Jack Thacker

Knowledge of military history is a key component to the success of U.S. Army officers.

Lt. Col. Scott Walker, director of the Western Kentucky University ROTC program, said he appreciates WKU history professor Jack Thacker’s insight each time Thacker teaches ROTC students military history.

“It is critical to study what happened 10 years ago or 1,000 years ago in military history,” Walker said. “It is still applicable to today’s battlefield. They have a tremendous opportunity to learn from Mr. Thacker.”

WKU hosts Army at 11 a.m. Saturday in football at Houchens-Smith Stadium. There are special activities planned between the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., and WKU ROTC, Walker said.

Lt. Gen. Robert Caslen Jr., superintendent of the U.S. Military Academy, will join WKU President Gary Ransdell at midfield Saturday for the coin toss. Walker said Caslen will also participate in an 8 a.m. breakfast at Downing Student Union.

One connection the two higher education institutions share is WKU’s Thacker taught military courses at West Point in the 1970s and 1980s. Thacker said this week it was part of an expanded effort to bring military history to the service academy.

Thacker, 74, specializes in European history since 1815, military history and diplomatic history at WKU. He said the way to approach teaching military history is to first teach diplomatic history – the discussions that take place between nations until they go to war. He said it is important to study how military commanders have operated in overseeing their troops.

“We opened a program at West Point, then I was brought back a second year to teach college professors how to teach military history,” Thacker recalled.

Thacker said he returned to West Point to teach several times after that. “It was a wonderful experience,” he said. “I also taught Army officers at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., how to teach military history.”

When he first started teaching at West Point, Thacker worried how the program would be accepted. 

“I was worried that I would tell them something that they already knew,” he said.

Thacker said he hasn’t been back to West Point since 1989, but his involvement with military history at WKU has stretched over several years.

“I’ve got students I taught in ROTC that are now retired generals,” Thacker said, adding that he had a student recently come up to him who said Thacker taught his grandfather.

One of the aspects of teaching military history is understanding the nomenclature used in the military, particularly when the audience is basically comprised of civilians, such as college undergraduates, he said. Thacker tries to point out contemporary references in teaching history to connect the past and present.

Thacker said the first time he taught military history at Western, he was given first-class treatment.

They sent a car to take Thacker from his office to where ROTC was on the campus.

— Follow education reporter Chuck Mason on Twitter at twitter.com/bgdnschools or visit bgdailynews.com.