8A the university daily kansan
feature
wednesday, October 8, 2003
Shane Carter, junior cadet, rushed down a slope to engage the enemy in Saturday's Army ROTC field exercises. The mission was to ambush an oncoming Humvee with M-16 rifles at the training area just north of Bonner Springs.
Army cadets lock and load for field training
snawn Atkins, graduate cadet, carefully moved his squad through the underbrush during training. "It forces us to react to different situations in a combat environment," Atkins said. Atkins has already served for four years in the armed forces.
Clay Westerlund, sophomore cadet, waited for orders as he held his position during training. "It familiarized me with the different situations that could take place on the battlefield. It also builds levels of confidence with working with other soldiers," Westerlund said. Each cadet was armed with an M-16 loaded with blanks.
Frederick Smith, freshman cadet, covered his partner, who was performing an enemy prisoner of war search on a simulated dead body. Cadets checked for any intelligence or weapons that might be hidden on the body.
Editor's Note: Kansan staff writer Zack Hemenway accompanied the University of Kansas' ROTC cadets during training exercises last Saturday.
The ROTC squad had to perform enemy prisoner of war searches on the dead bodies. They patted them down with precision, rapidly opening pockets in search of "intel," intelligence information. Two fellow soldiers assisted, one recording contents as another kept his gun trained on the prostrate figure, ready to act if the diagnosis—death—was premature.
Volkmer's third death was a valuable lesson in search technique. The cadet searching Volkmer forget to check for a grenade. He rolled the body over, and it was too late. Boom. Game over. Volkmer had placed a fake explosive under his body.
Marine sergeant Steve Volkmer got killed three times Saturday morning.
Volkmer was a member of Wildcat 4, representing, of course, the enemy in the University ROTC's biannual field training exercises last weekend.
Volkmer's group was the target for underclassman squads in the ambush scenario Saturday. Armed with blank-loaded M-16 rifles and clad in Kevlar bulletproof vests, he and his squad members drove a Humvee up into the wilderness, a few miles north of Bonner Springs.
As the Humvee rounded a corner on the path, shots pierced the cold Saturday morning as the 12-person squad carried out their ambush, shouting "clammore!" to signify an incoming weapon. Volkmer and company returned fire, but were overwhelmed, eventually lying down on the muddy, dried-up creek bed.
"Our mission is to be something for them to shoot at," Volkmer said.
Every step of the assault was done according to military protocol, learned in University classrooms. Cheryl Whalen, assistant professor of military science, had taught the procedures to the underclassmen in Army 201, a combination of labs and class instruction.
The cadets spent Friday night in Bonner Springs before Saturday's field exercise. Sunday, they traveled to Leavenworth for repelling and weapons training.
Whalen said the training exercises gave cadets a chance to execute what they had learned.
"Our mission is to be something for them to shoot at."
Steve Volkmer marine sergeant
"It's one thing to talk about it; to actually be out here, it's a whole different world." Whalen said.
The squads are made up of mostly freshmen and sophomores with junior squad leaders in charge of the group. The squad leaders are evaluated on their leadership.
Squad leaders receive an operation order with their objective and plan of attack. They adapt the comprehensive order to their smaller squad, assign responsibilities and lead the squad through a walk-through before departing all in the span of about 10 minutes.
ROTC public affairs officer Matt Nicholl, Overland Park senior, said that the squads had done labs in forest area near West Campus, but that Saturday's exercises were an important new step.
"It's a lot rougher out here since it's the first time some of them have been in this situation," he said. "You'll see some big eyes out there."
The meals are specially designed for soldiers in combat, high-fat and high-calorie to keep energy high, and high in preservatives to prevent the need for bathroom breaks. Nicholl said sometimes it was hard for cadets to get used to the food's effect on their bodies.
The events last weekend adhered to strict U.S. Army protocol, with every step mapped out exactly according to regulation. Nicholl said this uniformity was important to military training.
While it's clear all the participants take their roles seriously, no one denies that the exercises are an exciting, adrenaline-filled experience. Volkmer, who will be a senior when he returns from active duty to finish at the University, volunteered for the assignment.
"You could take this squad and put them with an ROTC squad from anywhere," he said. "They'd be working together perfectly in 15 minutes."
The by-the-book dictated every aspect of the weekend for the cadets, even down to their meals. They spooled standard shrink-wrapped meals out of baggies.
"If they eat too much of it out here, they'll regret it Tuesday," he said with a laugh.
Nicholl said that fun and army games aside, the weekend was a key experience in developing model cadets.
"It's a lot of fun to be out here," he said, showing a near-primal
The intel the Wildcat 4 squad had was a small note they wrote pre-mission calling one of their friends, an ROTC leader, "aissy."
"It's a learning experience for them — that's the reason why we're out here." Nicholl said.
The body search of the downed Wildcat 4 squad illustrated the balance between fun and intensity. The cadets executed their responsibilities perfectly, finding the "intel" before turning the body over to check for grenade booby-traps.
glee in firing his weapon, driving his powerful vehicle and quoting his favorite movie, Full Metal jacket.
Cadet Lara Greczyn, Leavenworth grad student, said the ambush scenario was her favorite mission.
"You learn 100 times more out here than you ever could in a classroom," she said. Her M-16 rested against a tree behind her, waiting for a return to action. A few minutes later, Greczyn picked up her rifle and followed her squad, hiking through trees en route to a bunker assault.
— Edited by Katie Bean