First Lieutenant Therrel Shane Childers Scholarship

The First Lieutenant Therrel Shane Childers Scholarship was initiated in 2003 by G. Quetin Finney, II, The Citadel Class of 1995, who raised funds to honor the memory of Lieutenant Childers, The Citadel Class of 2001, who was enrolled in the Marine Enlisted Commissioning Education Program (MECEP) and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in French. Assigned to the 1st Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, at Camp Pendelton, California, Childers was killed in combat in Iraq on March 21, 2003 – reportedly the first American casualty of Operation Iraqi Freedom. The scholarship will provide funds in the following order of preference: 1) Citadel students who are attending under the MECEP program; 2) a Citadel student who is the son or daughter of a MECEP graduate; or 3) a Citadel student who is a Marine Corps contract student and who is not attending The Citadel on an ROTC scholarship. The first award was made in 2006.