ROTC

At 3 a.m. on Nov. 3, Florida Tech Army ROTC cadets began preparing for the land navigation portion of their field training exercises. By 3:45 a.m, they set out onto the dark course.

The goal of the FTX, as field training exercises are referred to within ROTC, was to get cadets into a field environment where they could apply what they have learned, according to senior John Panik, the S3 of Panther Battalion.

The S3 is a leadership role that requires a significant commitment to the planning of Panther Battalion operations like FTX.

The FTX were cadet-led, with minimal intervention from the cadre, or the complement of instructors responsible for training cadets.

Panik said that this self-led method prepares cadets in the third year and beyond with direct experience to prepare them for their leadership roles as commissioned officers. First and second year cadets learn from them.

Lieutenant Colonel Jimmy Crook, a military instructor with Army ROTC, elaborated on the requirements of the land navigation exercise.

“They had to find points in the night, turn in their points and check them,” Crook said. “And as the light came up, they had to find more points in the daylight.”

Panik said that land navigation is also an exercise in self-discipline, requiring cadets to maintain precision when plotting and staying on their paths.

Crook explained that in exercises like these, cadets are to treat instances of failure or incomplete success as learning opportunities. An after action report acts as a forum for cadets and cadre to go over successes and failures as a group, then formulate plans to improve.

“They saw where their errors were, so they had that immediate feedback of ‘This is what I did wrong, and this is what I can do better next time,’” said Sergeant First Class Jeremy Brandon, a military instructor with Army ROTC.

“It gave them a boost of confidence,” Brandon said. “They know what they need to do, and they also know how to go back and correct the errors that they made.”

Panik said that one of the duties of a leader is to address issues or challenges efficiently and correctly.

High temperatures presented one of these challenges on the morning of Nov. 2.

“We found it challenging to mitigate the heat,” Crook said, adding that cadets had a substantial amount of equipment to carry. “They had approximately 35 to 50 pounds on their back.”

They addressed the heat by taking a one-hour rest. Panik said that he came up with a plan to use the time wisely, bouncing it off of other leaders and putting it into place.

He emphasized the importance of being “able to keep a level head, not get frustrated, remain calm and being able to immediately start focusing on resolving the issue.”

“It’s one of those skills that’s hard to develop unless you’re in that situation,” Panik said.

Crook said multiple schools will meet for the spring semester’s field training exercises, which will focus on a platoon formation. The fall exercises focused on squad formation.

This training progression is targeted to cadets in the third year of the program.

“By the time we get to the end of the spring, we’ve put together all the pieces they’ll need to be successful at [cadet summer training] at Fort Knox,” Brandon said.

Crook explained that having multiple schools meet tests cadets’ ability to lead in a variety of situations.

“It gets easy to lead the same people,” Crook said. “It’s a challenge when you have to lead new people.”

“The [senior year] is almost like an internship in leadership,” Brandon said. “We’re giving them a job to do where they are putting into practice all the things we’ve been teaching them up to that point, and they have the responsibility of guiding and leading.”

This is intended to prepare cadets to be a commissioned lieutenant who is a “trained and ready” leader.

“A cadet in this program knows that our country is at war,” Crook said. “They know, upon graduation, they are going to serve in the Army. They know more than likely, they will serve in a combat area.”

He emphasized that the applications of their skills are real, and that their decision making will matter.

“They know that the skills that they’re learning, in a field training exercise today, for our seniors, could be six months from now when they’re on the battlefield,” Crook said.

While college students’ summer plans often consist of vacations or summer classes, Florida Tech Army ROTC students had another atypical break.

They completed rigorous training camps and
internships, traveled with cultural programs and attended specialized schools like Airborne School or Air Assault School.

Isiah Mossiah, a senior studying molecular biology, completed advanced camp at Fort Knox in Kentucky.

The camp was a 31-day training course Mossiah described as “a culmination of our previous three years of ROTC training.”

Cadetcommand.army.mil states that the mission of advanced camp is to assess a cadet’s potential to serve as a commissioned officer. It lists highlights of the training event, including first aid, a field leader’s reaction course and tactics training.

Mossiah said that cadets are put into platoons of 40-45 people, and are constantly evaluated by cadres—the officers responsible for the training of cadets.

He discussed field training exercises, explaining that the first is cadreled, while the others were completed independently for purposes of evaluation.

They also completed road marches of up to 12 miles.

“You have a 35 pound ruck on your back, and you have to make a certain time requirement,” Mossiah said.

He added that many exercises are pass or fail, and that cadets must pass to continue in the course.

Cadets are ranked at the end of the training.

This ranking influences their placement in the Army later on.

Mossiah said the training gave him valuable experience in communication with a diverse group.

He said it gave him the opportunity to compare and contrast his leadership skills with others, then use that to communicate more effectively across a group.

Sergeant First Class Arsenio Rodriguez, a military instructor with Florida Tech Army ROTC, said cadets completed summer training in Africa and South America through the Cultural Understanding and Leadership Program.

According to cadetcom-mand.army.mil, CU&LP
completely immerses cadets into another culture, improving their cultural awareness.

“They get to work with cadets that are in the same role as they are, but just in a different country, and they get to experience a day in the life of how they function and what their training consists of,” Rodriguez said.

He said some cadets attended Airborne School, a three week course which includes military parachutist training.

Others attended Air Assault School, a 10 day course which Sergeant First Class Jeremy Brandon, a military instructor with Florida Tech Army ROTC, described as “physical and mental.”

“You learn all about the capabilities and limitations of all the different rotary wing aircraft,” Brandon said.

goarmy.com states that the course is designed to prepare soldiers for missions that call for the use of transportation and assault helicopters.

Brandon said he thinks the biggest benefit of summer training is the real-world experience, where cadets are able to apply the theory they have learned, and “work through problems in a way that you can’t really simulate in a classroom or laboratory environment.”

He said these concrete experiences prepare students for the responsibility and depth of knowledge required of a lieutenant before they are commissioned into the Army.

Going forward into the fall semester, Rodriguez said cadets will gain more out-of-classroom experience in field training exer-
cises.

“They get to spend two nights out in the woods,” he said. “It lets us evaluate them as leaders and how they perform under stress.”

The field training exercises are planned for the first week of November.

ROTC

Cadets test their leadership skills in field training exercises

Florida Tech ROTC’s atypical summer