Early in his final year on campus, Middleton was once again pressed by the university president to retire from the army and go to work for the college. Again, Middleton could not do that, and began looking for a suitable follow-on assignment. Not having been overseas in over sixteen years, he put in a request for duty in the Philippines. He finished his tenure at LSU in the summer of 1936, having overseen the increase in students completing the ROTC program from about 500 to over 1700 cadets.