Sweetland moves up to counselor, becoming first woman to hold that title at Culver Military Academy

Tom Coyne

Oct 3 2025

Gretchen Sweetland said moving up to the position of being a counselor for Company C seemed like a natural progression after three years as a resident director, even though she knew Culver Military Academy had never had a female counselor before.

“I had the goal of being a counselor because I think it matched better with my skills as being a strong communicator with both parents and students,” Sweetland said.

Col. Mike Squires, CMA’s commandant of cadets, decided to add the position of resident director to CMA barracks three years ago to give cadets another adult to turn to for guidance, support, and instruction and to create a positive command climate in the barracks. Squires sees the counselor, resident director, military mentors and faculty barrack inspectors as unit command teams that work together to make sure everything runs smoothly. But when something goes wrong, he’s going to talk to the counselor.

“Because to me, ultimately, that’s the person who I think has overall command responsibility for the unit,” he said.

Squires said he didn’t have any doubt a woman could do a great job.

“I probably have a different perspective than other people because I’ve been around female leaders in the military my whole life. So for the last 30 years I’ve seen it work,” Squires said.

The resident director is the primary adult supervision in the barrack at night and on the weekend. The counselor is there during the day to help cadets with their daily activities and is the primary point of contact with parents and a student’s teachers, coaches and staff support personnel. As counselor, Sweetland works with 51 cadets.

Sweetland, a longtime teacher who is working on a master’s degree in education and psychology at Purdue University, said she thinks her skills better fit the position of counselor especially when it comes to dealing with parents and teachers.

“I think I’m able to see a student and a faculty member maybe not getting along. There may be a reason on both ends,” she said. “It’s not always the teacher. It’s not always the student. Part of it is that sometimes students are still learning to communicate with adults. They are still children.”

She said that she knows even though they are young men, they are still developing and sometimes adults have to give them some space to be a child.

Sweetland said she knew when she applied for the position she wondered in the back of her mind if being a woman would be an obstacle.

“But in one of the interviews, one of my colleagues said, ‘Just be yourself.’ At that moment I knew I had enough to offer, to just be myself,’ ” she said.

Counselor Gretchen Sweetland speaks to cadets at a Company C meeting, (Photo by Tom Coyne)

Sweetland was not welcomed by cadets as a resident director three years ago in Battery C. It wasn’t because she was a female. CMA had never had resident directors before and some cadets weren’t happy with the change.

“They weren’t necessarily excited or supportive to have a resident director. So my whole goal was to win over the seniors or to somehow have the seniors see me as a useful role and not just as a babysitter, or a grown up in the building, but someone who they could turn to,” she said.

In early October she noticed the boys were all whispering.

“I said, ‘Are you ready for an adult?’ And at that moment, the seniors said, ‘Yes, we are ready for an adult.’ And they did need an adult perspective. At that moment I knew I was headed in the right direction,” she said. “They were ready to receive adult advice.”

She continued to gain the trust of the cadets throughout the year. Sweetland said she enjoyed the relationships she was able to build with them. She moved to Company C last year.

Squires said the fact Sweetland had worked under two of his best counselors in Tom Smith and Mo Morales also helped her.

"She clearly stood out as the right candidate," he said. “Her care and development of those students is clear, and it was clear in her work as a resident director that she was going beyond just counting heads. She had relationships and helped them solve problems and helped them grow and mature under her tutelage as an R.D. I knew that would translate well in the counselor role.”

Sweetland said no one has come out and told her they are against females being counselors for CMA students, but people have let her know they oppose female counselors for CMA.

Max Grundberg ’26, Company C unit commander, said the cadets were surprised when Morales moved to a different unit but quickly adjusted. He said he has a great relationship with Sweetland and she gives the unit leadership room to lead on their own.

“She helps us lead, but we are the ones leading,” he said. “So the officers and the other leaders love this atmosphere because it gives us hands-on leadership experience. She doesn’t micromanage. She lets us figure it out on our own, but she’s always there to help with questions. Whenever I have an idea it is so easy to run it past her.”

Sweetland said she likes how the Company C leaders have taken ownership of the unit.

“I made it clear that they were running this unit. It was given to them by the cadets who came before them, and it’s their job to hold it up and give Company C to the new cadets. That to me was a perspective that they have taken such ownership over,” she said.

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