the traditions just the same.

“Being in the Corps as a girl, honestly, I don’t feel treated differently,” DeLacerda said. “You’re still waking up at the same time, wearing the same uniform, going through all that stuff, but you’re doing it as a girl. And I feel like it’s a big respect thing. I have a ton of respect for the girls who have been through E-2. I couldn’t even imagine being that first class.”

This story was originally published on The Battalion on October 24, 2024.