Preacherman
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From the Laramie Boomerang (love that name! 
) ( http://www.laramieboomerang.com/news/more.asp?StoryID=104766 ):
Practice in the park
By Adam Gangelhoff
Boomerang Staff Writer
Cadet Jeremy Chuhralya watches as a passer-by walks his dog during ROTC training in Washington Park Wednesday afternoon.
The playground at Washington Park was ambushed Wednesday. Children who had gathered to run off some enegery did just that as they fled the scene screaming after the University of Wyoming ROTC had the area surrounded. Once the ROTC got their guy, they secured the area and the children were safe to return.
Every Wednesday afternoon, the junior cadets of the UW ROTC go to Washington Park to practice what they have learned in the classroom in what is called their Leadership Lab. Dressed in full fatigues, carrying backpacks and weapons, the cadets stick out in a park filled with joggers and children.
“They have two classes during the week, either Monday-Wednesday or Tuesday-Thursday. It’s an hour long, and they cover operations orders, which is basically how you brief the mission you are going to conduct,” Cadet Maj. Zach Busenbark said. “They go over how to actually conduct the mission itself. They go over how to brief the mission, the different parts of the mission, the different responsibilities and the personel within the mission.
“Then every Wednesday is our lab. It’s kind of like in chemistry class, you have a chemistry lab. It’s kind of the same thing. They come back here and demonstrate what they know, and that gives us the opportunity to correct them as they go.”
There are 62 cadets in the UW ROTC program, and 36 were out practicing on Wednesday. Very few were in ROTC in high school, but many of them are members of the National Guard, including several who are members of the 133rd Engineering Co. that just returned from Iraq. For the excercises, they split up into three squads, with two evaluators per squad and one Op-4, the enemy.
Busenbark is a senior along with the other leaders and most of the cadets are juniors with a few sophomores. The freshman practice by themselves as an introduction into the military. They cover small remedial tasks to get used to the process and they are then thrown into exercises their sophomore year, Busenbark said.
Some days the group does fun activities, next week they are playing dodgeball. Wednesday, they were doing point ambush.
The point ambush mission begins with the group walking over to their objective rally point, which is a base camp a short distance from the actual ambush area. They then move up and lay down their assault line and get everybody in place. Then one of the MS-4 cadets, a senior cadet, walks through imitating the enemy. The assault line then initiates the ambush and kills the enemy. Then they clear the EPW, enemy prisoner of war, destroy weapons and then pull back and reorganize.
All weapons used are fake. Some of them were real at one point but have since been retired. They have had the actions taken out and a rod placed down the barrel of the gun. The rocket launchers, called AT-4s, are built to be fired only once and the AT-4s the cadets were using have already seen their one shot come and go.
“The reason why we do infantry tactics at the platoon squad level, is that’s the easiest way to assess leadership,” Busenbark said. “It’s not just the tactics part, it’s operations orders, it’s land navigation, knowing how to use a map, knowing how to shoot, being physically fit, taking the PT test. So its four years of getting your degree, because you have to have at least your bachelor’s to become a second lieutenant and an officer. Hopefully they’ll all be officers some day.”
During the summer, the junior class goes to Fort Lewis, Washington to take part in a 33-day training cycle with all the other junior classes in the country. They are assigned a platoon and they do mock exercises in which they get graded on how well they complete an exercise, like the ambush mission.
All the training the cadets do prepares them for real-life action. Several members of the platoon have already seen action in Iraq and more could possibly be commissioned. The terrain of Washington Park may be the exact opposite of the terrain in Iraq, but the lessons these cadets are learning could be put to use anywhere.
) ( http://www.laramieboomerang.com/news/more.asp?StoryID=104766 ):Practice in the park
By Adam Gangelhoff
Boomerang Staff Writer
Cadet Jeremy Chuhralya watches as a passer-by walks his dog during ROTC training in Washington Park Wednesday afternoon.
The playground at Washington Park was ambushed Wednesday. Children who had gathered to run off some enegery did just that as they fled the scene screaming after the University of Wyoming ROTC had the area surrounded. Once the ROTC got their guy, they secured the area and the children were safe to return.
Every Wednesday afternoon, the junior cadets of the UW ROTC go to Washington Park to practice what they have learned in the classroom in what is called their Leadership Lab. Dressed in full fatigues, carrying backpacks and weapons, the cadets stick out in a park filled with joggers and children.
“They have two classes during the week, either Monday-Wednesday or Tuesday-Thursday. It’s an hour long, and they cover operations orders, which is basically how you brief the mission you are going to conduct,” Cadet Maj. Zach Busenbark said. “They go over how to actually conduct the mission itself. They go over how to brief the mission, the different parts of the mission, the different responsibilities and the personel within the mission.
“Then every Wednesday is our lab. It’s kind of like in chemistry class, you have a chemistry lab. It’s kind of the same thing. They come back here and demonstrate what they know, and that gives us the opportunity to correct them as they go.”
There are 62 cadets in the UW ROTC program, and 36 were out practicing on Wednesday. Very few were in ROTC in high school, but many of them are members of the National Guard, including several who are members of the 133rd Engineering Co. that just returned from Iraq. For the excercises, they split up into three squads, with two evaluators per squad and one Op-4, the enemy.
Busenbark is a senior along with the other leaders and most of the cadets are juniors with a few sophomores. The freshman practice by themselves as an introduction into the military. They cover small remedial tasks to get used to the process and they are then thrown into exercises their sophomore year, Busenbark said.
Some days the group does fun activities, next week they are playing dodgeball. Wednesday, they were doing point ambush.
The point ambush mission begins with the group walking over to their objective rally point, which is a base camp a short distance from the actual ambush area. They then move up and lay down their assault line and get everybody in place. Then one of the MS-4 cadets, a senior cadet, walks through imitating the enemy. The assault line then initiates the ambush and kills the enemy. Then they clear the EPW, enemy prisoner of war, destroy weapons and then pull back and reorganize.
All weapons used are fake. Some of them were real at one point but have since been retired. They have had the actions taken out and a rod placed down the barrel of the gun. The rocket launchers, called AT-4s, are built to be fired only once and the AT-4s the cadets were using have already seen their one shot come and go.
“The reason why we do infantry tactics at the platoon squad level, is that’s the easiest way to assess leadership,” Busenbark said. “It’s not just the tactics part, it’s operations orders, it’s land navigation, knowing how to use a map, knowing how to shoot, being physically fit, taking the PT test. So its four years of getting your degree, because you have to have at least your bachelor’s to become a second lieutenant and an officer. Hopefully they’ll all be officers some day.”
During the summer, the junior class goes to Fort Lewis, Washington to take part in a 33-day training cycle with all the other junior classes in the country. They are assigned a platoon and they do mock exercises in which they get graded on how well they complete an exercise, like the ambush mission.
All the training the cadets do prepares them for real-life action. Several members of the platoon have already seen action in Iraq and more could possibly be commissioned. The terrain of Washington Park may be the exact opposite of the terrain in Iraq, but the lessons these cadets are learning could be put to use anywhere.
