ROTC prepared Lieutenant for military life

After four years of the Air Force ROTC at Utah State University, 1^st Lt. Casey Chappell left the familiarity of Logan, Utah and went to fulfill his obligation as an Air Force officer.

His first duty station, Hurlburt Field, located in Mary Esther, FL.

With a fleet of V-22 Ospreys, Hurlburt Field is home to the 1^st Special Operations Wing.

Chappell is the officer in charge of maintenance for this fleet of aircraft. Using the skills of leadership he gained in the ROTC, Chappell supervises the daily work of his Airmen.“Though it’s not what I expected when I was in ROTC, it was good preparation for military life," Chappell said.

Chappell, a 2010 graduate of USU has been active duty for the last two-and-a-half years. Now working on his master’s degree, he takes advantage of the time management he learned through ROTC. “It gives me a lot of time for education,” Chappell said. “I am three classes away from having my master’s.”

Chappell will leave on his first deployment to Kandahar, Afghanistan in Jan. 2011. After this upcoming deployment, he will have two years left on his contract. ”I am undecided on whether I will stay in the military after my time is up,” Chappell said.

Air Force ROTC’s main focus is on the military in general and does not focus on a cadet’s chosen military occupation. “It was more of a training basis, but it taught me the basics of leadership and gave me a base to grow from," Chappell said.

In his service, Chappell has seen a contrast in the officers that come from a ROTC background and those that went through the Air Force Academy or that commissioned through Officer Training Course.

“I would recommend ROTC to anyone wanting to be an officer. Academy guys are so limited to what they see. They see a lot less of the real world and don’t really have that college experience. OTC officers are still figuring out customs and courtesies and learning the rank structure,” Chappell said.

ROTC is preferred by some seeking to commission because of the freedom it gives them. They are in a military environment twice a week, whereas an academy cadet is in that environment every day.

When officers get to their unit, regardless of the route they took to commission, the responsibilities they are given are the same.

 1^st Lt. Chris Carillo, a graduate of the Air Force Academy currently stationed at Hill Air Force Base, Utah works with officers who are both ROTC and Academy trained. “There is no difference, we are all Lieutenants,” said Carillo.
(J.Dunford)

Different paths to the cockpit.

As Utah State University seniors prepare for their final semester before graduation many are looking to a future of 9 to 5 jobs and working to climb the corporate ladder.

This isn’t the case for Isaac Fifield and Bryan Haslip.

Fifield and Haslip both look into their future and see their desk as a cockpit and their office 30,000 feet in the sky.

Fifield, a 25-year-old senior and Air Force cadet, looks forward to fulfilling a dream he has had since childhood. “I’ve always wanted to be a fighter pilot,” Fifield said.

Haslip, a 22-year-old senior, is in the Marine Corps Platoon Leaders Class. Like Fifield, Haslip is guaranteed a flight slot after he commissions. Though his grandfather was a Colonel in the Air Force, Haslip saw the appeal of the Marine Corps. “If I’m going to serve, why not be in the most bad ass branch,” Haslip said.

Fifield comes from a family with a strong military background. Both of his brothers served in the Army, but he was impressed with the options the Air Force offered. “If I’m looking at a career in any branch Air Force is the best one,” Fifield said.

While both Fifield and Haslip will become pilots, the paths in their respective services will be different ones.

Haslip attended Officers Candidate School, or OCS, in the summer of 2010. Located in Quantico, Va., OCS is the basic training for future Marine Corps officers. During OCS, candidates are tested on a variety of things such as fitness and their ability to lead troops during stressful situations.

“It was interesting because it was an evaluation period, they could send you home,” Haslip said. “You lived with that fear. If you messed up, if they saw qualities they didn’t like, they would send you home.”

Fifield’s training was in Maxwell, AL and Camp Shelby, MS. Field Training, as it is known in the Air Force is a 28-day basic training. Similar to OCS, Field Training is designed to evaluate the cadet’s level of leadership in stressful environments.

Upon returning to school both Fifield and Haslip thought everything seemed less stressful. When deadlines approached or it was finals week, they knew how to handle the stress.

 “It seemed I had all the time in the world and I finished tasks instead of procrastinating. I can now manage my time and keep an overall picture of what matters.” Haslip said.

Fifield now puts his seniority and the skills he learned in Field Training to use in training his younger cadets.

After he went through Field Training, he returned to Camp Shelby as a member of the cadre. Here he helped train the junior cadets who were passing through the program. "Training the cadets at Field Training helps me to better train the cadets now at USU,” Fifield said.

Fifield sees his upcoming service as a chance to make a difference in the world and also a way to support a family. “Health care will be a big benefit, as will a retirement pension. Overall I can look back and have a feeling of accomplishment and know I was a part of something that was real and made a difference.”
(J.Dunford)

Success through teamwork

On a cold and snowy Saturday afternoon in the hills of Camp Williams, Utah, cadets of Utah State University’s Jim Bridger Detachment huddled together in preparation for their next obstacle. In front of them was a 10-foot wall. The cadets were tasked with getting their team of five over the wall and across the 10-feet of minefield on the other side.

