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Show N By PETE P SMITHSUTH and DONIELL MOJAZZA photo editor, and staff writer Everyday I sit in class and usually check online blogs and figure out what to eat for dinner. Thursday afternoons are different. This past semester, I've worked alongside USU ROTC cadets and officers as an embedded reporter. Facebook was not on my schedule as I ran alongside cadets as they trained to become United States' line of defense. ROTC, short for Reserve Officer Training Corps, is a program offered at USU. "The ROTC program is meant to prepare college students for the U.S. armed forces, " said Cadet Nick Thomas. The two- and four-year programs include military history, leadership development and national defense. In addition, tactical training, such as rescue missions, land navigation and survival training, is commonly done in the hot sun or bitter cold of Cache Valley. USU ROTC cadets train locally, ranging from Hyrum Dam, Logan Canyon and the HPER pool. * My view on the military service To describe my experience, I have to share that I come from a family where stereotypes about military service was biased. I gave in to the notion that the military is full of men with violent and egoistical means - with rifles no less. Cadet Corey Holmgren, a cadre helping to coordinate my tag-along, said he thinks the idea of the Army is sometimes misrepresented. "There is a lot that takes place before it ever escalates into an actual fight. A lot of the projects are building and humanitarian focused," Holmgren said. The Jim Bridger Challenge My involvement with the ROTC began when I followed cadets in the annual Jim Bridger Challenge, which took place during fall semester. The exercises presented physical and mental challenges to cadets, pushing them to their limits. "The exercises that we run push you to the physical limits, and at the same time require you to be a leader and make decisions," Thomas said. The challenge included a variety of realistic simulations, such as land navigation, downed pilot rescue and the river crossing. One simulation that showed a lot of the fundamentals of being in the ROTC was the Zodiac. The Zodiac is an exercise where cadets get into rubber rafts, paddle into the middle of Hyrum Dam, jump in the water, flip the rafts, then flip it back over. Flipping the raft is, by itself, a challenging endeavor but add freezing water, intensify the timed event and you have one extreme group activity. "From the outside, it looks absolutely crazy to get into a freezing cold lake, but in retrospect, you realize that the human body can still operate in that extreme condition," Thomas said. Another simulation, the river crossing, had cadets strap on to wires using carabiners to cross Logan River with their gears. Most of the cadets crossed just fine, but what impressed me the most is how they overcame adversity. I saw a cadet cross back and forth three times. The cadres ex- 1•6- _ . - -.11111=•■■.- 774mm plained to me that he was helping out the other team members and picked up the load. "You go through the training environment and the camaraderie in the military is exponentially greater than anything I've experience," Thomas said. "All because you have extreme fun together, and also, you have extreme suck together." ROTC at Camp Williams Two weekends ago, the USU's Army ROTC, along with Weber State University's Army ROTC, participated in a field-training exercise (FTX) at Camp Williams in Eagle Mountain. It was mandatory for the ROTC cadets to participate in the event. Casey Nelson, senior in psychology, is a four-year cadet. Nelson gave a brief rundown of the weekend's event: Thursday night, the cadets had a PCC, or precombat check. Everyone made sure they had the proper gear needed to successfully complete the training. When the gear check was done, there was a deployment briefing to go over the events of the weekend. Shortly after the briefing, the buses were loaded and headed to Camp Williams. Upon arrival, sleeping quarters were assign( eat). T next d. es cou brush. coordi and or naviga in a w( weapc a pap( neede, a 10k a 30- 1 move march not ne an unE in the I dets d. carryir |