Photo By Staff Sgt. Daniel Stoutamire | Andrew Goebel, a first-year cadet with the University of Kansas ROTC program,...... read more read more
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FORT RILEY, Kan. — In preparation for their future roles as Army platoon leaders, nearly 500 Reserve Officer Training Corps cadets from six schools throughout Kansas, Missouri and Nebraska braved the elements to spend four days in the field here April 3-6, honing their leadership and individual skills in a realistic training environment.
The cadets — from Kansas State University, the University of Kansas, Missouri Western State University, Pittsburg State University, the University of Nebraska and the University of Central Missouri — received branch orientation briefs from Soldiers with 2nd Armored Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division before heading to the field to conduct patrol lanes, day and night land navigation and the Fort Riley confidence course.
“This weekend’s focus is to get used to working with different schools (and) to get experience with a different group of people,” Master Sgt.Eric Bunuan, the senior military instructor for the University of Kansas. “(The cadets) get a little bit of extra land navigation training, they get a little bit of (command-and-control) training.”
Many of the cadets were in their first year in the program and had never experienced this type of field work before and had a new appreciation for the comforts of everyday life.
“I hope to have a better understanding of patrol lanes, I don’t really know anything about them yet,” Andrew Goebel, a first-year cadet from the University of Kansas who hopes to enter the field artillery branch, said. “One thing is, we really take for granted being warm and inside, but you come out here, it really makes you appreciate the little things when you get back.”
Helping cadre such as Bunuan were senior cadets, who oversaw groups of their peers as they conducted group movement drills.
“Mainly we’re teaching these guys how to control a formation,” Deaven Miller, a senior cadet from the University of Kansas who has been designated as a future infantry officer, said. “Out here, we’re throwing them out in this new environment, with (bad) weather, but we’re doing it and making it work.”
Miller, like Bunuan, said a major point of emphasis is getting the cadets to work well with people they don’t already know.
“Back at their schools, they all know each other, they’re Facebook friends and all that,” he said. “We’re getting to experience working with other people, other cadets, so when they go to (the Leader Development and Assessment Course) they’ll be prepared to work with people they don’t know.”
| Date Taken: | 04.08.2014 |
| Date Posted: | 07.01.2014 10:32 |
| Story ID: | 134937 |
| Location: | FORT RILEY, KANSAS, US |
| Web Views: | 93 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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