esprit. The post-Vietnam years saw the Corps numbers decline and reorganization to a two-battalion sized regiment. In 1973, Virginia Tech was among the first Corps of Cadets in the nation to enroll women, assigning them to L Squadron. In 1975, the first female cadet was assigned to Band Company. In 1979, L Squadron was disbanded and female cadets were integrated into the line companies. In 1991, the Cadet dormitories became co-ed. 1980s and beyond The freshman "Rat System" converted to the "New Cadet System" in the fall of 1981. Naval ROTC was established in 1983. The cadet regiment expanded to a three-battalion structure in 1998, which grew to four in 2022. Today the Virginia Tech Corps of Cadets is one of six senior military colleges outside the five federal military academies. Virginia Tech is one of only three universities in the nation that maintains a full-time military environment within a larger civilian university; the others are Texas A&M and University of North Georgia. Since the Spanish–American War, the Corps has provided officers to the U.S. military. The valor of Corps alumni is legendary, with seven Medal of Honor recipients, and eighteen recipients of the nation's second highest award for valor, the Distinguished Service Cross or Navy Cross. The Corps exemplifies in many ways the University motto, Ut Prosim (That I May Serve). Structure and operations The Virginia Tech Corps of Cadets is a cadet-run organization, consisting of over 1,200 members (as of fall 2021), and is modeled on an Army infantry regiment structure. The Corps is supervised by a senior leadership staff who establish cadet regulations and enforce baseline guidance for the running of the Corps. The day-to-day corps activities, however, are run primarily by the cadets themselves. Current structure All companies are co-ed and integrated with members of all tracks offered within the Corps. When a cadet first joins the Corps, they are assigned to a smaller training company attached to its larger parent company. Following their freshman year, cadets are shuffled into a different company in which they will remain until they graduate from the Corps of Cadets. In most cases, a cadet's permanent company is in a different battalion than that of their freshman training company. In some companies, the freshmen section are often given their own nicknames such as TC 1-1 for Alpha Company freshmen, DEUCE DEUCE for Foxtrot freshman, and colloquially mini golf and little