re: Is a&m actually a military academy?

All Land Grant colleges were required to have mandatory military training for first and second year male students for 100 years. Since southern states were a few years late to the Land Grant system.....(Civil War).....compulsory ROTC ended at most SEC Land
Grants in the late 1960s. It ended at my alma mater after my sophomore year. But because I was an idealistic gung-ho patriot ......with a low number in that first ever draft lottery......I stayed in for a commission and 2nd Lieutenant pay.