ROTC hits the lake for combat training
Factions practice battles, work to disarm imaginary nuclear bomb
A field leadership exercise used fake weapons, but real challenges, to test Air Force ROTC underclassmen and help them develop skills necessary for future situations.
Monday, October 22nd, 2007
Crawling through the woods, the blue faction crouched to the ground, ready to fire, when the group noticed three members of the black faction approaching.
Tanner Popp, Hoxie sophomore, contemplates how he would treat the wounds that the Field Training Preparation commander assigned to John Sebes, Lansing freshman, at an ROTC leadership training excercise Saturday afternoon near Clinton lake. The commanders assigned wounds after each battle based on the technique and position of the cadets during the practice combat.
“BANG BANG BANG,” they shouted as the black faction charged toward them. The black faction shouted back and threw a grenade.
Of course, their M-16s were only rubber, and the grenade was a sock filled with flour, but this was an opportunity for the Air Force ROTC to practice a combat situation in their FLX, or field leadership exercise, Saturday at Clinton Lake.
The freshmen and sophomores split into two teams — the blue faction and the red faction — each with the goal of reaching the nuclear weapon (a cardboard box spray painted orange, containing a few rocks) from a plane that was shot down. The juniors and seniors made up the black faction, which attempted to attack the two teams on their way to the weapon.
“The Air Force is seeing a more combat-oriented role,” Ben Martin, Topeka senior and Athletics Officer, said. “We basically put a semester’s worth of work into putting this together.”
The main goal of FLX was to help the freshmen and sophomores develop leadership skills.
“The underclassmen don’t know what’s going on, but we give them a job to do and they go out and do it,” Garrett Kohl, Olathe senior and CAMO for the blue faction, said.
The teams each received a briefing before they left for Clinton Lake. They received their mission, a map of the area, information about the weather and safety precautions regarding spiders and poison ivy. They had also trained for a day with the Army ROTC to help them with land navigation.
After each encounter with the black faction, the CAMOs, or Combat Assistant Management Officers, upperclassmen who went along with each team, gave the factions a little guidance and told them which teammates were injured.
In the blue faction’s first battle, two team members received shrapnel wounds in their arms and another had a bullet wound to the abdomen because he wasn’t close enough to the ground. Each wounded person lay down and the team’s medics told the CAMOs how to treat the wound. If they did so correctly, the wounded team member was instantly revitalized.
The teams, wearing camouflage and face paint, crawled most of the half mile to the weapon, trying to be silent and using hand motions to signal each other.
In the final battle at the site of the nuclear weapon, the blue faction defeated the red faction, and one blue team member had to solve a sudoku to disarm the bomb.
The sudoku was one of the ways the CAMOs tried to make the training day fun. The CAMOs’ code names were all types of bears, including papa bear, yogi, bear shaker and Kodiak bear.
“The leadership aspect we take seriously, but as far as running around in the woods on a Saturday, we want them to have fun,” Evan Bergstrom, Apple Valley, Minn., junior and CAMO for the blue faction, said.
In the end, the blue faction had a few fatalities after being attacked by the red faction on its way back, but the blue team successfully carried the nuclear weapon all the way back to where the training started.
— Edited by Tara Smith
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