The currently unfilled position was vacated by Edward ""Mac"" Coffman, who taught ""U.S. Military History"" at UW-Madison every semester from 1961 until 1992. Col. James Seidule, chief of the military history division at the United States Military Academy in West Point, N.Y., told The Daily Cardinal that Coffman led one of the top programs in the country.
Coffman came to Wisconsin after the university incorporated a voluntary ROTC program that required all ROTC-enlisted freshmen and sophomore males to take his course. At the time, about 225 to 250 students took Coffman's course. By the time he retired, his classes maxed out at about 110 students—but he said ROTC students were less than 10 percent of the class population.
Today, there are 70 to 75 UW-Madison students in ROTC, according to university assistant professor of military science, Major Rio Ripmaster. Those students are offered a course called ""American Military History,"" provided only in the ROTC program.
The topic is also still alive for non-ROTC students at UW-Madison. ""The Vietnam Wars,"" taught by UW-Madison history professor Al McCoy, is a prime example of a course with military history characteristics, but the class is not defined as a military history course.
McCoy said he receives at least 30 to 40 e-mails per semester from students who want to get in the course after it has filled up. According to the course syllabus, subjects taught include weaponry, political and economic factors.
But military history does not only deal with strategies of war—it is a holistic focus.
""Armies are people armed,"" McCoy said. ""In order to understand it, you have to understand the personal relationship [between soldiers, families and friends].""
