students. The campus offers volleyball courts, a gym, a pool, tennis courts, an indoor basketball court, a student center, and many other amenities. Changes and modernizations are happening fast, with recently added residential dormitories and a new Corps of Cadets dorm scheduled for completion in early 2016. Texas A&M Maritime Academy The Texas A&M Maritime Academy' (TMA) is one of only seven United States maritime academies that train U.S. Merchant Marine officers, and the only one located on the Gulf of Mexico. The program provides an opportunity for cadets to learn how to maintain and operate unlimited-tonnage ocean-going vessels. Students sail aboard the TMA training ship and commercial ships during three summer cruises to gain practical experience in navigation, seamanship, and engineering operations. In addition, the cadets receive classroom instruction and hands-on training during the regular school semester. Training facilities include the training ship, simulators, diesel and steam labs, various small boats, davits, and other hands-on resources. At the culmination of their study, license option or strategic sealift officer program cadets are tested to become licensed as unlimited-tonnage third mates or third engineers (officers) in the U.S. Merchant Marine. This is per Title 46 Code of the Code of Federal Regulation Part 11. The academy also commissions reserve and active duty naval officers. History On January 26, 1962, a long sought-after idea of a Texas-based maritime academy came to fruition when the Texas Governor Price Daniel and the president of Texas A&M, General Earl Rudder, signed the agreement authorizing the Texas Maritime Academy. General Rudder subsequently named retired Navy Captain Bennett M. Dodson as the first superintendent of the Texas Maritime Academy. Monday, September 17, 1962, was to be the opening day, and Captain Dodson had put the first class of 23 "Saltwater Aggies" under the guidance of the first Marine Corps company at College Station. This was to inspire maritime cadets with a sense of discipline and tradition at sea. Dodson is quoted saying, "I wanted my students to get Marine Corps discipline and knowledge of Naval tradition during their early college life." The maritime cadets were assigned to Dorm 11 as Company I, 3rd Brigade, (I-3). After their freshman year at the main campus in College Station, the cadets were then moved to Galveston to complete their maritime-related classes. The academy operated between the two campuses for eight years, up to 1971. In the summer of 1963, as