What are you planning to do this Summer? The GKB is off and running and will be spread across the globe making things happen. It’s always an exciting time as our cadets head out to challenge themselves in many different places and many different ways.
We are starting this week to send the cadets that just completed their MS III/junior year to the Leadership Development and Assessment Course (LDAC), also known as Warrior Forge and a couple of our cadets just finishing their MS II/sophomore year to the Leader’s Training Course (LTC). Both of these training events are the type of hands on leadership training and evaluation that make Army ROTC leadership training unique.
Warrior Forge is essentially the “final exam” of Army ROTC training. The cadets who are headed out to LDAC will be tested on their land nav skills, physical fitness, tactical knowledge, and leadership abilities. They will each receive 6 blue card evaluations in accordance with LDP HANDBOOK – 1 Apr 2011
The Cadets headed to LTC are meeting the requirements of the Basic Course (normally the first two years of Army ROTC class). These Cadets entered the program late and the training they will attend will be a combination of evaluation and marketing, as the Cadet gets the opportunity to see what the Army has to offer and the LTC cadre are seeing if the Cadet has what it takes to enter the program. Our candidates this year are fully prepared and I expect all of them to be ready to contract when they return.
Along with these training courses we have Cadets headed to Airborne, Air Assault, and CULP trips. This year we were able to get an Airborne slot. Cadet Tanner Jones is there as I type. We got a number of Air Assault slots in a number of venues, and we will have Cadets learning to work with helicopters most of the summer. We have already had Cadet O’Donnell journey to Tunisia for CULP and we will have 5 more Cadets headed to places like Georgia (the country), Cape Verde, Peru, and Tanzania. 6 Cadets in all will experience another culture this year.
Mr. Vielhauer and Mr. Wash, two of our cadre, are at LDAC this summer, and we will have cadre and cadets at New York Boy’s State this year.
Some people think things slow down when summer arrives in ROTC land. Nothing could be further from the truth.
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