An explosion went off in the distance as Hannah Baer ’12 called her troops to a huddle in the woods at Mt. Pleasant, five miles from Cornell. Several cadets took notes as the junior squad leader mapped out an impending ambush on an enemy unit. Meanwhile, military science professors evaluated Baer’s plan of action.The entire operation was part of Cornell’s Army ROTC spring field training exercises, an end-of-semester evaluation of the juniors in the program. In the evaluation, juniors led tactical units, comprised of freshmen and sophomore cadets, in simulations of military operations.Approximately 100 cadets — including about 20 visiting from the Rochester Institute of Technology — departed for Mt. Pleasant Thursday morning and did not return until late Sunday afternoon as part of the exercise.Scheduled activities for the weekend included day and night land navigation, squad situational training and patrol, according to Isaac Todd ’11, director of training for the event. Cadets participated in simulations of ambushes, reconnaissance and scenarios involving villagers and reporters.The 12-hour days of training and simulations were “fun, but demanding and very intense,” Todd said.The senior cadets alternated between fielding radio calls at the command center and distracting junior leaders from successfully completing their simulated missions. For example, as Baer briefed her squad on the ambush, another cadet stopped two seniors, posing as BBC reporters with British accents, from videotaping the meeting.“Soldiers have to cooperate with the press while also protecting them from danger, preventing them from getting hold of information on troop movements that may compromise the integrity of the operation, and also conducting a successful mission — all at once,” Todd said.On their way to the ambush site, the junior cadets encountered another group of seniors acting as hunters from a local tribal community. When a hunter pretended to misfire his rifle, another senior actor fell to the ground in feigned pain. “Handle it,” a cadre member called to the junior in charge.“All of these things are to test people’s ability to think under pressure, to make decisions, to lead other soldiers, and to prepare them to be officers in the future,” Todd said. “It’s really putting people under stressful situations and making them think quickly on their feet, seeing how they react.”Stephanie Marble ’12 said the difficulties she has faced in ROTC training ultimately made the program worthwhile.“Everything new is a challenge at first,” she said. “The rewarding part is pushing yourself to overcome those challenges, and then facing the next ones that come up.”The FTX is the final preparation for the national army evaluations in the summer, which determine cadets’ ranking in the national Order of Merit List, Todd said.According to Todd, the OML is based on leadership assessment reports, physical fitness, ROTC extra-curricular activities, GPA — which comprises 40 percent of the raw point score — and other factors from the cadets’ first three years of ROTC training.
The top 10 percent of the OML are guaranteed their first choice job, so the competition is fierce, he said. Among the more popular career choices are infantry, aviation, armor and smaller branches such as JAG, finance or medical corps.
Todd, ranked seventh of more than 5,000 cadets nationwide in 2010 and will be attending law school in the fall on an educational delay for the JAG Corps, according to the Cornell Chronicle.
According to Todd, Cornell has a long-standing history of military training. During World War II, Cornell commissioned more officers than any institution in the US, surpassing even military academies such as West Point.
“Since 1867 when Cornell was founded, it was required for military training to be taught at Cornell,” Todd said. “So there’s always been a strong ROTC program.”
“It’s really putting people under stressful situations and making them think quickly on their feet, seeing how they react,” Todd said.Stephanie Marble ’12 said the difficulties she has faced in ROTC training ultimately made the program worthwhile.“Everything new is a challenge at first,” she said. “The rewarding part is pushing yourself to overcome those challenges, and then facing the next ones that come up.”The event, known as FTX, is the final preparation for the national Army evaluations in the summer, which determine cadets’ ranking in the national Order of Merit List, Todd said.According to Todd, the OML is based on leadership assessment reports, physical fitness, ROTC extra-curricular activities, GPA — which comprises 40 percent of the raw point score — and other factors from the cadets’ first three years of ROTC training. The top 10 percent of the OML are guaranteed their first choice job, so the competition is fierce, he said. Among the more popular career choices are infantry, aviation, armor and smaller branches such as JAG, finance or medical corps.Todd, ranked seventh of more than 5,000 cadets nationwide in 2010, will be attending law school in the fall on an educational delay for the JAG Corps.According to Todd, Cornell has a long-standing history of military training. During World War II, Cornell commissioned more officers than any institution in the U.S., surpassing even West Point.“Since 1867 when Cornell was founded, it was required for military training to be taught at Cornell,” Todd said. “So there’s always been a strong ROTC program.”
Original Author: Rebecca Harris