The cadets were equipped with an aluminum ladder, 50-feet of rope and their combined minds.

In this case it wasn’t life or death, and the minefield was simply black rubber. The exercise was designed to teach cadets to think quickly and show leadership in a constantly changing environment.

One of the cadet teams to go through the exercise was led by Rachel Westcott, a junior. The team struggled to figure out a way to get the ladder over the top of the minefield.

In the end the team couldn’t reach an agreement on a way to accomplish the mission and ran out of time. “Some cadets just want to be the head honcho and take command,” said Westcott. “You’ve got to keep your influence over them.”

Nick Celaya, a senior and prior enlisted Soldier, was there to supervise the safety of his under-classman cadets. Celaya had gone through the course in prior years and knew the proper way to accomplish the mission. Celeya stood underneath the wall, saying nothing to the cadets who asked him questions. “It’s good it’s snowing,” said Celeya. “It gets them exposed to the harsh conditions.

Another group of cadets worked together, with one person taking charge. They successfully completed the mission in the required time. They were debriefed and asked the things that worked and what didn’t. The successful cadets left their obstacle debrief in high spirits. “It builds their egos and gives them confidence about who they are,” Celeya said.

While some cadets were busy outside on the icy obstacle, others were inside the warm confines of the Virtual Convoy Operations Trainer, or VCOT.

The VCOT is a program used to simulate convoys. The cadets strap themselves into seats that resemble the inside of a military Humvee, a 4x4 vehicle the military uses for many of their vehicle operations. There are four vehicles in the VCOT and each has room for a driver, vehicle commander and a gunner.

The VCOT gives the cadets a chance to experience the environment of urban warfare and the constant threat of roadside bombs or small arms fire. “It gives cadets good training that translates well and at a much lower cost,” said Kevin Moultrie, a senior, who had trained with the VCOT the previous year.

SFC Robert Roberts, 53, a soldier with 24 years in the service, was tasked with training the cadets on the VCOT. “You’ve got to be up and talking,” Roberts told the cadets. “If you can master mounted, dismounted is a whole lot easier.”

The cadets were faced with an eye opening experience as the first roadside bomb hit their lead vehicle. Maneuvering vehicles to go around the downed vehicle the second vehicle was ambushed by an insurgent gun truck. “You have to learn this now,” Roberts yelled to the vehicle commanders, “before you have to pull your soldiers out of a burning truck.”

C.Robinson

Learning Leadership

Today the cadets of Utah State University Army ROTC will lace up their boots, load M16 magazines, and prepare for a much needed step in preparing them to lead soldiers into battle.

On the training grounds of Camp Williams, Utah, orders will be yelled and the crack of rifles will pierce the air.

The bi-annual Field Training Exercise, or FTX, is designed to turn young men and women into the future leaders of the United States Army. “This is where leadership takes place,” said Lt. Col. Greg Stuart, the recruiting operations officer of USU Army ROTC.

For the seniors of ROTC it will be a chance to plan the logistics of the FTX. They will plan everything from the cadets rappelling off of a 50-foot-high tower, to the number of meals, ready to eat, the cadets will need.

This will also be the first time some cadets fire an M16 rifle, the service rifle for the US military.

“Some of these guys have never been to boot camp,” said Ryan Allen, a senior cadet in charge of planning.

The freshmen and sophomore cadets will get hands on classes about the M16 and then head to the range for a familiarization shoot. “It’s a basic shoot to get them used to the weapon,” Allen said.

The cadets will also learn shooting techniques while wearing a combat load. This includes a load bearing vest and a Kevlar helmet. “They will have to practice the fundamentals of marksmanship,” Allen said.

Waking up at 6:30 a.m. the cadets will be constantly on the move to different classes and training events. It will be a high pace that many of the new cadets are not used to, but will help prepare them for what is to come in their future as military officers.

At day’s end, the cadets won’t have the comforts of a bed they left at home; instead they will be sleeping on standard Army cots, inside of Quonset huts.

Junior year cadets will be in charge of issuing orders and supervising the tasks of the sophomore and freshmen cadets. “It gives the juniors a chance to put their leadership skills into play,” Allen said.

Land navigation is an integral part of military tactics and the cadets will be tested on their land navigation skill. Tonight the cadets will go through a night land navigation course. “It will help them rely on the basics of land navigation,” Allen said.

Though the senior cadets will plan all the events, they will avoid helping the freshmen and junior cadets when they run into problems. The junior cadets will be the ones helping the younger classmen through the events. “Sometimes we drop the ball so we can see them screw up and have to figure it out,” Stuart said. “We train them to be tactically proficient.”

The main focus overall of this FTX will be the Future Leadership Reaction Course. The course will focus on how the cadets respond to different situations. While no missions will be run, it will give them the ability of quick thinking the cadets will need for the spring FTX, where they run battle drills, with weapons firing, alongside other cadets.

The cadets will finish the FTX with a six mile hike through the hills of Camp Williams. This hike will push cadets physically and mentally, as they carry a 40-pound pack.
(n.sorenson)